Edge‘s Marketing Director Janice Shoults writes to tell us of their forthcoming Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes. The book is edited by Charles Prepolec and J.R. Campbell, and scheduled to be released in September. But the reason the book is making the news now is that the cover artist, Dave Elsey, just won an Academy Award (he shared the Oscar for Best Makeup with Rick Baker, for their work on The Wolfman.
Elsey also worked on Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Farscape. Edge’s Brian Hades said “Elsey is a phenomenal artist, bringing magic to any medium he works in. We are very pleased to join with the hundreds of other people in congratulating Elsey and Baker on their Oscar win. We are equally excited to announce that Dave Elsey’s art will grace the cover of Gaslight Arcanum. We believe that the haunting nature of Elsey’s work on the cover is a great fit for the powerful tales contained within.” The cover of the newest “Gaslight” anthology, shows Sherlock Holmes looking into a mirror, seeing a reflection of an uncanny, undead haunting likeness of himself, in return…
Shoults offers this description of the anthology:
“In the dark lurk horrible secrets. Long buried and hidden from prying eyes are the twilight tales of the living and the dead—and those that lay in between. From the comfort of the Seine to the chill blast of arctic winds, from candlelit monasteries to the callous and uncaring streets of Las Vegas are found arcane tales of men, monsters and their evil…
“There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror.
“The stink of a Paris morgue, the curve of a devil’s footprint, forbidden pages torn from an infernal tome, madness in a dead woman’s stare, a lost voice from beneath the waves and the cold indifference of an insect’s feeding—all hold cryptic clues for Sherlock Holmes, the original dark-knight detective, as he drags the hidden horrors kicking and screaming into the light!”
Contributors to the book include: Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler, Kim Newman, Paul Kane, Simon K. Unsworth, Tom English, Tony Richards, William Meikle, Fred Saberhagan, Kevin Cockle, Lawrence C. Connolly, and Simon Clark. In addition to Elsey’s cover, the book will have interior art by Luke Eidenschink and a frontispiece by Hellboy‘s Mike Mignola.