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Clockwork Storybook (CWSB) was a writer's collective and independent book publisher based in Austin, Texas. It specialized in the fantasy, horror and adventure genres.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2019) |
Clockwork Storybook (CWSB) was a writer's collective and independent book publisher based in Austin, Texas. It specialized in the fantasy, horror and adventure genres.
Clockwork Storybook was formed in the late 1990s by fellow Austin-based writers Mark Finn, Chris Roberson, Lilah Sturges, and Bill Willingham, beginning as a writing group which met weekly to critique its members' short stories and novels. Soon thereafter, the four began producing monthly content for an online shared world anthology of urban fantasy, revolving around the fictitious city of San Cibola, California, where magical inhabitants co-existed with normal citizens, at www.ClockworkStorybook.com. The website is no longer there, and is only partially accessible through the Internet Archive Project, although content from it surfaces occasionally on the respective authors' websites.
Each issue featured a short story by each of the four founders, plus "an occasional story by guest authors invited to play in our fabricated realm", an editorial and intermittent reviews of various notable books, etc. (The second issue, for example, included contributions from artists Brian Hagen and Jeff Dee) [1] [2] [3] In 1999, they were joined by their first 'Associate Member' - Harold Covey, described as an "artist/designer/renaissance man extraordinaire", who designed the ClockworkStorybook logo. [4] (Above, left)
After a couple of years, the development and increasing popularity of print on demand technologies suggested to them that they could create their own imprint (also called Clockwork Storybook) through which they would publish their own novels and short story collections. They launched with four print titles in spring 2001.
Ultimately, after continuing with the online anthology for a couple of years, and publishing a handful of books, the Clockwork Storybook collective fell apart, and the individual authors went their separate ways.
Several books/anthologies were printed by Clockwork Storybook, and mostly available through the website. Some reprinted online content, many featured new stories. A partial bibliography includes:
Bill Willingham is known for his Vertigo Comics series Fables . Lilah Sturges is probably best known as the co-writer (with Willingham) of Fables spin-off Jack of Fables . Mark Finn is a noted Robert E. Howard scholar and playwright. Chris Roberson is author of several books, and publisher of MonkeyBrain Books.
Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson, which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying.
Vertigo Comics was an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics started by editor Karen Berger in 1993. Vertigo's purpose was to publish comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that did not fit the restrictions of DC's main line, thus allowing more creative freedom. Its titles consisted of company-owned comics set in the DC Universe, such as The Sandman and Hellblazer, and creator-owned works, such as Preacher, Y: The Last Man and Fables.
William Willingham is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series Elementals and Fables.
Nemonymous was an experimental short fiction publication that labeled itself a "megazanthus". It was published and edited in the United Kingdom from 2001–2010 by D.F. Lewis.
Fables is an American comic book series created and written by Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Willingham served as sole writer for its entirety, with Mark Buckingham penciling more than 110 issues. The series featured various other pencillers over the years, most notably Lan Medina and Steve Leialoha. Fables was launched in July 2002 and concluded in July 2015. It was revived in 2022 with a 12-issue continuation to the main series, as well as a 6-issue spin-off miniseries Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham, both published under DC Black Label.
Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist who wrote The Magicians Trilogy: The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), and The Magician's Land (2014). He was the book critic and lead technology writer at Time magazine from 2002 to 2016. His recent work includes the children's book The Silver Arrow and the screenplay for the film The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, based on his short story.
Jess Nevins is an American author and research librarian best known for annotated guides and encyclopedias covering Victoriana, comic books, genre fiction and pulp fiction. Among Nevin's books are Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana,Horror Fiction in the 20th Century and Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes. He has been a recipient and finalist for a number of honors, including the World Fantasy, Sidewise, and Locus Awards.
Solaris Books is an imprint which focuses on publishing science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy novels and anthologies. The range includes titles by both established and new authors. The range is owned by Rebellion Developments and distributed to the UK and US booktrade via local divisions of Simon & Schuster.
Jack of Fables is a spin-off comic book series of Fables written by Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges and published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The story focuses on the adventures of Jack Horner, a supporting character in the main series, that takes place after his exile from Fabletown in the story-arc Jack Be Nimble. The idea for the spin-off comic came after editor Shelly Bond suggested to put Jack in a separate comic when Willingham planned to write him out of the series.
Keith Brooke is a British science fiction author, editor, web publisher and anthologist from Essex, England. He is the founder and editor of the infinity plus webzine. He also writes children's fiction under the name Nick Gifford.
Mark Finn is the pseudonym of Mark Farr-Nash, an American science fiction and fantasy writer, essayist, and playwright. In 2007 he was nominated for World Fantasy Special Award: Professional.
John Christian Roberson, known professionally as Chris Roberson, is an American science fiction author and publisher who is best known for alternate history novels and short stories.
John Picacio is an American artist specializing in science fiction, fantasy and horror illustration.
Lilah Sturges is an American writer of comics and fantasy novels. She is best known for co-writing with Bill Willingham the Eisner-award-nominated Jack of Fables, and other comics published by Vertigo Comics / DC Comics.
MonkeyBrain Books is an independent American publishing house based in Austin, Texas, specialising in books comprising both new content and reprinting online, international, or out-of-print content, which show "an academic interest," but which "reach a popular audience as well."
Lou Anders is a US-based author, known for the Thrones & Bones series of middle grade fantasy novels. Anders is a Hugo Award-winning editor, a Chesley Award-winning art director, a journalist, a children's author, and a tabletop roleplaying game designer. In 2001, Anders launched Lazy Wolf Studios to publish tabletop roleplaying game material set in the world of his novels.
House of Mystery is an American occult and horror-themed comic book anthology series, based on the series The House of Mystery that ran from 1951 to 1983. The writers, Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges, debuted the series in July 2008 under the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics.
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love was an American comic book limited series published by Vertigo Comics in 2009 and 2010, and set in the world of Fables. The story portrays Cinderella as a secret agent, performing missions on behalf of Fabletown. Its title is an allusion to the James Bond novel From Russia, with Love.
Bigby Wolf is a fictional character in the American comic book series Fables published by DC Comics and its alternative imprint Vertigo. The character first appears in Fables #1 and was created by Bill Willingham and Lan Medina. He frequently serves as the lead character among the ensemble cast of Fables and is the central protagonist of Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland as well as Fables: The Wolf Among Us, the comic book adaptation of the 2013 video game The Wolf Among Us.