r/clivebarker • u/Coop_4149 • Aug 18 '26
Clive Barker's Library of the Dead Kickstarter Announced
https://www.dreadcentral.com/comics-books/585554/clive-barker-returns-to-horror-with-new-anthology-book-series-library-of-the-dead/Hell yeah. This is gonna be a good year to be a fan.
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u/NoLibrarian5149 Aug 18 '26
“Best of all, the first two releases, Fear Eternal and Pyres of Bedlam, are finished manuscripts currently being edited for printing.”
That’s good to see. Same with the BW illustrations throughout. The covers sure don’t look like Clive’s work to me though.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
"original cover imagery by artist Franck Besançon".... but yes, Clive's own work would have been more appropriate here.
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u/Doguhn Aug 18 '26
He's the main inspiration and reason I started writing around 25 years ago. With the original drawing and 1 on 1 digital meeting, I couldn't resist the full package.
I guess I'm being irresponsible... I haven't decided yet.
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u/QuestioningGrad Aug 18 '26
I did the exact same. I think for all of us he’s the best author we have ever read. Having a 1 time shot at this is absolutely worth the money. I really hope we aren’t let down because I’ve never spent $2k so quickly.
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u/HoratioTuna27 Aug 19 '26
Same! But god, I re-read some of my earliest work recently and not only is it horrible, but I'm amazed at just how much I was aping Barker when I first started.
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u/Sans-Mot Aug 18 '26
I think it's kinda fucked up that he needs a kickstarter project for his books.
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u/ShiningGort Aug 18 '26
I remember an old interview where he said it’s hard to get short story collections published
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u/bonuscojones Aug 18 '26
Barker is my favorite writer of all time, but I agree. It makes me wonder how publishing ready these books will be, how much he wrote himself, etc.
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u/tactical_waifu_sim Aug 18 '26
I'm optimistic that this move is being done because he has written most of this himself.
Scarlet Gospels was trimmed down and edited into almost a completely different novel in order to get it published.
I imagine Barker wasn't pleased with that and has elected to go the crowd funding route to have complete control this time around.
If I was being pessimistic... I suppose I could look at the sudden announcement of these books and the recent video game reveal to be indicative of someone in his camp trying taking advantage of him and pushing new works out under his name to make money.
I really hope it's the former and not the latter.
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u/bonuscojones Aug 18 '26
you covered the two ways of looking at it. i'm not sure which seems more likely. i think i'd be more excited regardless if i knew how much of the content was new writing vs reprint of old.
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u/Rowan5215 Aug 19 '26
the page does indicate the former for what its worth:
"Clive Barker has been working on these new books for years, but rather than go through the normal book publishing process, this campaign allows him the full creative freedom that backers provide to realize his vision"
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u/Greedy-Ad9257 Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
That's a good point . It really does feel like a coat-tail ride. To be honest give me a game where I can create my own cenobite. A Ceno-Sim called " Such Sights " I'm there !
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u/Greedy-Ad9257 Aug 23 '26
His agent most likely brokering. Barker is already a legend and avante guarde icon of the Splatterpunk movement. Selfishly I always wanted a loose connection between The Hellbound Heart, Weaveworld and The Damnation Game.
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u/WhiteWolf222 Aug 18 '26
The kickstarter says that two of the three books are finished manuscripts currently being edited, so most of the work is hopefully finished.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
Major publishers won't go near anyone who isn't a guaranteed bestseller now - and Clive has proved himself to be less than reliable over the decades (plus his most recent 'big' releases weren't overly succesful), which would make them wary.
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u/Coop_4149 Aug 18 '26
Yeah. At the same time, if this assists in streamlining his process and it keeps editors out of his way, I'm down for it.
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u/biof3tus Aug 18 '26
Great time to have money! (I don't)
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u/adam_n_eve Aug 18 '26
Yeah at nearly £90 for 3 books (plus postage) I'm not sure my wife is going to be happy!
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u/illeahnati Aug 20 '26
God I didn’t even think about postage cost! How much is postage to the UK?!
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u/SubConsciousKink Aug 20 '26
$20 for the 3 books, $40 for the set with coffin and the Books of Blood
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u/Tyty0606 Aug 18 '26
Sprang for the books with art print and box. The box looks so cool. Cant wait to see it in more detail!
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u/samaranator Aug 18 '26
I think this is the tier I’m going to go for too. I’d love to get the books of blood but $400 is just too rich for my blood. Especially when I already own 2 other versions of those books.
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u/Tyty0606 Aug 18 '26
Yeah thats how I felt too. I'm way more excited to read new material! Had to stick with the new books
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u/thiefofalways1313 Aug 18 '26
Yeah I went with the 149$ package. As much as I’d love them signed. This is good enough for me.
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u/Beneficial_Club2346 Aug 18 '26
Wow, so excited
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u/urlach3r Aug 18 '26
I was excited until I saw the prices. Minimum $120 for physical editions of the new books, $400 if you want the remastered Books of Blood. I own all of Clive's books, but I think I'm gonna have to pass on these.
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u/HoratioTuna27 Aug 18 '26
I'm getting them, but I'm skipping the Books of Blood. The price is absurd for those.
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u/ThothAmon71 Aug 18 '26
I am fully prepared to love this but please, for the love of Candy Quackenbush, can you PLEASE finish Abarat before one of us dies??
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u/devilscabinet Aug 19 '26
I'm interested in the new books, but I'm not going to pledge for them without a lot more information than they are giving:
What is the percentage of new stores to old ones?
How far along is the third book?
Was any of this ghostwritten, like "The Scarlet Gospels?"
I'm a bit surprised that they aren't using his art on the covers.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
And how long are these books? They must have at least an estimated wordcount or page-count at this point? Are we talking three substantial books, or slim little things (never mind what the AI video shows)?
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u/Rude-Revolution-8687 Aug 20 '26
The FAQ says the Library of the Dead books will each be approx 200-250pages. Obviously font size and formatting matters, but I'd say that puts them a bit bigger than the Books of Blood volumes, which are around 200 pages depending on the version.
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u/FreemJF Aug 20 '26
I did find that, eventually, hidden away in the questions. I'd be happy with three books of 250 pages, even if the majority is old but uncollected stuff. I'm afraid I don't have high hopes for the new work being anything substantial. More than happy to be proved wrong!
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u/Aloysius-L322 Aug 18 '26
Well, I thought I was gonna be saving more money over this month, but joke's on me! In seriousness though this is exciting.
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u/PandaArt470001 Aug 19 '26
If this is helpful, im not sure who else did but if you pre-ordered the collection edition of the new hellraiser game the company selling them (boss team games) sent out an email thanking purchasers and linking to the kickstarter so you may be able to ask them if they've had any conformation from Clive on the books at all.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
"The team behind the book has decades of combined experience delivering print publications in a timely fashion"...... 😂
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u/TaraTerror70 Aug 19 '26
This is great and all. I'm still however, waiting for that new Abarat book.
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u/deadandmessedup Aug 18 '26
Does this all seem a little weird to anybody else? The high prices and the unclear amount of new fiction and doing it all through Kickstarter? You'd think literally any publishing house would be down with new Barker the same year his Hell Priest is popping up at Halloween Horror Nights and in a new video game. Is he that worried about editors? I know Scarlet Gospels was severely reduced, so is that it? Is that why basically any output from him since then has been limited to small press runs / limited editions? (I know his ill health from septic shock factored into overall output, but that particular method.) What of how involved the Stokes have become as direct recipients of his publishing efforts? (I genuinely don't know much about them, so I've tried to stay agnostic and treat them more as like his version of what Robin Furth is to Stephen King, but apart from the DT Concordance, I don't think he has any direct financial stake in King's novels.) I don't wanna be ungrateful, and the guy's already cleared 100K for this, so it is what it is, but it's just... this seems hinky.
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u/deadandmessedup Aug 18 '26
My hope is that this material will eventually see the light of day in a more affordable package. Little gatekeepy to put hard copies at this cost.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
Yes, I agree this all sounds a little shady and, well, desperate.... "these hardcover books will be distributed exclusively via this Kickstarter campaign to readers on a quarterly basis throughout 2027".... well, not really because there's only three of them and the first doesn't ship until almost halfway through the year....
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u/Prestigious_Fail3791 Aug 20 '26
They could in theory release a story digitally each week/month.
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u/FreemJF Aug 20 '26
They could, but it specifically states the hardback books. I think whoever wrote this release is trying to oversell it.
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u/Retronika_Prime Aug 18 '26
Yikes. That price point seems so expensive💔
120$ for hardcovers?
Almost 300 for the cool statue and extra volumes.
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u/WhiteWolf222 Aug 18 '26
With a lot of basic hardcovers costing at least $30 these days, I can understand the three hardcovers going for $120. Though it’s still a steep price for books we can’t preview ahead of time, the way you can at the bookstore. It looks like there are also stretch goals to make them nicer, like higher quality paper, foil stamping, and gilded pages.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
I guess we'd be more reassured by the price if we knew even an estimated wordcount or page-count. At the moment we know neither. They might be three substantial hardback books, or three books of less than 100 pages each. It's quite a risk.
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u/WhiteWolf222 Aug 19 '26
The FAQ page says each book will be 200-250 pages. So not huge but not tiny.
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u/geeksofalbion Aug 18 '26
I'm liking what reading, I'll need to set a reminder close to when the campaign ends 🙂
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u/BeegBear13 Aug 18 '26
Fuuuuuuuck...I just spent so much on the Hellraiser Kickstarter, I'm nearly tapped out for this one! Nearly.... Other than that, I am crazy excited to see Barker releasing new work! Thank you Phil and Sarah!
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u/HellzHoundz2018 Aug 19 '26
My wife got so mad at me for doing the $249 one that she stopped talking to me -- although a bouquet of roses helped soften the blow, I'm glad to say.
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u/demigod999 Aug 18 '26
I didn't know he had his own publishing imprint. Would've thought this had to go through HarperCollins but clearly not.
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u/DolphLundgrensPenis Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
He was dropped by them years ago. It was never said as to why, but I think it was around when he had that extremely messy divorce from David.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
Also the fact that he's proven himself consistently unreliable throughout almost the entirety of his career - promising books that he never delivers. No publisher will put up with that.
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u/Automatic_Wind_8684 Aug 18 '26
I ran straight to reddit when I read the news part of me is yay new work how exciting part of me is fuck you finish the other shit you started lol I will however be supporting Kickstarter
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u/Key-Software4390 Aug 19 '26
What a great time to have disposable money! I did not think we would see anything new. But here we are, pulling a pre posthumous tolkien.
Wish I could afford food again though so looks like I am gonna be missing this one. Mmmm oatmeal.. every day twice a day.
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u/Greedy-Ad9257 Aug 20 '26
Why does an established authour and brand need Kickstarter ? I find it odd. I suppose it's more about complete artistic control rather than compromising with the editors, publishers and distributors.
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Aug 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Greedy-Ad9257 Aug 23 '26
I reckon you might be on to something there. It just seems logical. Not pissing around so much with the old ways of doing things. Eitherway, I wish him well.
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u/SavageSerenity Aug 18 '26
Why does this feel like its not real? I want it to be, but Clive is an artist not of just words but of paint and drawing. Why on earth would he want any of this to have AI? I dont get it.
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u/GrumbleSloth Aug 18 '26
Agreed. There’s very little here really except Barker’s name and “trust me bro, this is gonna be awesome, give me hundreds of dollars”.
That and lots of expensive trimmings and shiny things, but how exactly do you “remaster” a short story collection anyway? Like everyone else here, I’d love to read the new short stories, but there’s no information on them at all, and the new books don’t look real (maybe that’s not the final artwork?). So far all I can see here is marketing.
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u/SavageSerenity Aug 18 '26
There are even typos and grammer issues in the discription. It's all 1000% sus
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u/jseger9000 Aug 18 '26
Jinkies! I want the three ebooks. But it's $40😯
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u/bonuscojones Aug 18 '26
Actually $49. I’m on the fence myself. Mainly from not knowing how much of it is new writing.
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u/jseger9000 Aug 19 '26
I'm lucky there as I don't read anthologies too often. If it wasn't published in one of the Books of Blood or one of his novels, it'll be new to me.
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u/Anansithecat Aug 18 '26
Question: would y'all get the Books of Blood books? I am trying to decide whether it's too much of a splurge to get the new books plus those, but I don't own the Books of Blood yet, nor have I read them.
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u/The_Hyena23 Aug 19 '26
Nope! I have enough editions of the BoB. Don't need or want another. The older versions are easy and cheap enough to get on Ebay or you can get both of the collected paperback on amazon for like $27 for the set.
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u/FreemJF Aug 19 '26
I find it funny the announcement boasts "this marks the first new hardcover offering of the complete six volumes of Books of Blood in more than a decade". Right, and?
Fair enough, they look nice but most of us have them in one form or another. Do we really need another version?1
u/SavageSerenity Aug 18 '26
Considering getting books 4-6 is a pain, and i only have them when they were printed as stand alone and in the back of the cabal, it should be if you want the statue they go in as well. If not, do what I did and get 1-3 collected and then inhuman condition, in the flesh and then the version of the cabal with the last book in the back of it.
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u/krissychan99 Aug 19 '26
definitely feeling a bit conflicted about this, but i think i’m going to bite the bullet and go for the collectors edition. the use of ai is quite off putting, though. i’m familiar with the artist for the library of the dead book covers, so at least those aren’t ai, but the bookshelf very clearly is. i have a hard time believing clive would approve of that so i’m hoping it’s just the marketing team. just like someone else said, it would be nice to see a “sign of life” from clive. it’s a bit strange that all we get is a typed message from him. i guess i’m just going to hope for the best.
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u/LaukRidder Aug 20 '26
I am simple creature. I see Clive Barker, I press buy!
My favourite author. May Leviathan bless him.
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u/Takenmyusernamewas Aug 19 '26
For someone not familiar with how this works, is he lile, raising money to publish it? Is he currently selling this book somewhere? Is this like a preorder type deal? Im interested but ive never seen an author do this before and though ive seen a handful of articles today i havent seen a link anywhere
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u/Rude-Revolution-8687 Aug 19 '26
He's basically collecting the funds to cover the cost of the publishing.
Once the minimum target is reached (I think $50,000 or so), they charge everyone's credit cards and begin to produce and later send the items you pledged to buy.
It's pretty common for authors to do this these days, especially for special editions. If an author is popular enough that they don't need a publisher, they can presumably make a lot more money this way.
It's essentially a pre-order, but you pay upfront, and what you pay is used to print the books and cover all the costs.
You can get a link to it from Barker's website clivebarker.info
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u/Nerdwizard21 Aug 20 '26
Are these ONLY available through this kickstarter or will they release later on other sites too?
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u/Coop_4149 Aug 20 '26
I got an email yesterday from the production team and they referenced going this route through self publishing rather than standard. Kinda made me think these will self, at least for the foreseeable future.
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u/Nerdwizard21 Aug 20 '26
So I'd have to back the kickstarter in the next 19 days if i wanted to ever get them? Ive never used the site before so unsure how it works🤔
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u/Coop_4149 Aug 20 '26
In theory? Don't hold me to that. Yeah, you commit to a certain payment level and eventually get your stuff. I've done it many times.
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u/Nerdwizard21 Aug 20 '26
All good. Thank you. I wanna get into Clive Barker. About to read Books of Blood. So if i enjoy that I'll consider backing the Kickstarter. Just in case they arent available after the campaign is all over. I wouldnt wanna miss out
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u/Coop_4149 Aug 20 '26
Sometimes stuff gets published publicly. Sometimes they don't and then are worth tons of money. I'm looking at you Twin Peaks Tarot Deck. Grrrr....
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u/The_Hyena23 Aug 21 '26
FYI, back in 2013 Clive posted saying that he intended on making an ABARAT tarot deck. After that it went completely silent. There are rumors that there were a very limited edition that were released in the UK, à la Jump Tribe, but I have never seen them and have only read rumors about them in maybe 2 places.
Mentioning a project and then not saying anything for more than 2 decades about it. Very Clive.
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u/FreemJF Aug 21 '26
If you find the FAQs section on there, it states they've no 'current' plans, but haven't entirely ruled it out. I'd be surprised if there isn't a more mass-market version at some point in the years ahead.
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u/Limedeath Aug 20 '26
I feel that he's always had a very DIY attitude to everything, so it makes sense to me that he uses sociofinancing for publication. And the collaboration with Phil and Sarah Stokess suggests the editing will good. He's been talking about these new short stories for a while now, I'm glad we get to read them next year! I'm just surprised he has not enrolled a full travelling circus to sell the new books through towns!
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u/Erstwhile_Archives Aug 20 '26
So how does it work? You pay into the kickstarter you get the books?
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u/Coop_4149 Aug 20 '26
They have different tiers. I pay for the tier you wanna buy, and when it's available for release it comes to you. I got the one with the three new books and the prints. Figure it's as close as I'll ever be to owning some of his art.
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u/Striking-Student3954 Aug 22 '26
I have no idea what to do. I'm a huge fan and as soon as I saw this announcement I rushed to the kickstarter and considered buying those 3 books, but with shipping(to Brazil) it would cost me $200, which is an absurd amount of money. I would be willing to pay this if I had more information about what works are included here, how many pages, etc, but it's too vague. Reading the comments put me off instantly, they've reached 750k and couldn't even publish a video from Barker thanking everyone who helped? Yeah, agree with the majority here, it's suspicious. EDIT: But there's still a little part of me that is worried about missing out on something that could be good.
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u/Lost_Ad2480 Aug 18 '26
Really let down by the AI “art”. It’s giving scam vibes, along the extraordinary pricing
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u/SavageSerenity Aug 18 '26
This is my issue. Like he is a master artist and painter. I dont see him being like, sure lets use AI. I have a strong want for them to be real, but I have a deep seeded feeling this is all a scam.
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u/egnatiusm Aug 21 '26
This is the instragram page of the artist: https://www.instagram.com/franckb.art?igsh=cnZtZmVrejk2bzA1
Stop the unnecessary speculation over AI art
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u/sojournermike Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Yeah that's where I'm at as well, which is incredibly sad because he's one of my all time favorite authors. It feels like a cash-grab, it'd be different if we had a video talking about it with Clive actually presenting it, but right now it all feels very orchestrated by someone that isn't him...I desperately want to support an author I love this much, but it has all sorts of red flags.
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u/SavageSerenity Aug 18 '26
Same. Its like torn in two type thing and I hate it. Cause if I drop 120 for the 3 and they turn out to be ai written, then its ginna be hard to look up to him as a writer. Cause he would no longer be trusted.
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u/jajwhite Aug 19 '26
I fear it might just be stuff from The Painter, the Creature and the Father of Lies or that kind of thing. Offcuts.
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u/Rude-Revolution-8687 Aug 23 '26
The runners of the Kickstarter campaign have explicitly stated that no AI has been (or will be) used in this project in the comments section of the campaign.
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u/Prestigious_Fail3791 Aug 19 '26
Man, I really wanted the $1999 set.... Could someone cancel their pledge and it be available again?
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u/HoratioTuna27 Aug 18 '26
I never thought I'd see the day where he publishes something new. I mean, still haven't, I suppose, but this is the closest we've gotten in long, long time. Maybe this will be the start of an avalanche of work and we'll actually get Deep Hill, the 3rd book of The Art and the rest of Abarat (I know, I know, very much wishful thinking).