March 10, 2008 — Last year was kind of rough for Peter S. Beagle and everyone involved in Conlan Press. Yes, we made progress on all kinds of fronts. Yes, we got out there and sold books and prints at more than 20 different conventions around the country. And yes (hurray!) Peter won a Nebula Award for "Two Hearts," matching the Hugo he got in 2006 for the same story. But in addition to the good stuff, more than one of the team got slammed by intensely difficult personal/family issues that wound up costing an enormous amount of time and energy.

Fortunately for everyone here (and everyone reading this), 2008 is already a lot better.

We've got delayed products finally coming out. We've got new things for sale shipping right now (see below). We've got exciting new titles, audiobooks, and art prints in the production pipeline. And there are nearly eleven thousand Peter S. Beagle fans signed up to get all the news.

We've also added pages to this site to make everything work a little better, including an UPDATES page, a MUSIC page, and a STREAMING VIDEO page. Check them out and see.

Here's to a great rest of the year!

March 5th, 2008 — We're proud to finally offer something many Peter S. Beagle fans have been asking for, a hardcover edition of The Last Unicorn.

Better still, it's a deluxe hardcover edition, containing not only the corrected text of the complete novel, but also the award-winning story "Two Hearts," a 32-page interview with Peter about the history of The Last Unicorn, a comprehensive bibliography of his works, two new introductions, and a beautiful cover with art by Leo and Diane Dillion and graphic design courtesy Ann Monn.

Best of all, it only costs $20 personally autographed from Conlan Press, or $10 (that's right, $10!) direct from Barnes & Noble. These are the only two places you can buy new copies, by the way, because we packaged this deluxe edition for Barnes & Noble as part of a special deal. We assembled all the materials, did the cover and interior design, the editing, the typesetting, everything, and in return distrubution is limited to B&N and us.

We have stock in hand just waiting to be bought, and more copies on the way. So if you ever wanted a hardcover of The Last Unicorn for yourself, or are looking for the perfect inexpensive gift for a friend, right now would be the time to order. At some point B&N is going to discontinue this special deluxe edition, and we wouldn't want anyone to have to do without.

Besides — $20 for a personally-autographed hardcover book filled with this many goodies? It's a steal! Click here to learn more, or click here to order.

 

March 1st, 2008 — This month DreamHaven Books is publishing 1,000 copies of a new chapbook of original Peter S. Beagle stories, each one inspired by the artwork of Lisa Snellings-Clark, and we'll be shipping signed copies out to customers just as soon as Peter can get his pen moving (which he is currently scheduled to do on March 30th, at the 29th Annual Paperback Books Show in Mission Hills, CA).

The three stories in the edition, all being published for the first time, are "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel," "Spook," and "King Pelles the Sure." Each is based on a specific piece of Lisa's art that is also included in the chapbook. These stories add up to 27,000 words, total — and fans of The Folk of the Air and "Lila the Werewolf" will be pleased to know that "Spook" features the return of Peter's literary alter-ego from those works, Joe Farrell. (Want to read the first bit of each story right now? Click here.)

There are only 1,000 copies in this run, but if we get enough orders DreamHaven will certainly print more.

You can pre-order a personally-autographed copy of this chapbook through our on-line store, and we'll ship it to you the day after Peter signs.

 

March 1st, 2008 — Last summer Peter and Connor sold at three different major anime conventions, kind of by accident. A friend hooked Peter up as a special guest of A-Kon, in Dallas; at A-Kon he got invited to attend Anime Expo in Long Beach; and at Anime Expo he was invited to come to Otakon in Baltimore. He was a huge hit at all three, and for sure he will be going to many more in the future.

Even cooler than being a hit, however, was the special item Peter was able to share with the fans attending those conventions — a set of five limited edition prints of previously unknown character concept paintings for the animated version of The Last Unicorn, originally painted in 1979 by one of the project's head animators, Hidemi Kubo. They are absolutely gorgeous (just look at Kubo's version of the Lady Amalthea, above) and completely fascinating for what they reveal about the development of the film's final look.

500 sets were printed, priced at $75 each, individually hand-numbered and signed on the back by Peter. There are fewer than 140 complete sets left. [5/15/2008 UPDATE: we are now down to 42 full sets.] Once they sell out, some individual prints of the Lady Amalthea, the Red Bull, and Mommy Fortuna will still be available at $20 apiece, but there won't be any more copies of Kubo's Unicorn or his Full Cast Line-up to be had.

For a look at all five images, go to the Art & Graphics page. Or click here to order now, while complete five-picture sets still last.

 

March 1st , 2008 — Have you read Peter's wonderful cross-country travel memoir, I See By My Outfit? For a lot of us, this story of his 1963 motor scooter trip from the Bronx to the Bay Area is a treasure on par with The Last Unicorn or A Fine and Private Place. (Backing that up, the magazine Conde Naste Traveler named it one of the 86 greatest travel books of all time.)

Guitars and performing are recurring elements in the book, and in one chapter Peter vividly describes an impromptu concert that he and his artist buddy Phil Sigunick put on, playing borrowed instruments, in a Kansas City pawnshop.

For all of us who wondered what Peter and Phil actually sounded like...well, now we can know. Last year a 25-minute live tape they made in the summer of 1962 finally surfaced, and with some digital conversion and cleanup we've made it available. For only $6 you can hear these two talents exactly as they were back then, just 22 years old and getting ready to hit the road.

To listen to some sample tracks, click here. To buy the 10-tune CD (including a recording of "I See By My Outfit") along with Peter's extensive liner notes, click here.

 

March 1st, 2008 — It took nearly two years of noodging to convince Lionsgate Entertainment to replace their terrible 2004 DVD of The Last Unicorn with something better. That new-and-improved 25th Anniversary Edition DVD was released just over a year ago, on February 6th, 2007. It was widescreen instead of fullscreen, it was made from the digitally-remastered German DVD (so the picture was gorgeous and the audio was 5.1), it had extras (including a video interview with Peter), and it had much better cover art.

We are delighted to announce that Lionsgate has now sold more than 300,000 copies of the new edition...and that thanks to all of you, just over 4,000 of those went through us. Which is great news, since Peter still only gets money from copies sold through Conlan Press. The 296,000 copies that were sold through other retail outlets in North America didn't make him a dime, because the film's owner, London-based Granada Media, still isn't paying Peter any of the money that he is contractually owed.

That's an ongoing issue, and will eventually be resolved. (We hope.) But in the meantime Lionsgate tells us that they continue to sell 3-5,000 copies of the new DVD every week...and with your help we'd like to keep on handling our 1-2% of that, or perhaps a whole lot more. Because when someone buys a Last Unicorn DVD from us, more than half the money goes straight into Peter's pocket.

Naturally enough, Peter hopes you will buy from Conlan Press if you buy at all, and that you will spread the word as widely as possible. Please tell everyone you can, and make sure to send them our way. To get a personally-autographed copy signed in three places, click here. To purchase an unsigned copy, click here.