Clive Barker, Demon-Maker

I received this in my inbox today -- a letter from one of my favorite artists and people, Clive Barker.

I’ve always wanted to write a book that will play with the reader in a way that has never been tried before.

Enter Jakabok, a vicious, demented and blood-thirsty demon. He was an occupant of hell for many years, and he knows how to cause every kind of mischief; grief, anguish and agony are his food and drink. But Mister B., as Jakabok likes to be called, is no longer an occupant of the underworld. He’s in this book.

Let me be clear: Mister B. is not in this book as Scarlett O’Hara is in Gone with the Wind. The terrifying Mister B. will be possessing this book, watching you from its words. He can feel the pressure of your fingers on the pages, he can hear your breath and your mutterings, he can also hear your heart quicken. That’s what he loves most: the quickening heart, the clammy hands. Any proof that the terrifying tales which he tells are working their dark magic.

You see, Mister B. has ambitions, and he’ll use every trick he knows to get what he wants from you. He’ll entertain you with his stories of the war between heaven and hell that is going on around us all the time; he’ll threaten you with horrors only those who’ve seen the depths of the underworld could possibly know. He’ll even throw in some gallows humor when he’s in the mood.

But what does he really want? And what is he prepared to do to you to achieve his ends? The book has plenty of answers. But to the get to them, you’ll need to read, and with every page you turn Jakabok comes closer to you. Closer, ever closer. Tasting the sweat in your fingertips as it sinks into the page where he waits.

Welcome to the world of Mister B. He is delighted to meet you. Really he is.

-- Clive

When I was 16 and worked for Blockbuster Video, Clive came to our store to promote his then new movie, "Nightbreed" (based on his book "Cabal", and co-starring David Cronenberg). He gave me a Nightbreed Crew Jacket, and drew a completely inappropriate picture on the back. Sold for life.

I think he may have one of the most fertile and creative minds ever used...