Book People | February 2018 | Nate Pedersen

Suntup Editions' Beautiful Stephen King Books & Prints

We're focusing on California this week on the blog in the run-up to the California Antiquarian Book Fair in Pasadena. Today, we're profiling Suntup Editions, a new fine press publisher in Southern California owned by Paul Suntup. Mr. Suntup answered our questions over email:

When did you start Suntup Editions?

It was toward the end of 2016, and things got kicked into gear around the beginning of 2017.

What do you specialize in?

I don't really have a specific genre specialty, although I do have an affinity toward the works of Stephen King because I have been a fan for 30 years now. In a broader sense, I specialize in publishing finely crafted limited edition books and art prints. My books are printed letterpress, and I utilize some of the finest bookmaking materials to craft the editions.

Tell us about The Covers Collection, featuring the Stephen King prints:

This was an offshoot of a project I was working on where I was rebinding first edition copies of some of King's novels. For one of the editions, I decided to include a small giclée print of the cover art, signed by the original artist. Then that started me thinking, wouldn't it be nice to make a larger print of other titles, and issue them as a limited run signed the the artists. I began to get in touch with as many of the cover artists as I could find, and this has now evolved to where I have more than 30 covers in the series and around 20 artists involved. These are published in a limited run of 50 prints per size, and there are two sizes. They are beautiful giclée prints, printed on 300gsm cotton paper, and presented in a way we haven't really seen before, because it has none of the cover text, and these were scanned from the original art.

Tell us as well about the limited edition of The Eyes of the Dragon:

This was my first publication. It is an art portfolio featuring the illustrations that appeared in the Viking trade edition of The Eyes of The Dragon by Stephen King, and illustrated by David Palladini. I discovered that David lives about 15 miles from me, so I met up with him and proposed the idea of doing an art portfolio of his work from the novel. There had not been a portfolio of this work previously. The edition was published on July 7th, 2017.

There are two editions, a lettered and a numbered, both signed by the artist. The lettered illustrations are giclée prints on Somerset paper, and the text pages of the portfolio are printed letterpress by Norman Clayton of Classic Letterpress in Ojai, California. It also included a hand-pulled photogravure print which was made by Jon Goodman at his studio in Florence, Massachusetts, and is signed by the artist. The numbered edition text pages are also printed letterpress, and both editions are housed in a custom clamshell box covered in cloth.

What's coming up next for Suntup?

Well, a project that I had been working on for almost a year has finally come to fruition. I will be publishing a signed limited edition of the novel Misery, by Stephen King. This is the first time since the trade publication that a limited edition is being released. It has been a dream project for me. When I first had the idea, it seemed like an impossible goal, but I went after it, and am very pleased to say that Stephen King signed off on it. The editions are scheduled for publication in August of this year.

There are three states: An Artist Gift edition, a Numbered edition, and a Lettered edition. The Artist Gift is signed by Rick Berry who is creating eight new illustrations, and it has a jacket with wrap-around cover art by Rick Berry, only on the Gift edition. The Numbered & Lettered are signed by both Stephen King and Rick Berry. They are printed letterpress, with the Lettered on Arches moldmade wove paper, and the Numbered on Crane's Lettra.

We did something unique with the cover on the Lettered edition. The title is made using original glass Royal typewriter keys that are inset into the cover. It is handbound in full leather by Peter Geraty and Praxis Bindery in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The edition includes an original frontispiece print pulled from a wood engraving by illustrator and designer Barry Moser. Interiors are designed by Jerry Kelly.

After this, I have some other exciting limited edition book projects in the pipeline, and I would also like to put out some editions of poetry.