The coolest small publisher you never heard of
Tucked away in the northern coastal California town of Eureka, a small, family-run publishing endeavor called Stark House Press is quietly republishing some America’s most treasured pulp and general crime fiction. The titles hark back to a time when every drugstore and train station had a spinner rack stuffed with lurid, violent, sexy covers…most of which promised both titillation and thrills.
I stumbled across Stark House recently as I trawled the internet for vintage covers to run on Fridays. The website has a retro look, too, although that look is closer to 1980 than the 1950’s. But it is chock full of long out-of-print – hell, long forgotten – authors and cover artists.
Here you’ll find reprints of Lion Library titles, novels by W.R. Burnett, Carter Brown, Harry Whittington – and many, many others, some of which are quite obscure.
I reached out to the Press and asked for a few sample copies, and soon began an email interview with the director, Greg Shepard. I began by asking Greg about his background, because it’s clear these guys know what they are doing.
“My first job was working as a graphic designer for a company that produced camping and car magazines, and right after that, I started working for a local weekly newspaper also in graphic design, with some writing on the side. Then I jumped over to a bookstore for a few years and became their buyer before becoming a sales rep for a British paperback distributor; followed by a stint as the Northern California sales rep for Zebra Books. After Zebra let go their sales force, my then-wife and I started a British book import distributor similar to the one I used to work for. So, really, my entire life has been in printed media.”
So, what was the impetus to start Stark House?
“My dad came to me with the idea of starting a publishing company, so Stark House sprang from that meeting. We had all the talents we needed: my brother Mark is a graphic designer artist, my dad had been a magazine editor for many years, my mother had a lot of proofreading experience, and my ex-wife is an artist. And I had a distribution company, with many author contacts. After a couple books, enthusiasm waned with the others, and I bought them out and continued Stark House on my own, working with my brother as book designer.”
It’s not hard to imagine that Greg must be an avid – rabid? collector and consumer of this genre. Am I right?
“I have thousands of books, a house full of books. I’ve been collecting books most of my life, with an extensive collection of science fiction, horror, crime fiction, literature, westerns, gothics, historicals… books everywhere.”
I asked Greg if he was “the mastermind,” in terms of what gets published.
“Yes, I am the mastermind, the man behind the screen. I write all the bios and teaser copy you find on the books, create the bibliographies, find interesting writers to contribute introductions. My wife Cindy handles the tech angle, managing the website, formatting the newsletter. And Jeff Vorzimmer and David Rachels control most of the Staccato books–but even those I get involved in.
“It comes down to reading a book, enjoying it, and figuring that other folks might enjoy it, too. Authors like W. R. Burnett, Peter Rabe, David Goodis, Gil Brewer, Lionel White, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Barry Malzberg and E. Phillips Oppenheim I’ve been reading for 40, 50 years and more. Some authors like Louisa Revell and Philip MacDonald have been recommended to me. I tend to reprint the books I like.”
Which brings up the intriguing question: How do you get the rights for the titles in the catalog? Long-gone paperback specialists such as Lion, Pyramid, Monarch, Dell – where do you start?
“Some of the books are in the public domain. Those are the easy ones. The books still under copyright you just have to track down the copyright owners. Sometimes it’s a son, daughter or grandchild; sometimes it’s a literary agency; and sometimes it’s a distant relative. I just keep emailing and calling until I find them. And even then, some folks just don’t want their relative’s works back into print. And some want more money upfront than I am willing to spend. But finding the copyright holders is the most challenging part.”
Stark House even brings back a variation of the old Ace doubles, although the covers are not on two sides of the book. For example, some of the W.R. Burnett reissues combine titles like High Sierra and The Asphalt Jungle. A Carter Brown “compilation” features three titles: Girl in A Shroud, The Girl Who Was Possessed and The Lady is Available. It’s a smart and economical way to offer readers multiple titles in one volume.
“The original concept just came down to cost. Before print-on-demand, I knew that I was going to have to charge at least $19.95 for a trade paperback. So I figured if I included two books instead of one, it would be more of a bargain.”
The imprints: Besides the eponymous Stark House Press titles, which include the aforementioned Carter Brown mini omnibus, and various other hardboiled pulpy authors, Black Gat Books, described in the catalog as “a line of mass market paperbacks introduced in 2015 by Stark House Press. New titles appear every month, featuring the best in crime fiction reprints. Each book is sized to 4.25” x 7”, just like they used to be.”
One terrific innovation of Stark House is their series of “Film Noir Classics” which tie together the book that inspired a film – frequently with a different title, such as Badge of Evil, by Whit Masterson, the source for Touch of Evil. Another, Build My Gallows High, by Geoffrey Homes, was filmed as Out of the Past, a true Noir classic, indeed.
Equally enticing are the Staccato imprint’s “series that offers affordable paperback editions of difficult-to-find noir fiction and true crime from the Jazz Age, 1899-1939.” See the website for a complete list – some odd selections here!
And now, Stark House has saddled up and started publishing – get ready for it – westerns, with an imprint called Whipcrack Westerns. Is there a demand for vintage westerns?
“We’ll see. I hope so. They’re great fun to read. The best of them read like any crime novel, only more leisurely, with horses instead of cars. Whipcrack is new, and time will tell whether we find a readership or not.”
Stark House also runs a Crime Club – how does that work? Is it a success?
“We have a nice number of readers who commit to buying at least one book every month, many of them two or more. It’s a manageable number, and for everyone who leaves the Club, there is usually someone else who soon joins, so it stays fairly steady.”
I also wanted to get Greg’s take on how the book industry has changed. Considering his lengthy background in the business, how does he see his company in an age of consolidation?
“The biggest change was the introduction of desktop publishing, which de-centralized publishing from New York and spread publishing around to enthusiasts like myself. The big guys still rule the marketplace, but since they no longer support their backlists, it falls to the small publishers to fill in the gaps. And, of course, there’s the ebooks, audiobooks, graphic novels. Lots of variety out there right now. As retro as I am, there are probably a lot more outlets that I haven’t even considered, but I enjoy my niche.”
The gallery of sample covers here are conceptualized in a number of ways, with some either original to the reprint and some redesigns, as noted by Greg:
Dark Hazard was designed in-house by Mark Shepard
The Dropouts utilizes vintage art by Harry Shaare, formatted by Jeff Vorzimmer
Giving It Away was created by Jeff Jordan, formatted by Mark
Just a Corpse at Twilight utilizes vintage art by Maurice Thomas, formatted by Jeff
The Lost Coast was designed in-house by Mark Shepard
A Silver Spade was created by James Heimer, formatted by Mark
Stark House Press is a gift. And they have excellent, mainstream distribution, so finding these titles ain’t impossible. Check ‘em out!
Thanks to Greg Shepard for his time, and willingness to do this interview.
Peter Handel has been writing about crime fiction since the early 1990s. His reviews, interviews, and profiles have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Portland Oregonian, Pages Magazine, Mystery Reader’s Journal, The Rap Sheet and CrimeReads. Join his Substack here.
