Review: Jump Tribe Book (Subterranean Press)

on March 14, 2025 at 12:40 pm

Spread the love

Edit: I should have remembered this, and thanks to Peter Atkins for reminding me. The 20th Anniversary Hellhound Heart was made by Earthling Press, Not Subterranean Press.

I recently received the Jump Tribe book by Subterranean Press (Advance Uncorrected Proof). The book will be available estimated around July 31, 2025 in Hardcover for $45 and ebook for $4.99. There will also be limited editions with slipcases. Further details are to be determined.

“All dates are approximate. We don’t have truly firm dates because slipcases are being made for the limited edition. That means once we get the books back from the printer, then we have the slipcases made. But it will all happen this year — the best thing is for people to sign up for the newsletter. That’s where we make all our announcements. You can find the sign-up on the home page of our website. ”

Subterranean Press

Barker and Hellraiser fans will know Subterranean Press for this fantastic 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hellbound Heart. Barker Fans may not realize that Subterranean Press also did an impressive amount of Barker releases.

Chiliad: A Meditation (2014)
Tonight Again (2015)
Tortured Souls (2015)
Infernal Parade (2017)

The Book

Before taking on this review. I wanted to check with Subterranean Press about how the final release will differ from the ARC or Advance Uncorrected Proof that I received, mainly because I noted some differences between this book and the source books that came with the plushies. Per Gwenda and Subterranean Press:

“There will not be differences between the hardcover and the ARC. This wasn’t intended to be a copy of the originals, so the stories are the same, but presented differently. Everything has been reviewed and approved by Clive and his team.”

I hinted earlier that Jump Tribe is a collection of stories that were packed in with the Jump Tribe Plushies. They are way more rare than Tortured Souls or Infernal Parade because the company that manufactured them (Art Asylum) went out of business before they got to stores, with a few exceptions. I told the story of this in my Collector’s Corner video and blog post about these. The video will be linked at the end. The main thing you need to know is that these are children’s books, written for a younger audience than Abarat or The Thief of Always. In one of the stories, Billum rescues and befriends and Seven-Year-Old Boy, so this gives us a clue to the intended audience.

In the original books that were packed in with the plushies, each book told the story of the character they shared a box with. They are filled with original Barker Artwork, and there’s even a letter-replacement code, and hidden messages throughout the books.(similar to the runes that adorn fantasy novels and Ozzy Osbourne album covers). These stories are not to be missed. They are children’s stories from Clive’s unfiltered imagination. There are Hum-Hogs with spears, Donkey-Headed Flowers and nuns who collect wooden carvings of animals and love walking in the rain. Humans come into these worlds through their dreams!

Subterranean Press puts out incredible books, however these will differ from the original pack-in books by Art Asylum in that they will not have as much artwork as the original books. In the new book there will be one painting per chapter depicting the character. The jumpish code is also missing from this book. Most Barker collectors will not know what they are missing, because the originals were so hard to get ahold of anyway. While this will be a day-one purchase for me, I also feel a little sad at the parts that were not included. At the end there are jumpish poems and a prayer.

While I read all these books when I first got them. I had to perform exacto-knife surgery to get the books out and read them, so I have only read them once, with the exception of the Yaboo book.That is to say I can’t say with 100% certainty that these poems were not included in the original books, but I feel like they might be new material. Sorry, I don’t want to check so I can’t say for sure.

I hope you liked this review. If you like the Clive Barker Podcast, follow us wherever you get Audio, and please subscribe to our Youtube channel.

web www.clivebarkercast.com

Apple Podcasts, Android, Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Libsyn, Tunein, iHeart Radio, Pocket Casts, Radio.com, and YouTube and Facebook: | BarkerCast Listeners Group | Occupy Midian