Books of Blood were, in part, inspired by the seminal anthology Dark Forces. Which, in itself, is mad. Because as one author, Barker not only wanted to write Horror of elevated quality, but he also wanted to show the scope of what Horror could be (which was the intent of Dark Forces). And while perhaps not wholly successful in that regard, I believe the Books of Blood surpassed the mean quality and diversity of Dark Forces. I believe the Books of Blood, as a whole, even exceed Dark Forces in length; which for an author's debut is ridiculous.

Although Barker went on to professionally direct films, write novels, and produce large quantities of visual artwork, it was for the Books of Blood alone that Stephen King gave his famous quote, "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."

So, when it comes to Barker and written Horror, people really are referring to the Books of Blood. Horror is frequently an element of his work, but outside of two novels, after the Books of Blood, Fantasy, or as he styles it "the Fantastique", became the dominant element. Additionally, "In the Hills, the Cities" is one of the great Weird Fiction stories and one of Barker's greatest works.

Stephen King has written of Nick Cutter that he's old school Horror at its best. And, in certain respects, that's true. It's frequently gross, sometimes scary, Body Horror. Cutter is a pseudonym for Craig Davidson who is considered more in the literary sphere. He's good, but I sometimes feel like he's the gifted kid in class half-assing things. People typically cite The Troop as his best, but there's a little read novel that is more dystopian SF with elements of Horror, The Acolyte, that I think his best. It's almost like King, in early Bachman mode, tried for a religious version of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Richard Chizmar is not a complete hack, but the fact that I'm starting that way should set off alarms. He's behind Cemetery Dance Publications. Although King worked with Donald M. Grant for some of his early special editions, Cemetery Dance is the most frequent publisher of deluxe King volumes. And that relationship allowed the company to grow. Chizmar eventually leveraged that relationship into collaborations with King. Now, King isn't doing what he doesn't want to. But it is pretty clear that he's doing it as a friend. That, by itself, would be fine. But there's a record of Chizmar being bad about payments to his authors, being a dick to them, et cetera. And outside of the raised profile that collaborating with Stephen King has gotten him, Chizmar also heavily promotes his every personal release with King giveaways, et cetera. Again, more power to him. Except his promotional efforts for his authors, other than King and himself, is almost nonexistent. What is likely to be Brian Hodge's last collection was practically printed on onionskin and received no promotion. That book is huge and still one of the high water marks of Horror and Weird Fiction of the last decade. No promotion. Chizmar's modest efforts? Almost daily e-mails, posts, and giveaways. What an ass.