On this month's Special Page:
The famous bookstore that only sells horror--Dark Delicacies--is closing after 30 years! How does its owner, Del Howison, feel about closing this long-time favorite of horror lovers?
Del Howison
Del Howison is an author, journalist, SAG actor including a cameo in the upcoming horror film Big Baby produced by Cher and directed by Spider One. He is a Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of the anthology Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World’s Greatest Horror Writers. He has written articles for Fear.net, Gauntlet Magazine, and Writers Digest among others.
Del’s short story "Cul-de-Sac" appeared in Weird Tales Magazine #369. His western short story "The Lost Herd" was turned into the premiere (and highest rated) episode, The Sacrifice, for the series Fear Itself. His dark western novel The Survival of Margaret Thomas was shortlisted for the Peacemaker Award given out by the Western Fictioneers. He has been shortlisted for over half a dozen awards including the Shirley Jackson Award and the Black Quill. Del’s retrospective short story compilation of dark tales, What Fresh Hell Is This?,was released in March of 2025.
He is the cofounder and owner (with his wife, Sue) of Dark Delicacies, a book and gift store known as “The Home of Horror,” located in Burbank, California. The store won the “Il Posto Nero” award from Italy and has been inducted into the Rondo Hatton Hall of Fame.
THE AMUSEMENT OF HORROR
by Del Howison
Dark Delicacies, the store not the business, has closed. You know that by now as it’s been reported in dozens of articles, all bemoaning the demise of the venerable Horror book and gift store after 30 years of genre service. Bookstores open and close every week, so why all the press on this one? Because there is something different here, very different.
Conceived, created, and operated by my wife Sue and myself, the business was designed to run using lessons learned from bookstores past, standing on the shoulders of giants as it were. It was also a creation of that adage, “If you can’t find what you want, then make it,” and that’s exactly what we did. We liked Horror. Actually, we loved Horror.
We always found horror books in a small section on a corner shelf of most bookstores, tucked away as if they wanted to carry the books but were afraid that maybe they would lose some customer base if the books were noticed. The books were there for those discerning individuals whose tastes ran contrary to popular tastes but felt like there was no place for terror tales in the bright sunlight. In nonfiction Horror books it felt like “B” books about “B” movies and not to be placed at eye level. Heaven help us! The children might see them.
Stephen King had made the leap from the Horror side-shelf to the upfront bestseller list and, as such, was acceptable to be seen reading. Poe was historical, so his collections were acceptable in the classics area. But the Corman movies based on those stories weren’t to be taken seriously. They were drive-in fare, playing on a big outdoor screen while teenagers “made out” in their cars. The genre felt like sin during Victorian times in England. Everybody was involved but nobody talked about it. We needed to talk about it.
We did a test run and, since there were no Horror conventions at that time, set up a small table at a comic book convention in between tables filled with classic comics and trading cards. It was in the banquet room of a Red Lion Inn and we were the singular ray of darkness. I did not see a single pre-code comic anywhere. No Horror. We had brought books from our own collection.
With no knowledgebase at all about how these things operated we were surprised by the interest. After the day was over, we looked at each other and said, “Wow. There really are others with the same warped taste as us.”
Actually, it was not warped at all. As we were to discover, it was as mainstream as romance, only more in the shadows and it just needed a little push to come out. That is what Dark Delicacies accomplished. It was a giant accomplishment!
From that folding table in a hotel to a store that operated out of four different locations during its lifespan, Dark Delicacies changed the face and perception of Horror, making it both, accessible and acceptable. Sue designed the stores so that they were not only inviting for the most hardcore fan, but safe and welcoming to the family with children to buy picture books. In the same store, there was everything from Frankenstein cookie jars and Michael Myer action figures side by side with Casper and Stranger Things.
We wanted our definition of Horror to be as broad as possible – Silence of the Lambs to Wednesday. This was the clubhouse for everybody who enjoyed their own small piece of darkness, without judgement, only enjoyment. All of this was not preplanned but grew organically as the customers (family) offered up suggestions and desires. They spoke and we tried to listen and execute.
During this time, we faced several real challenges to our existence – The rise of the Big Box Bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. Their challenge to us disappeared when they realized they neither had the specialty knowledge to operate a big Horror section (they really tended to lean towards Science Fiction), nor the desire to commit that much space to the genre.
Then came Amazon. Although their mandate at one time was to drive out and close all independent bookstores, they didn’t have the capability to allow the customer to browse – the real joy of bookstores and authors alike. You need to know the title of what you are looking for or at least the author’s name on Amazon. There is no sense of discovery.
How many times have you stood in a bookstore and while scanning the shelves come across a book or author you didn’t know existed? The delight of discovery. Neither the super stores nor Amazon could do what we were doing, and we were doing it because we made the customer feel like they had a piece of ownership in the store. It was their special place. Their clubhouse. We rarely had shoplifting problems as the customers were ever vigilant. If you stole, you were stealing from them. We have been informed and removed people from the premises after tips from customers. You didn’t fuck with their clubhouse.
Despite everything, times were difficult. When we opened the store at its first location in 1994 several people said to us, “Do you really think this is a good time to open a bookstore?” The answer is “No”. The answer is the same today, 30 years later. It is a difficult time for bookstores or any small business. If we had been strictly a bookstore, even a genre bookstore, we would have been out of business within five years.
Part of the secret of staying alive was variety, the widest possible stock variety, all Horror related, and for all Horror tastes. Sue was the person in charge of stock. She was the business, doing all the purchases and arranging the coups de grace, the decisive finishing acts that saved us from business failure and kept us alive all these years.
Inspired by the late Los Angeles bookstore Dangerous Visions, we held signing events in the store. Not only was it a good way for an author to promote their book but it also gave our fans a reason to return to the store. Rarely will stock alone do that. As a small independent business, we needed every hook we could find. From our first signing with Boris Karloff’s daughter Sarah, we tried to pull in Horror people the fans might never get to meet.
Guillermo del Toro and Boris Karloff's daughter Sara at a Dark Delicacies store
Authors like Ray Bradbury, Tananarive Due, Richard Matheson, Barbara Hambly, Clive Barker, Nancy Holder, and Joe R. Lansdale graced our store with their presence. Filmmakers galore including Guillermo del Toro, Mary Lambert, Joe Dante, Jackie Kong, and Mick Garris showed up to meet the fans, many of them multiple times. Actors from around the world such as Paul Naschy, Adrienne Barbeau, Doug Jones, Linda Blair, James Hong, and Ernest Borgnine. The list seems almost endless as we averaged a signing every weekend for 30 years. Most of the signings would have several people greeting the fans. There were occasions that we would host two different signing events simultaneously.
Clive Barker at Dark Delicacies
From left to right: Nancy Holder, Tananarive Due, Matt Kaplan, Leslie Klinger, and Lisa Morton
David Skal
Authors like Ray Bradbury, Tananarive Due, Richard Matheson, Barbara Hambly, Clive Barker, Nancy Holder, and Joe R. Lansdale graced our store with their presence. Filmmakers galore including Guillermo del Toro, Mary Lambert, Joe Dante, Jackie Kong, and Mick Garris showed up to meet the fans, many of them multiple times. Actors from around the world such as Paul Naschy, Adrienne Barbeau, Doug Jones,Linda Blair, James Hong, and Ernest Borgnine. The list seems almost endless as we averaged a signing every weekend for 30 years. Most of the signings would have several people greeting the fans. There were occasions that we would host two different signing events simultaneously.
While Sue worked on the signing events, arranging and lining them up, she reached outside of just authors until eventually they included actors, directors, filmmakers, composers, artists and more. We even had a sword-swallower at one point.
There was no charge to attend, and we wanted to make it equitable for all: the signers, customers and us. The idea was simple – we would supply the books or BluRays or film posters. Customers would be required to buy the featured item. For that the signers would autograph it for free. But in most cases, the celebs would bring photos and other items also to sell and sign or the customers would bring in posters or past DVDs that the people were in, and they would charge to sign those items. In that manner, Dark Delicacies would make money selling the featured item, the signers made money in royalties from the sales of the new book or whatever and made additional money selling the other items. Any money they made from selling the additional items, outside of the featured item, was all theirs.
Plus, the customers were able to get their items signed and pick up new things without a convention’s heavy charge of entrance, parking and who knows what for a signed item. More importantly, they met the Horror people they never imagined they would meet. It was win-win all around. Plus, the celebrities could go home after two hours and sleep in their own beds. Many times, it would be like old home week with four or five of the signers going out for dinner and drinks afterwards.
We’ve spent thirty years of meeting the coolest people in Horror. The nicest people in the world. People who were in love with the genre, just as we were. It is an era that has not so much ended but evolved.Not without bittersweet memories. I cannot say that there is not a hole in my heart that will remain, not being filled by the daily interaction with fans and friends. I miss it already. I know Sue does too.
There is more to come. Dark Delicacies is not dead. Only the brick-and-mortar store has closed. We will be around doing conventions, online, and special events. I will keep writing my books (such as What Fresh Hell Is This? and The Survival of Margaret Thomas) and stories in anthologies and magazines.
Sue has her hands in a variety of things, although she did mention to me that she would like to sleep for two months once the store has closed. We will probably keep working in Horror until we drop.
I hope that Dark Delicacies has meant for you what it meant for us. From all the feedback we’ve received about the store closing, it seems like it has. One day we will faceplant in the middle of some Horror convention and it will all stop. Just roll me to the side of the aisle so nobody trips. But I hope there is a smile on my face. Because as sad as the store closing is, know that it was fun. It was all fun.
