Limited edition (Image by Matthew Rettenmund/Boy Culture, LLC)
Most of you realize that this blog is named for my first novel, Boy Culture, and that it was launched in 2005 to help promote the 2006 film adaptation of the same name.
Published in 1995, Boy Culture was my second book (after Encyclopedia Madonnica) and my first novel. I'd actually started writing it in 1989, at a point when I could not possibly have imagined how much of an impact it would have on my life.
Now, with the rights back to me, I am pleased to offer a 25th-anniversary edition of the novel, which includes the original book, its origin story and also the short story from which it was expanded!
The 25th-anniversary edition is available at Amazon and wherever you buy books, both as a print-on-demand hardcover and as an ebook (ebook HERE).
I am offering a limited-edition hardcover with dust jacket with a slightly racier cover image (top of this post) than the one Amazon will carry. You can buy it directly from me for:
$25 ($40 non-U.S.)
$35 ($50 non-U.S.) — SIGNED
SHIPPING INCLUDED
To buy, PayPal matthewrettenmund@gmail.com. Be sure to include a note about how you would like it inscribed if you are buying the signed option. You may also request the more demure Amazon cover:
Amazon/standard cover (Image by Matthew Rettenmund/Boy Culture, LLC)
Speaking of covers, creating this edition — with a cover photographed by me, designed by Anthony Coombs — got me thinking about the many lives of Boy Culture once it became a novel.
First, it was a bound galley for reviewers:
(Image via SMP)
Then, it was a hardcover, with a delicious cover by Hans Fahrmeyer that was designed by Evan Gaffney:
(Image by Hans Fahrmeyer/SMP)
It was such a hit it became a trade paperback:
(Image by Hans Fahrmeyer/SMP)
Among the book's foreign editions, I was fond of Albino Verlag's German trade paperback:
(Image by Aaron Cobbett/Albino Verlag)
The German mass-market paperback, by Bruno Gmünder, was the picture of innocence:
(Image by Thorsten Hovarth/Bruno Gmünder)
The Dutch version flattered me tremendously:
(Image by Lori DeVito/de Prom)
There were not one but two Spanish-language editions, a trade paperback and a mass-market paperback:
(Images by Beverly Brown/Ediciones B)
I'm unsure what the difference was between the above Spanish editions and the below Spanish edition, but my memory is that two were for Latin America and one was for Spain and other Spanish-speaking markets:
(Image via Punto de Lectura)
The French did right by me, too:
(Joseph Caprio/H&O)
Finally, there was the movie poster ...
(Image via Boy Culture)
... the DVD cover:
(Image via TLA)
... and, last but not least, the movie tie-in book cover (which was false advertising, since the movie reimagined one of the leads as black):
(Image via SMP)
There you have it — a complete visual history of Boy Culture!
In 2020, you will finally see Boy Culture: The Series. We're almost done, but if you're interested in becoming a producer, we could use a reasonable amount of money for finishing funds — an easy way to become an overnight, credited film producer. Contact me at matthewrettenmund@gmail.com for details.
