Subterranean Press will release this Fall a Limited Edition of the Neil Gaiman book Coraline, with a new cover and two new interior illustrations by Dave McKean. (See new cover image here at right.)

The special edition of Gaiman’s modern day children’s classic — available in limited and lettered versions — will include the text and illustrations from the original edition, as well as …

— a brand new wraparound dust jacket and endsheets by Dave McKean;
— printing on 80# Finch paper;
— the original cover art as a tipped in plate;
— several full color photos from an Irish puppet production of the novel.

Limited Version: $60
1,000 signed numbered hardcover copies
Lettered Version: $350
26 signed, specially bound copies, housed in a custom traycase

Also, the publishers have commissioned professional puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal to make three Coraline dolls. One will go to Neil Gaiman, another to Dave McKean, and the third to a customer who preorders the book directly from SubPress. The winner’s name will be drawn when the book is ships this Fall.

McKean has work with Gaiman on several projects, including the Vertigo graphic novel series Sandman and the movie MirrorMask.

In the book, originally released in 2002, Coraline moves into a huge home with her parents and out of boredom, goes searching through the house for something to do. Behind a mysteriously bricked-up door, the young girl discovers a home parallel to hers, complete with an mother and father who entice her to stay there. But once she’s there, she finds it’s not so easy to leave!

Coraline is being adapted into an animated stop-motion film starring the voice cast of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Ian McShane, Dawn French, and Jennifer Saunders directed by Henry Selick. The film is scheduled for release late 2008. (Gaiman mentioned a Halloween release, while IMDB has the date as December 26, 2008.)