This batch of horror features immortal cannibals, pandemic gangs, a murderous mime, Ditko reprints, southern-gothic horror, a cursed book, a werewolf PI, and a retelling of the classic Stoker Dracula.
NEVER NEVER #1
(W) Marc McCann (A) Phil Buckenham (CA) Christopher Lair
Winter is seduced by the boy-sprite, Petros, off to the Never, Never. A place where children never grow up and adults are the enemy. What would such a place look like? Where resources are scarce. Time passes, but age is obsolete. War with adults, starved and insane from constant battle, is the norm. What would age-less boys free of civility and role-models be willing to do to survive. To live Forever. A young girl will face her greatest test; an island full of immortal cannibals with a dark secret that sustains its existence, in the most unnatural and awful of ways.
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Why this caught my eye:
Flipping Peter Pan into a horror narrative isn't a new thing, but I'm still fairly drawn into it as you can get some pretty creepy stories out of it.
LONG KNIVES HC #1
(W) Matteo Pizzolo (A) ludeshka, Creees Hyunsung Lee
Back when Warner Brothers first released the GODKILLER animated film, Matteo Pizzolo (CALEXIT) & Ana Ludeshka created the standalone digital comic series spinoff THE LONG KNIVES. Never released in print and out of digital circulation for years, THE LONG KNIVES has retained its cult status as a twisted tale of body horror and dark mysticism--as well as the origin of Nero (who appears in YOUNG TERRORISTS and the upcoming BILLIONAIRE KILLERS) and Bird (who returns in GODKILLER: TOMORROW'S ASHES).
Black Mask is proud to bring The Long Knives to print for the first time with this beautifully crafted series of hardcover graphic novellas. Though its been in the works for over a year, this edition now feels oddly prescient... with its story set during a pandemic lockdown and governmental coup, this character-driven horror feels more vibrant and keyed into life today than when it was first created. It's not about a pandemic or a coup, those are just realities of its characters' lives... a world suddenly eerily relatable.
Amid a deadly pandemic, children are suddenly disappearing... and the murderous gang abducting them may just be humanity's last hope. This bi-monthly hardcover series also features a brand-new serialized comic "Nero & Bird" written by Matteo Pizzolo, illustrated by Creees Lee.
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Why this caught my eye:
Not that we may be in the mood to focus too much on horror stories about pandemics and political coups, but it's still interesting to me when things cycle over and become strangely relevant.
OSAKA MIME GN
(W) Andy Leavy (A/CA) Hugo Araujo
When a couple are found brutally murdered in the Dotonbori District in Osaka, Japan, two detectives from the Supernatural Unit of the Osaka PD must hunt down and apprehend a dangerous and murderous Mime, a shadowy shape-shifter which can take the form of the last person it ate. How do you catch something so dangerous, that can hide in plain sight?
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Why this caught my eye:
This should actually already be out, I just missed it and it looked like an interesting title to share. You can check out some preview pages here.
SILVER AGE CLASSICS GHOSTLY TALES SOFTEE VOL 01
(A) Dick Giordano, Charles Nicholas, Steve Ditko, Ernie Bache, Pat Boyette, Bill Ely, Rudy Palais (A/CA) Rocco Mastroserio
Ghostly Tales was part of a wave of new horror and suspense comics published by Charlton during this period. It debuted with issue #55, taking over the numbering of Blue Beetle (which itself had continued the numbering of Unusual Tales). Over the course of its 18-year run, Ghostly Tales was edited by Pat Masulli, Sal Gentile, and George Wildman. With a stellar line-up of regular contributors to the book including Rocco Mastroserio, Steve Ditko, Ernie Bache, Charles Nicholas, Dick Giordano, Pat Boyette, Bill Ely, and Rudy Palais. Collects issue #55-59 (April/May 1966 to January 1967).
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Why this caught my eye:
Always worth sharing hard to find Ditko reprints.
TALES FROM HARROW COUNTY FAIR FOLK #1
(W) Cullen Bunn (A/CA) Emily Schnall
Harrow County is back! The award-winning, Eisner-nominated southern-gothic horror series returns with a brand-new story. Fresh off the loss of her goblin friend to a strange portal, Bernice must weigh her responsibilities as protector of Harrow County with her desire to get her companion back safe and sound. But the past weighs heavily and the fair folk use Bernice's and her memories against her. And something more disastrous than she could have feared may be around the corner to threaten both the worlds of humans and of haints.
Eisner nominee for Best New Series!
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Why this caught my eye:
I loves me some Harrow County, and Schnall's art looks to be a great fit.
LAST BOOK YOU'LL EVER READ #1
(W) Cullen Bunn (A/CA) Leila Leiz
Civilization is a lie. Hidden deep in our genes is the truth. And it is slowly clawing its way to the surface. Olivia Kade knows the truth, and she has become the prophet of the coming collapse. Her book, SATYR, is an international bestseller, and it is being blamed for acts of senseless violence and bloodshed all over the world. Olivia's own life is in danger from those who have read her work. Determined to conduct a book tour, she hires security professional Connor Wilson to act as her bodyguard. She only has one requirement: he cannot read her work.
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Why this caught my eye:
Hey, Bunn only has two books in the horror section. He must be slowing down.... I like the premise of a cursed book tour, don't think I've seen that one before. You can check out some preview pages here.
BLACKS MYTH #1
(W) Eric Palicki (A) Wendell Cavalcanti (CA) Liana Kangas
Meet Janie "Strummer" Jones, just an ordinary werewolf PI, trying to make it on the mean streets of LA. When the case of a lifetime falls into her lap, it's up to her and her charming djinn assistant Ben Si'lat to figure out just how many silver bullets have been used, and just where do silver bullets come from anyway? A new horror series from writer Eric Palicki and artist Wendell Cavalcanti, with lush covers by Liana Kangas (Trve Cvlt).
Every AHOY book comes with extra prose stories and illustrations. Issue 1 features a stunning variant cover by Jamal Igle (The Wrong Earth).
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Why this caught my eye:
There was some early hype on this and it sounded fun, and you can check out a decent preview over at CBR. It doesn't feel like there's that much werewolf fiction on the comic market right now, so one featuring a werewolf PI and her djinn assistant sounds like something worth checking out.
DRACULA OF TRANSYLVANIA HC
(W) Ricardo Delgado (A/CA) Ricardo Delgado
DRACULA OF TRANSYLVANIA is a fresh, bold retelling of the classic Stoker dark fairy tale with the pace of the modern thriller, a gripping new novel lavished with incredible concept art from one of Hollywood's leading Conceptual Designers. 1899 Transylvania bleeds of history and evil. Young Solicitor Jonathan Harker braves ghosts, demons, living skeletons, and armies of rats, as he encounters Dracula. The demonic, shapeshifting vampire imposes his wrath, malice and vengeance upon an England about to enter the Modern Era, crushing everything in his path.
Creator Ricardo Delgado has worked on many films including Apollo 13, Men in Black, Star Trek: First Contact, Jurassic Park 3, The Matrix Reloaded and Revolution The Incredibles, Wall-e, How to Train your Pet Dragon as well as TV shows like Nickelodeon's Avatar-The Last Airbender and Disney's Tron-Uprising. His comic book series, Age of Reptiles, for Dark Horse Comics, has been published all over the world for a quarter of a century. His first two novels are the children's novella Sam Specter and the Book of Spells and the hard-boiled science fiction noir Warhead.
"Ricardo Delgado's reimagining of Dracula is strange and bold and brilliantly original. I love it and WOULD be stunned by it if it wasn't coming from Ricardo. But brilliant is pretty much what I've come to expect from him. Still... He may have surpassed his usual brilliance here." -- Mike Mignola, creator of HELLBOY.
"Ricardo Delgado does for vampires what he has done for dinosaurs! His elegant and Bloody take on stoker's classic tale is refreshingly Original and scary. " -- John Landis, Director An American Werewolf in London, Thriller
"Dark and disturbing but so BEAUTIFUL. I am always mesmerized by his artwork, now after this, it'll be hard to sleep. Thanks Ricardo!" -- GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY, Creator of PRIMAL and SAMURAI JACK
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Why this caught my eye:
I love Delgado so much that I jumped onto the Kickstarter for this as soon as it popped up. His Age of Dinosaurs comics from Dark Horse are amazing, and I'm still peeved that they've never made a tall oversized format collection of them. Sure, them made one of those stunted little omnibus books, but his art deserves to be highlighted in a giant hardcover format.
While this isn't a comic it still has a lot of great looking artwork included. Go check out the Kickstarter campaign page for more previews and info.
That's it for this batch, we'll check out some sci-fi on the next batch!