Greetings ghosts and ghoulies and welcome to The Theatre of Terror the home of horror comic news, reviews, classic comic scans and creepy art from around the world. Just remember, it's not for the nervous!
The Bloody Pulp has scans from Eerie Publishing and includes stories from Horror Tales, Terror Tales, Weird, Tales from the Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, and Witches' Tales.
Publishing house Dark Horse are set to release a selection of pre-code golden oldies updated with accurate color restoration, uncoated off-white paper, and an impressive roster of foreword writers.
Amongst this selection stands the amazing Adventures into the Unknown. The title was released in the fall of 1948 by B&I Publishing (later known as American Comics Group) and enjoyed a run of 174 issues for nearly two decades, ceasing publication in August 1967. Though not the first horror comic published (one-shot Eerie Comics of January 1947 holds the distinction), Adventures Into the Unknown was the first horror comic to enjoy regularly scheduled publication.
The comic will feature a series of essays by Bruce Jones, focusing on the long-running horror anthology and the climate that led to the Comics Code Authority. Adventures into the Unknown managed to dodge the mass cull of the 1954 Comics Code Authority due to a focus on ghost stories and spooky goings on rather than rampant canabilism and sexy ladies.
The pre-Code delights found in this anthology include exciting tales such as “The Living Ghost,” “Kill, Puppets, Kill,” “The Affair of Room 1313,” and the ongoing “True Ghosts of History” feature—and contributions from Golden Age greats Fred Guardineer, Al Feldstein, Leonard Starr, Edvard Moritz, and others!
Check out the preview…
Also available in this range: Silver Streak, Crime Does Not Pay, and Forbidden Worlds.
The comics found in these collections are incredibly hard to find, expensive, and full of freewheeling, pre-Code fun (and sometimes viscera). It’s a joy to be able to handle these comics and work on these collections—but a bigger joy comes from being able to bring these stories to new readers and to finally assign credits to some creators who have been uncredited for decades!
said Dark Horse editor Philip Simon.
The comics in these anthologies are seen as revered and influential—but they’ve been impossible to find. Now Dark Horse is making these gems available in affordable collections for discussion, dissection, and inspiration!
Adventures into the Unknown Archives Volume 1 is on sale May 30, 2012.
Silver Streak Archives Featuring the Original Daredevil Volume 1 is on sale June 27, 2012.
Crime Does Not Pay Archives Volume 2 is on sale July 11, 2012.
Forbidden Worlds Archives Volume 1 is on sale December 12, 2012.
This coming August, Vampirella and Barnabas Collins meet for the first time EVER in Dark Shadows/Vampirella #1! Written by the acclaimed Marc (Manhunter) Andreyko and drawn by Patrick Berkenkotter, with a cover by Fabiano Neves, this will be a cross-over to remember! Be sure to pick up Dark Shadows/Vampirella #1 this coming August!
In Dark Shadows/Vampirella #1, when the disappearance of a family friend brings Barnabas Collins to New York, he is ill-prepared for the seedy underworld of clubs that awaits him! And Vampirella’s quest to find the “Big Apple Butcher” sends her on a collision course with the vampire of Collinsport! Will Vampirella and Barnabas uncover the shocking identity of this madman before they kill each another?
“Barnabas Collins and Vampirella are two classic characters in vampire lore, so getting the chance to pen their first meeting is a blast,” says writer Marc Andreyko. “I remember watching Dark Shadows reruns and sneaking peeks at the Vampirella magazines when I was just a wee lad, so getting to do this book seems like fate! And I’m not going easy on Barnabas or Vampi in this series, either! They are going to be put through a gauntlet of terror before this book is through!”
Jim Pierson, spokesman for Dark Shadows rights owner Dan Curtis Productions, adds, “It’s fun to further expand the reach of Dark Shadows and hopefully expose the classic characters to new fans who might just be discovering Barnabas with the new Johnny Depp movie.”
“Cross-overs get a bad rap when they’re not done right, or they feel forced,” adds Dynamite editor Joe Rybandt. “But this one felt like a natural the moment we had the idea. The setting, the characters, the bad guys…the whole thing has come together so naturally, and Marc and Patrick are the perfect pair to make it happen.”
Viper Comics is proud to announce its Digital 1st comic series which is being launched today, “Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter”. Get your digital copy for only .99 cents at Graphicly, iVerse, Comixology, iBooks and Amazon.
The series launched with the release of Issue #1 in March. Issue #2 followed on April 18th. Issue #3 is released on May 16 and Issue #4 releases on June 13. The trade comes out on July 11th. Just in time for Comic-Con 2012.
Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter
Written by Russell Nohelty | Art by Renzo Podesta
Ichabod Jones is a deranged, mentally unstable psychopath. He’s also on a mission to save the world. At least that’s what the bossy voice in his head tells him. The same voice that led him to be interred in a maximum security mental asylum in the first place. Now, he must escape from the asylum and rid the world of monsters in the midst of the Apocalypse. Of course he’s a psychopath, so who knows if anything going on in his head is real in the first place.
I love comic book trailers, take a look at this one below.
Back from the Depths and The Theatre of Terror are delighted to announce a new member of the team for 2012.
Starting this week, Decapitated Dan, aka Dan Royer, the horror comic journalist, blogger, podcaster, and THE head of horror heads, will be providing horror comic reviews and news here on this site!
Dan is a horror comic journalist living in Illinois. He has been covering horror comics since 2009. He hosts two podcasts; Discussions with Decapitated Dan and Tales From the Water Cooler. Dan is also the founder of Dan Con, a local comic book convention in Chicago, IL. He is also the founder of the Ghastly Awards, awards that honor excellence in horror comics.
We’d like to welcome Dan to the team and we hope you’ll enjoy his horror comic reviews as much as we do.
Tim Daniel and Mehdi Cheggour’s upcoming Image Comics/Shadowline one-shot Enormous looks like the sort of GN we could really get our teeth in to. It’s an apocalyptic tale concerning the rise of of huge creatures, dubbed ‘The Enormous’, all hell-bent on wiping out humanity, following an man-made ecological event gone wrong.
You are the bottom of the food chain. A fading point of light in the course of evolutionary history. A dying species. You are human. You are a child – and Ellen Grace is coming to collect you. The ‘Enormous’ have ravaged the planet. In their wake of destruction, mankind has fallen. The race to stave off extinction has begun.
This 64 page one-shot is described as being suitable for fans of:
Genre-based survivalist fiction like The Passage, The Terror, On The Beach, Alas Babylon, The Walking Dead, World War Z, The Mist, Monsters, Troll Hunter, Cloverfield, The Host, Giant Monsters, Kaiju, Godzilla, THEM!, The Blob, Universal Monsters, Hammer Films, Ray Harryhausen and more!
It’s clear from this list that writer, Tim Daniel, has a certain fondness for monsters and the apocalypse, so we know what to expect from Enormous, yet we can see that he is also treading new ground.
Check out this preview gallery below:
What really stands out about this project is their lovely looking website which has been slowly expanding in content over the last year. The Enormous team have been enlisting the help of artist to create teasers and pin-ups, running art competitions on forums and posting little bits of info on their website since April 2011. This new approach to slowly and organically growing interest in their project has helped to accrue a fan base prior to the launch.
This approach is a fantastic idea and should definitely be a part of every comic creators marketing scheme. If you’re putting together a comic you need a website as a point of interest for potential fans or distributors. Why not make it a great site? It can only help to increase excitement in your project and foster a connection with your audience.
Enourmous will be available July 2012. In the mean time take a trip to their feature-filled Enormous website for more on this exciting new comic.
Following the success of their debut event in October-November 2011, the UK’s festival of horror in the performing arts will be returning this Halloween for three weeks of macabre entertainment.
The Etcetera Theatre, Camden will play host to this year’s Festival, which welcomes a broad range of horror theatre, comedy, magic and performance art, from psychological spine-chillers to all-out splatter, improvised ghost stories to grotesque stand-up and séance magic to body horror, and almost anything else imaginable. The purpose is to foster new talent as well as nurturing the already burgeoning live horror scene within the UK.
Applications are now open for this year’s festival, and they’re happy to accept submissions from performers or companies regardless of whether they have explored the horror genre before. If you like a bit of performing arts then they’re looking for exciting and committed groups looking to push the boundaries of live entertainment.
It’s not like we’ve ever needed an extra reason to look at men’s mag Playboy but this month issue features an origin story of fan’s favourite Michonne written and drawn by series creator Robert Kirkman and art regular Charlie Adlard.
There’s only 4 days left to get your votes in for the 10th annual Rondo Hatton Awards. Since 2002 the Rondos have been fandom’s only true classic horror award. They are decided by fans, for fans. Every Rondo nominee has been recognized for a significant achievement in the genre during the year of 2011. This year’s nominees for best horror comic are:
EDGAR ALLAN POE’S TALES OF MYSTERY (Graphic Classics). Includes Murders in the Rue Morgue.
FLESH AND BLOOD: BOOK ONE (Monsterverse). The Hammer film that never was, by Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes.
GODZILLA: KINGDOM OF MONSTERS (IDW). Eric Powell tells a human story amidst the monster rallies.
BOB HOWARD: Plumber of the Unknown by Rafael Nieves and Dan Dougherty. Ordinary jobs don’t stop this monster hunter.
HELLBOY: THE FURY (Dark Horse). Can this really be the end? Mike Mignola surprises everyone.
MONSTERS AMONG US (monsters-among-us.com). Celebrating the four-color fun of monstrosities.
PLANET OF THE APES (Boom!) Daryl Gregory and Carlos Magno pick up the story from Battle.
THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. HYDE (Dark Horse). Jekyll is dead. Then who…? By Cole Haddon and M.S. Corley.
30 DAYS OF NIGHT (IDW). Steve Niles and Sam Kieth revive the true world of vampires.
THE WALKING DEAD (Image) Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard go far beyond the TV series.
XOMBI (DC). John Rozum and Fraser Irving resurrect David Kim in this dark tale of snow angels and mummies.
There are plenty of other horror categories all competing for the coveted awards so get yourself over to the website and vote quickly, before something terrible happens!
Fans of indie horror comics, who like to feel the rustle of paper against their fingers, will be pleased to know that you can now purchase print versions all all 3 Hallowscreams from Lulu. Revel in the gloriously glossy covers and steel your nerves for the beautiful black and white horror filled pages inside.
For those who just want to see what all the fuss is about before you part with your hard earned cash, you can download all 3 issues of Hallowscream for FREE in the left hand menu of this site. Don’t forget to check out the BlackFriars special by Michael Crouch too!
Cryptozoic Entertainment, a premiere developer of original and licensed games and makers of the World of Warcraft trading card game, last month announced the launch of Locke & Key: The Game, an all-new card game based on the critically acclaimed comic series Locke & Key from IDW Publishing.
The high-flying original comic series Locke & Key is created and written by acclaimed suspense novelist and New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill (Horns, Heart-Shaped Box) and features astounding artwork from Eisner nominated Gabriel Rodriguez. Entering its fifth volume in summer 2012, Locke & Key tells the tale the Locke family and Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion. The mystery of Keyhouse is the magical keys and fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them, and a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all.
Competition and cooperation meet in this card game that dares you to overcome the supernatural challenges of Keyhouse. You and your fellow players will face these horrors together, but who will be by your side when the dust settles? On this journey, you’ll make decisions on when and where to help your fellow players, but your resources are not endless. Through careful management of your cards, you can help the family overcome challenges, and you’ll be rewarded for the assistance . . . sometimes.
Locke & Key: The Game boasts enthralling competition for three to six players, and includes 150 strength cards, 19 challenge cards, 15 specially designed key cards based on the powerful keys in the series, plus one 3D stand-up, an initiative marker and a comprehensive rulebook. Players compete to acquire strength cards and key cards to overcome the various challenges on the path towards victory. Players can mix and match these cards to create powerful combinations and new strategies as they decide whether to compete or cooperate with the other players to overcome the supernatural challenges of Keyhouse. Take a look at what cards you can expect in the game in our gallery below.
Issues: Hoax Hunter’s #1 Writers: Michael Moreci, Steve Seeley Artist: Axel Medellin, Tim Seeley (c) Publisher: Image Comics Release Date: July 2011 Price: $2.99 “The acclaimed backup begins its own series! A rash of mass animal deaths leads the Hoax Hunters to the Louisiana bayou. What they find is a mystery that harkens to Jack’s [...]
Issue: Zombie Chuck #2 Writer: Brian Fyffe Artist: Brian Fyffe Release Date: 2012 Pages: 32 Price: $5.00 “Chuck and Lily’s second adventure, in 28 pages of color printed on aged newsprint paper!” Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5 Zombie Chuck is back, and ready to party for Halloween! I was so excited to get my [...]
Issue: Monocyte #4 Writers: Menton3, Kasra Ghanbari, Steve Niles, Barron Storey Artists: Menton3, Chris Newman, Ben Templesmith Covers: Menton3, David Stoupakis, Phil Hale Publisher: IDW Release Date: May 2012 Price: $3.99 “The world is in in chaos. Monocyte makes his way to Azrael as the human slaves are freed… Series conclusion with art by menton3 [...]
Issue: Product of Society #5 Creators: Jon Michael Lennon, Leo Perez, Chris Newman, B. Alan Hubbard, Lauren Burke, Andrew Dimitt, Don Hills, Kyle Lawler, Donovan Klingal, Josh Filer, Mat Festa, Thor Fjalarsson and Sarah Hollings Publisher: CheeseLord Comics Release Date: March 2012 Price: $5.00 “Synopsis An anthology of Earth’s most disturbed persons. Product of Society [...]
Issue: Doctor Spektor Archives Volume 4 HC Writer: Donald Glut Artist: Jesse Santos Publisher: Dark Horse Release Date: February 2012 Price: $50.00 “Confronting supernatural threats and vengeful monsters, Dr. Spektor travels from Scottish lochs to cursed swamplands–and from the surreal dreamscape of the Egyptian afterlife to New York City’s Chinatown! Collecting issues #19 to #25 [...]
Do you want to join the Scream team? We're looking for enthusiastic people to contribute articles on horror or comics here on The Theatre of Terror. Contact me for more info.
Publishing house Dark Horse are set to release a selection of pre-code golden oldies updated with accurate color restoration, uncoated off-white paper, and an impressive roster of foreword writers.
Back from the Depths and The Theatre of Terror are delighted to announce a new member of the team for 2012. 
Following the success of their debut event in October-November 2011, the UK’s festival of horror in the performing arts will be returning this Halloween for three weeks of macabre entertainment.
There’s only 4 days left to get your votes in for the 10th annual Rondo Hatton Awards. Since 2002 the Rondos have been fandom’s only true classic horror award. They are decided by fans, for fans. Every Rondo nominee has been recognized for a significant achievement in the genre during the year of 2011. This year’s nominees for best horror comic are:
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