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!
Following a two-year break, horror anthology London Horror Comic returns with Issue #4. The series was initially intended to be complete with Issue #3, but continued fan interest and support prompted creator, writer, and publisher John-Paul Kamath to dive into this deranged world once again. Kamath notes that feedback at many UK comic conventions for the first three issues was “really strong, and being a sucker for punishment, I decided to put out a fourth one.”
The book features 36 pages of self-contained, full-color stories and retails for £3.50. It is currently available at the publisher’s website, www.londonhorrorcomic.com, for £3.50 worldwide. Previews of all four issues are also available at the site.
In issue four: a traveller takes a paranoid train journey on London’s Underground. A super villain has to deal with life in the real world when he becomes a trainee in a local coffee shop. And the terrors of working the night-shift and repercussions of the credit crunch are also covered in three other stories.
A new animated manga style series of Blade about to be unleashed in Japan. Animax, a division of Sony dedicated to anime TV shows, is already hitting it big with Iron Man and Wolverine series and is now looking to add two more with Blade and X-Men, both of which were announced at San Diego Comic-Con last year.
Harold Perrineau voices Eric Brooks, the supernatural Daywalker known as Blade, making his animated series debut with more action, terrifying villains, and bloodthirsty monsters than you’ve ever seen before. Following in the steps of other hit Marvel anime series, Blade offers viewers 12 half-hour weekly episodes destined to leave you wanting more, exclusively on G4.
Blade’s mother was bitten by a vampire while pregnant, imbuing her unborn son with vampire strength and a thirst for blood, but without the vulnerability to sunlight. A master of weaponry with a desire to avenge the death of his mother, Blade finds himself in Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia in an effort to take down the evil villain, Deacon Frost. With vampire hunter Makoto at his side, they will stop at nothing to destroy Existence, a vampire organization with roots deeply embedded in Asia.
The animation is done by Japanese company Madhouse and is a combination of traditional animation with computer generated imagery to boot. Released this January.
Here you are then ghosts and ghoulies, for your viewing pleasure, Back from the Depths is proud to present the 2011 edition of everyones favourite horror anthology Hallowscream. Just click on the creepy cover below, sit back and delve in to the darker side of comics. This is the perfect treat for a horrific Halloween.
At 112 pages it’s a bit of a monster, weighing in at just over 53MB, so may take a short while to download.
Don’t forget there is still a chance to get hold a printed version of the comic by pledging money to the Hallowscream IndieGoGo Appeal. There’s only a few hours left to show your appreciation so click on the link above, watch the appeal video, and give generously to this worthy cause.
Full contents are as follows…
Page 3 : Passenger Story by Chris Sides, Art by Chris Travell
Page 9 : Storage Story by Lizzie Boyle, Art by Louis Carter
Page 14 : Pirates Story by Tim West, Art by Nathaniel Allen
Page 19 : Man-Eater Story by Alec Robertson, Art by Christopher Geary
Page 25 : Charles Wynford Lodge Movie Posters by Julian Jones
Page 26 : Deep Ship by Gordon Innes
Page 31 : Terrorvision Guide by Malcolm Kirk
Page 32 : Deccappucino Story by Jeff Edmond, Art & Adaptation by Vin Davis
Page 39 : Vampire Vixens of The Wehrmacht Pin-up by Alex Ronald
Page 40 : The Wandering Man Story by David Hailwood, Art by Chow
Page 45 : Spatial Bewareness by Gordon Innes
Page 49 : The Offering by Emilio Martinez
Page 55 : Old Georgie Jigsaw Story by Jeff Edmond, Art & Adaptation by Vin Davis
Page 61 : Charles Wynford Lodge Movie Posters by Julian Jones
Page 62 : Donation Story by Richard Worth, Art by Christian Berg
Page 65 : Mag, Scientist (Dinnertime of The Dead) by Malcolm Kirk
Page 66 : Wonderful World of Serendipity Story by Dirk Van Dom, Art by Tony Rothwell, Lettering by Jim Campbell
Page 72 : A Wolf At The Door Story by Kenneth Thurtell, Art by Harry Shotton, Lettering by HdE
Page 77 : Dead Time Story Story by Scott Hartman, Art by El Chivo,
Lettering by David Withers
Page 80 : Speed Date 2 : Cruz Control Story by Dirk Van Dom, Art by Bhuna, Lettering by Chaingun Chimp
Page 86 : Ubek Naren-Ka Story by Matthew McLaughlin, Art by Ghostpockets,
Lettering by Bolt-01
Page 91 : Monster Story by Erick Lipkowski, Adaptation by Tim West,
Art by Carol Kewley
Page 97: Death Pitch Story by Jose Cruz, Art by Annie Cox
Page 103 : Teddy Bear’s Picnic Story by Tim West, Art by Glen Ostrander
Page 105 : How Can You Like That Horror Stuff? by Huw Evans
Tis the season of spooky comics and mysterious goings on! The release of our very own Hallowscream is just around the corner and another UK horror anthology will be available shortly after. The excellent Something Wicked from FutureQuakePress will be available November 1st and you can download it from their website at an extremely reasonable price.
In the mean time feast your eyes on the gorgeous front cover below.
The tenth issue of HAUNTED magazine, (Nov/Dec 2011), is now on sale at selected branches of WH Smith and newsagents across the UK.
For just £3.99, it contains over a hundred pages of cool eclectic stuff covering all things paranormal and includes the like of interviews with James Randi and Warwick Davis, articles and features on the Pendle Witches, Oakley Court Hotel, Alton Towers, British horror toys, loads of mediumistic, ghosthunting and spiritual stuff, and lots, lots, (lots), more. Scream! comic even gets a brief mention.
…and in among all this is an exclusive single-page promotional Hallowscream comic strip by yours truly, (with a couple of teensy panels by Matthew Soffe and Liam Matthew Byrne).
Hallowscream is a global horror comic that brings artists and writers together from around the world. The project is open to both amateur and professional comic creators and you can see the mix of styles and stories for yourself in the first two issues on the Hallowscream site.
In March of this year we announced details of Hallowscream 2011 on various platforms around the internet. From that announcement we received loads of stories from eager horror writers all looking to see their work appear in an online comic. Some of these terrifying tales were already in script format while others arrived as spooky short stories or even petrifying poems. We were then able to match these stories to comic artists who had answered our call and wanted to be a part of Hallowscream. We also received a few completed horror strips from existing comic creators which had yet to be published. This year’s issue features the work of contributors from America, Australia, UK (where it all began) and the rest of Europe!
If the full target is not reached then the campaign will be cancelled and this fang-tastic comic will not be printed. It’s all or nothing by October 31st.
It’s been confirmed that series 2 of The Walking Dead will debut with a double-length episode. The 13 episode run will also be broken into two halves, with the first half premiering in October and the second in February. You can view a trailer of the new series here.
With director Frank Darabont no longer at the helm will the quality of the show be of a good enough standard? When the entire writing team from series 1 was fired earlier in the year, alarm bells began to ring. Now, without Darbont’s influence, and with rumours of AMC budget cuts, The Walking Dead TV series has the potential to crash and burn! Darabont was replaced by former deputy and executive producer Glen Mazzara.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC on Sunday, October 16. We’re hoping it can build AND improve on series 1.
Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan’s vampire triology is to be given the comic book treatment by Dark Horse. Del Toro will be involved, ‘executive producing’ the comics, with the creative team of writer David Lapham and artist Mike Huddleston bringing their own skills in to the mix.
If the comics can live up to the books then we should be in for a real treat. The novel of The Strain is a real page-turner of a book filled with tension. If your a fan of Guillermo’s work you can spot his influence concerning the creatures within the book, which Chuck Hogan adapts to the written word extremely well.
The trilogy will unfold in 24 issues, 8 issues for each book, The Strain, The Fall and The Eternal (Released this October). The first issue of The Strain will be on sale on the 14th December at an introductory price of $1.00. Dark Horse have also announced they are launching the digital version on the same day and that will be available to download for a mere $1.99.
The 3rd issue of Hallowscream, the Scream! inspired horror anthology is set to be released this coming Halloween. This community based project brings together horror writers and artists to produce a yearly comic filled with fearsome stories and creepy comic capers. We have been busy reading horror comic scripts and stories from writers and matching them to artists looking to illustrate a complete strip. It’s a unique project ideal for those looking to break in to the industry and for those established contributors looking for a platform to promote their work.
Thanks to a huge response from horror comic creators around the world this year’s issue will be the best yet! We are now no longer accepting story submissions for this year’s edition of Hallowscream. A massive thank you to all those who have sent in a story. Not every submitted story has been selected to appear in the 2011 issue. Don’t worry though, there’s always next year.
We have a load of finished stories already with many more still being worked on. For those artists out there still furiously drawing and painting the official deadline date for final submissions is Sunday 23rd October. Please make sure you have submitted the completed work by that date. Anything later and we cannot guarantee it will make it in to the comic.
LAST CHANCE SALOON: If you’re an comic creator still looking to be part of this awesome project and believe you could illustrate a story before the the deadline (2 months away) then get in touch immediately. We have plenty of great stories that need bringing to life at the hands of a talented artist.
The finished issue will be available online on October 31st 2011. For more information and to get involved visit the dedicated Hallowscream Forum over on HorrorComics.org
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.