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!
Titan Magazines and Skybound have announced the launch of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine, based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series, best-selling graphic novels and Emmy-winning AMC television series based upon them.
Following its transition from groundbreaking comic book to the highest-rated basic cable drama of all time, The Walking Dead has cemented its status, not only as a phenomenon with the wildly diverging fans of horror and of character-driven drama, but as a milestone in quality, mainstream television.
The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine will feature an inside look at the comic and show as only a fully sanctioned quarterly can. No one will get more exclusives than this magazine. Get exclusive access to the most successful television adaptation of a comic ever, including in-depth interviews Kirkman, Executive Producer/Writer on the show; Glen Mazzara, Showrunner/ Executive Producer/Writer of the series and David Alpert, Executive Producer of the series.
And that’s not all – readers will hear from all of the leads on the hit TV show Andrew Lincoln, who stars as Rick Grimes; Sarah Wayne Callies, who stars as Lori Grimes, Jon Bernthal, who played fan-favourite bad boy Shane.
Robert Kirkman commented, “This magazine will be your one stop destination for all the news pertaining to the comic, TV show, video game, toys, games, and whatever else exists in the ever-expanding Walking Dead universe! If it’s happening, you’ll find out all about it right here!” Nick Landau, Titan Publisher, added: “We’re very excited to be publishing the quarterly The Walking DeadMagazine with Robert Kirkman and Skybound, which will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for fans to get unlimited access to the show and comic.”
Fans will also get the opportunity to ask Kirkman what’s coming up in future issues of The Walking Dead, or find out how the series artist Charlie Adlard keeps up with the fast pace of the monthly comic so brilliantly.
The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine debuts on 23rd October in the US with 100 pages of all access, no holds barred zombie festing and feasting. With all the latest news, revelations and tips for fans of the television show and the graphic novels.
Issue #1 of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine comes with an alternative cover featuring an exclusive, coloured zombie scene by The Walking Dead comic artist, Charlie Adlard. This alternative collector’s edition is only available through comic stores. Retailers can order via August Diamond PREVIEWS.
Fans of the show are urged to join The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with exclusive developments and deals. The magazine is currently offering fans a special pre-order subscription saving 20% off the newsstand cover price – click here
The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine issue #1 will be available on newsstands and in specialty comic book stores in the US on 23rd October in the UK on 8th November and Australia & New Zealand on 18th December
Issue: Enormous #1 Writer: Tim Daniel Artist: Mehdi Cheggour Publisher: Image Comics Release Date: July 2012 Price: $9.99
“In the midst of a planetary battle for food and fuel, a vast ecological cataclysm spawns THE ENORMOUS, massive beasts unlike anything ever witnessed. Humankind struggles to stave off extinction and the only law is to hunt or be hunted. It’s an epic action adventure featuring the survival of the biggest!”
Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5
What is this ENORMOUS book in front of me? Seriously this thing is larger than a typical comic, which is fitting since it is called Enormous. If you are waiting for the next BIG thing to come from Image, you need to look no further than this title. The pages in this book are all so god damn GORE-Geous, that my eyes melted from their sockets. Cheggour brings so much life to every single panel, that I am honestly guessing it took him 3 years to complete this book. Page after page this book sings the visual music that my eyes crave. The monsters alone are enough to give this book a solid 5 on the artwork. The story done by Daniel is also something to behold. His pacing is fantastic, and he has a great feel for writing action scenes. While the book is only 64 pages, it is so full of story. You can easily take this book as a one and done, but you won’t want to. This universe has so much more exploration has to be done to it. I need to know where the cast will go from here, more exploration in to why things are they way they are and a whole HELL of a lot more monsters killing things. There was nothing to not be enjoyed in this issue. Page after page this will satisfy monster, horror and survival fans. Buy it, buy it, BUY IT!
Artwork: 5.0 out of 5 • Story: 4.5 out of 5
If you would like to buy or know more about Enormous you can find it at http://www.imagecomics.com
Dark Horse Comics has released an Ex Sanguine teaser. Tim Seeley and Josh Emmons’s new title was teased under the strapline: “Dark Horse horror gets under your skin.” The series was first unveiled at Chicago’s C2E2 convention in April.
“It started off as our take on the vampire romance genre, which obviously is very popular, very prevalent,” Seeley said of the projects origins. “We were talking about the kind of people these stories, it’s usually the mopey sad girl finding eternal love with the supportive immortal guy. We thought that relationship would go very differently. If you were someone who spent his entire long existence killing people, you would 1.) get bored, and 2.) you’d be looking for someone to make it exciting and you wouldn’t be able to relate to normal people. The longer we talked about it, we realized the perfect romance would be between a vampire and a serial killer.
“That’s the high concept: it’s a romance between a vampire and a serial killer. But it’s lots of other things,” Seeley continued. “It’s kind of a detective story. And the vampire and the serial killer kind of try to set each other up for a series of murders. But in the meantime, they’re having this twisted romance. Kind of ‘Dexter’ meets ‘True Blood,’ that’s the Hollywood pitch.”
The writer is best known as the creator of Hack/Slash. He is currently working on Witchblade and Revival.
A Hack/Slash movie adaptation is currently in development.
Issue: Underneath #2 Writer: Tom Stillwell Artist: Jim Terry Publisher: Spinner Rack Comics Release Date: 2012 Pages: 28 Price: $2.99
“Terry goes all in for troll hunting as Joe & Co. search a monster-infested warehouse for a missing child from Lower Chicago. Meet Irv the troll stoolie! Plus we learn the secret history behind the Great Chicago Fire...”
Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5
WOOO, issue #2! Underneath is back and it has a fistful of awesome that it wants to introduce to your face! Following right where issue #1 left off, we are shown what caused the Great Chicago Fire. Damn you (I ain’t spoiling this people)! The artwork in this issue is fantastic. Terry has a great feel for this cast and he it with consistency on every panel throughout. He has a great vision for being able to make my eyes laugh, while still telling a great visual story. Stillwell knew what Terry was capable of, so even he brought his A game as well. The story is paced really well. What I expect with a #2 is to get more build on the gripping events of the first issue, and I got that here. Think of the story in this issue as the base of a building, it has to be solid to support what comes next, and there is only one way to go from here, UP! Jim and Tom are killing this book. I love what is happening so far. I love the universe that is being created, and hope it can be further developed as well. Underneath is a solid read and a steal at the price. Check this on out.
Artwork: 4.5 out of 5 • Story: 4.5 out of 5
If you would like to buy or know more about Underneath you can find it at http://spinnerrackcomics.com/
Horror comics have been scaring readers for years. Is there anyone brave enough to sit down with their creators? This is Discussions with Decapitated Dan.
Listen in this week as Dan is joined by writer James Murray about Hard Coal Studios, Classic Horror Comics: Bride of Prometheon, The Phantom Flyer, Shock Value and so much more.
Shock Till You Drop have an exclusive ‘motion comic’ to co-inside with the release of upcoming movie mashup Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The film is based on the 2010 novel of the same name, by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. Grahame-Smith is no stranger to mixing up old and new ideas, having already achieved acclaim for his zombie novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This time it’s American president Abe Lincoln who gets the supernatural treatment as he attempts to save the country he loves from vampires.
The motion comic is created using the latest HTML 5 techniques and is a pretty good example of how to make a webcomic dynamic. A swipe of the mouse or click of a button slides the images from right to left, which also triggers some neat effects using various CSS styles to give the impression of action.
Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’s Neonomicon has been withdrawn from a public library in the US following a complaint over its sexual content.
Some dippy bitch didn’t realise quite what they were getting themselves in for when they selected a comic from Greenville County Library in South Carolina, despite the fact that the GN was in the adults section.
The library pulled two copies of the anthology from its shelves after Carrie Gaske filed an official challenge against it. Check out the full news story below.
GREENVILLE, S.C. —
It doesn’t take much to get 14 year old Jennifer Gaske hooked on a new book. “Just as long as it has somethign good in it,” says the rising 8th grader. Gaske and her mother, Carrie, frequently go to the Anderson Road branch of the Greenville County library system to check out books. Recently, the teen found the book, “Neonomicon”, in the library’s adult section and thought it would be a real page turner. Kids above the age of 13 can check out books in the adult section, if they have their parents’ permission. “It looked like a murder mystery comic book to me,” recalls Carrie Gaske. “It looked like a child’s book. I flipped through it, and thought it was ok for her to check out.”
After a few chapters, though, Gaske got a shock. “It was good at first,” says Jennifer. “Then it got nasty.” Her mother says, “She came into my living room and asked me what a certain word meant and I said honey where did you hear that word? I said that’s a nasty word we don’t use that in the house.”
Inside the book, Gaske found graphic sexual content and pictures of nude men and women engaging in sexual activity. Seven on Your Side cannot show much of that content because it is so explicit. “The more into I got the more shocked I was, I really had no idea this type of material was allowed at a public library,” says Carrie Gaske. “I feel that has the same content of Hustler or Playboy or things like that,” she says. “Maybe even worse.”
The library system’s executive director, Beverly James, says although the book was placed in the library’s adult section, teens with a “juvenile adult” library card are allowed to check out books in that section. Gaske still believes such books should have a warning label for parents as well. “I really think if they’re going to carry this type of material there needs to be a rating on it,” Gaske says. “There’s ratings on movies, music, video games. My daughter cannot go to the video game store and get a mature video game without me there.”
James says the library system has never used a rating system, and it’s up to each parent to read between the lines, and decide what’s appropriate for their child. Gaske has filed an official challenge to the book. For now, the system’s two copies in circulation have been pulled from the shelves while a committee reviews the content. “I’m definitely going to have to review every book they read more from now on,” says Gaske.
Also of note, back in 2010 this same graphic novel was banned from Secret Headquarters comic store in Florida, due to “the pornographic content”. I don’t know about you but this just makes me want to read it even more.
I’m lucky enough to receive random comics in the post, most of them full of whacked out weirdness and grisly goings on. Arriving on the ‘doorstep of doom’ this week is quite possibly one of the weirdiest (yeah, i made that word up) and wackiest comics I have ever had the pleasure to read. El Bigote: A Tequila-Drenched Reckoningis the first offering from Tekilla Comix, the brain child of writer Matthew McLaughlin and artist El Chivo. It’s only a thin preview issue of what’s to come in the future but is so packed full of wild ideas, it’s impossible to not be impressed.
Set in the untamed borders of the Mexican afterlife, our quill-flinging mustached hero, El Bigote (The Mustache), rides his trusty ostrich steed across the prairies dishing out retribution to undead banditos. I may have never typed a sentance more insane than that.
McLaughlin’s script dances illusively between English and Spanish, which only leads to highten the bonkerousness of the whole affair. Artist El Chivo is fully in on the madness and fleshes out this bizarre comic with his own neat touches.
With more issues on the way, possibly in the form of a web comic, I look forward to seeing what these two poco loco amigos can do.
Nominations for the 2012 Ghastly Awards are now open over on ghastlys.blogspot.co.uk These awards recognise the outstanding achievements within the field of horror comics. Visit today and vote for your fave.
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.
Titan Magazines and Skybound have announced the launch of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine, based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series, best-selling graphic novels and Emmy-winning AMC television series based upon them.
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