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!
I’ve mentioned the Eric Bradbury illustrated Cursitor Doom before in this blog, and I’ve really liked the few stories I’ve read, so I’m rather chuffed to learn that a collection of all the stories is out this August from British comics expert Steve Holland’s Bear Alley Books, which will also be publishing The Phantom Patrol, a tale from the early ’60s of British infantrymen transported back through time.
Both books will be limited to print runs of just 300 copies. For more info visit the website…
Being a medical horror comic by Mssrs. Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner
If your looking for an example of excellent artwork and a ripping good yarn then it’s surely worth your time delving in to the world of Witch Doctor.
About Witch Doctor
Vincent Morrow’s fall from grace in the medical world was swift, total, and his own damn fault.
He would’ve ended things that same night if he hadn’t been headhunted into an exciting new career — in the black arts. Then there was the matter of pulling a certain sword out of a certain stone and being declared earth’s destined protector, but he’d rather you didn’t mention that. The obedient path of mystical tradition isn’t the one for Morrow. The Holy Grail made a great sink — it just needed a hole for the plumbing and a rubber stopper in the bottom — and earth’s vampires, zombies and other superfauna are just patients to him, victims of unknown illnesses waiting to be treated.
It’s a sick world. And Dr. Morrow serves it with both hands — one in magic, one in medicine — as earth’s Sorcerer General. Earth’s Witch Doctor.
Witch Doctor has some really great characters that strengthen the storyline. The lead character has an intriguing personality and if you venture on to the Witch Doctor site and read the preview story ‘First Incision’ you will definately leave wanting to know more about the mysterious and intelligent Vincent Morrow.
It seems from their blog they have just lined up a fresh story so scoot on over and get a taste of this great indy comic. You can find out more about this awesome comic and read the first story at the Witch Doctor website
Night Zero is a photo comic book that pretty much stands out in it’s field. Very professionally made it harkes back to a time when Doomlord used same technique in some of the older issues of Eagle. Check out the blurb below and visit the site to read for yourself
NIGHT ZERO is a photo comic book, or fumetti, produced on location in Seattle, Washington. It is a collaboratively-driven project that blends the talents of writers, actors, photographers, digital artists, and film crews, to create a graphic novel unlike any other.
THE STORY
Set in the months following a deadly viral outbreak, NIGHT ZERO follows the lives of the surviving population of Seattle, Washington. Holding together in the New City, a semblance of normalcy barricaded against the terrors of the world outside, those still alive have no choice but to throw their lots in with the rest and make a new future.
THE LOOK
NIGHT ZERO is produced like a feature film, shot on-location with a full cast and crew, complete with sets, props, and costumes. Using the emerging technology of High Dynamic Range photography (HDR) and a process called tonemapping, our digital artists are able to transform the images into a unique visual style somewhere between photography and illustration. There is no tracing or hand drawing superimposed on the photographs– the “illustrated” style is purely the result of the HDR photography method.
You can find more information about this amazing project and read the comic stories in full by visiting the Night Zero website.
If you’re interested in the spectacular zombie horror game Left 4 Dead then you may want to check out Left 5 Dead also from the creators of Night Zero. The artistic after-touches applied to these photographs create an amazing effect. Top notch work!
This year sees the 25th anniversary of the appearance of Scream! comic on newsagents shelves. So we at Back From The Depths were thinking… What better time to pay tribute by producing our very own Scream! inspired tribute publication?
That’s where you lot come in. Back From The Depths are looking for artists and writers to help bring this idea to fruition.
We initially plan to produce a 32 page “issue zero”, which will be available to download for free in pdf format. However, we may stretch to 64 pages if we receive enough contributions, and this is the pagecount we’d be aiming for with any subsequent issues.
Ideal submissions should be horror orientated and must be weird or spooky to make the final cut. We are mainly looking for completed comic strips between 1-7 pages in length. Eerie illustrations and artwork along with interesting horror/comic articles, scary short stories, petrifying poems or anything just plain creepy will also be considered.
We’ll also consider material previously published elsewhere, as long as the contributors own the copyright.
Completed artwork should preferably be A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) 300 dpi jpegs.
Submissions can be sent to malcolmkirk(at)hotmail.co.uk or you can join the ning group and upload stuff there if you prefer.
To get involved visit the forum for more information, post your suggestions and stories and check out existing story ideas…
‘The Spine Chillers’ is a weekly comic strip exclusive to the Renegade website. ‘The Spine Chillers’ relates the little known story about the time the worlds greatest writers shared a small boarding house to create some of the most loved horror stories of all time.
Small press comic genius Ben Clark is the creative talent behind the strip and will be delivering a freshly drawn adventure each Friday.
Marvel at HP Lovecraft’s inspiration for Cthulu, gasp as Ambrose Bierce struggles under the weight of his own creative output, and marvel as Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mud wrestle to determine once and for all who is the better horror writer.
Click the picture or the link below to read the story…
Not exactly horror, but definitely worth a mention, (despite what you may have thought of the last couple of series). Science fiction sit-com, Red Dwarf returns to screens tomorrow night, (Friday 10th April), after an absence of ten years.
Three brand new episodes, (collectively titled “Back To Earth”), will be shown at 9pm over three consecutive nights, on the UK freeview channel, Dave, with all three episodes and the “making of” documentary being repeated on monday.
Impossible Pictures animation subsidiary Firestep have announced plans to develop full motion comics in collaboration with Rebellion, Europe’s No.1 independent games developer.
Rebellion are rights holders of 2000AD, Britain’s multi-award winning sci-fi comic that has been at the cutting edge of contemporary pop culture since it’s first publication in 1977.
Firestep’s Steve Maher says “We have an enviable creative challenge ahead of us in translating the extraordinarily diverse visual and narrative worlds of the 2000AD originals into animation. Beyond that we also want to structure the series in a way that mirrors the comic book- several short fully animated TV episodes of ongoing adventures, each starring a different 2000AD hero, each contained within a single show – a full motion comic.”
The latest issue of free PDF comic, Temple APA is now available for download. Compiled by John Kirkham, it features stuff from Adam Grose, Dave Hailwood, Jim Stewart, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri and Malcolm (that’s me, that is) Kirk. Also included within it’s 64 pages is a directory of British Small Press publications.
If you’re a comic artist/writer who’s interested in joining the Temple APA, then more details are available on the site which you can visit by clicking this link… http://templeapa.ning.com/
To download issue three, right click on the link below and “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…” if you’re using Firefox.
I just received an email from someone wishing to remain anonymous because they have in their possession something that could potentially be worth rather a lot of money. Namely, Scream! number 16!
Yes, you read that correctly. I don’t know the exact details, but apparently a dummy issue of number 16 was produced before the decision was made to merge it with Eagle. I’ve been provided with a couple of scans which I’ve included below. The front cover (which depicts a scene from the final part of the “Doctor Death” Tales From The Grave story), and what appears to be a preview panel for Terror of the Cats 2, which would have begun in issue 17.
Cool or what?!? Hopefully more scans and information will be provided soon. Watch this space!
Apparently prompted by our very own Jova, British comic news site Down The Tubeshave commemorated Scream’s 25th anniversary by posting an interview with Barrie Tomlinson, who was Group Editor of the Boys’ Sport and Adventure Department at Fleetway in 1984 and as such, was responsible for producing Scream!
The interview was originally published in the Eagle Flies Again fanzine in 2005.
This Wednesday, April 1st, Egmont UK publish their first brand new comic in years. “Crazy Comics!” is released as a 16 page supplement in the latest issue of kids’ magazine, Toxic.
Appropriately for this blog, the line up of stories seems to have a strong supernatural element. Check out some of these titles…
Count Von Poo by Jamie Smart Zombie Nation by Luke Paton & Laura Howell Spooks in Space by Paul H. Birch & Steve Harrison Bovver Baby by John Freeman & Paul J Palmer The Hoaxers by David Hailwood & Paul Harrison-Davies WereWilf by Paul H Birch, Shane Oakley & John Erasmus The Clump by Lew Stringer Bad Robots by John Freeman & Paul Harrison-Davies Simon Spectacular by Luke Paton & Stuart Arrowsmith.
Werewilf’s an interesting one, ‘cos he’s actually a revival of an old character who first appeared in Whoopee comic in 1976.
Just realised that last week was exactly 25 years since Scream! comic first went on sale. Belated Birthday wishes Scream! Let’s have a read of the first issue to celebrate…
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.
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