Eibon Press – Release Dates, Announcements, and the Launch of VHS Comics!
Steve Barton
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Eibon Press has come out of practically nowhere to take the horror world by storm with their inaugural release of Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, an ass-stomping new collector’s comic series based on the classic film. The first eye-scorching issue ships later this month and number two (featuring Zombie Vs. Shark) is already on the way in October! But just when you thought these cool operators couldn’t get any cooler, we’ve just got word that they’ve got the coolest fucking thing ever on tap for 2017.
Yep, you read that right. It’s VHS Comics! A new sub-imprint devoted to adapting and expanding classic films of the analog video era! Eibon co-founder Shawn Lewis explains: “Well, we figured what can we do for an encore after fucking Zombie, right? I mean, that’s a really legendary film that taps into a lot of different fan bases. You have Italian horror freaks, zombie fans, old school video horror nuts . . . and that’s when we really started thinking. Stephen just came up with it one day. VHS Comics, man! I was, like, duhhh, fuck YES!”
“There’s so many movies from that era that haven’t been tapped for comics,” says Eibon co-founder Stephen Romano. “I think the reason is that movie comics have always been kind of limited to really popular mainstream stuff, or at least more well-known stuff. Nobody in their right mind would do a comic book based on something like Laserblast, right? Well, it turns out we’re not exactly in our right minds at Eibon Press!”
Romano and Lewis have secured licenses for a number of new films of the “First Age Of Analog Home Video,” including Laserblast, the camp classic which has become infamous due to its fabled appearance on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” “That’s like the best episode they ever did,” says Romano. “They had great material to work with, after all. See, the movie is really super cheesy on the surface, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that when it actually first came out in the drive-ins and on VHS, it scared the fucking hell out of us as kids! It’s a sort of Werwolf By Night story about a kid who finds an alien ray gun and it melds with his body and mind, transforming him into this feral screaming monster. That’s a scary idea. So our comic book has taken this weird queasy pathway that is at once kind of gross and sick and also a little funny and self-referential. There’s those two bumbling turtle aliens who come after the monster kid and they’re funny because we’re giving them bizarre campy dialogue . . . but at the heart of Laserblast, it’s a body horror story, and we take it in really extreme directions. The people who are digging Zombie will just fucking love this. Plus, it appeals to nostalgia fans, and the whole VHS crowd.”
Indeed, each issue of VHS Comics will be a giant love letter to analog video collectors the world over. “Yeah, it’s gonna be fucking nuts,” Shawn Lewis says. “In addition to the full issue based on Laserblast, we have articles and stuff in the back about the video stores of the 80s, and we’re commissioning art from different guys, depicting their vision of the Video Store From Hell. There will be a different vision for each issue. Plus our usual Eibon Sleeve covers will all look like old video boxes. We’re going all in with this. And Laserblast is just the beginning. We’ll be doing a different film with every new issue of VHS COMICS, with the possibility of an ongoing series for each one depending on how well they do. Our second issue is going to be a motherfucker. It’s a secret for now, but we’ve lined up a MAJOR horror title for that one and the comic we’re doing is straight-up insane. The fans are going to shit when they hear what it is.”
Sign us up, Shawn. Sign us the FUCK up.
In other Eibon News, we have the official street dates for Lucio Fulci’s Zombie #1 Special Edition Reprint and Lucio Fulci’s Zombie #2. Check them out below.
For additional info follow Eibon Press on Twitter and Eibon Press on Instagram. Also dig on the official Eibon Press website.
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