San Diego Comic-Con 2011: Dark Horse Comics Unveils Its Fall Lineup of Three New Horror Projects
Steve Barton
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Dark Horse Comics
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As promised, Dark Horse Comics announced three brand new projects during tonight’s Preview Night at San Diego Comic-Con, and horror fans should be pretty damn excited about all of them. Read on for the details about Dark Horse’s new connection to a rock star, a best-selling author, and a major moviemaker.
First up is Orchid from the creative mind of musician Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman).
Orchid is an epic fantasy story set in a dystopian future infused with Morello’s worldview and the politics of terror. Part Suicide Girl, part Joan of Arc – Orchid is the tale of a 16-year-old street prostitute who learns that she is more than the role society has imposed upon her. When the seas rose, genetic codes were smashed. Human settlements are now ringed by a dense wilderness from which ferocious new animal species prey on the helpless. The high ground belongs to the rich and powerful that overlook swampland shantytowns from their fortress-like cities. Iron-fisted rule ensures order and allows the wealthy to harvest the poor as slaves. Welcome to the world of Orchid.
Orchid features a variant cover by the well-known and influential street artist Shepard Fairey with interior art by Scott Hepburn (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic).
In addition, a free exclusive music track from Tom Morello will be available with the purchase of each issue to serve as a soundtrack to the story! Morello’s new album under the name of The Nightwatchman, entitled World Wide Rebel Songs, is due out August 30, 2011, from New West Records.
Orchid is on sale October 12th.
P.C. Cast and her daughter, Kristin Cast, may be new names to the comics world, but to genre fiction fans they are the beloved co-authors of the incredibly successful series of novels set in the world of House of Night. Now the Casts bring these high school-aged vampires to comics with all-new stories, tying in directly to the existing series!
Until recently, Zoey Redbird was an average high school student worrying about grades, boys, and breakouts. But priorities have a way of changing when you are marked as a vampyre, enroll in the vampyre academy House of Night, and have to figure out a whole new social hierarchy, affinities for elemental magic, and physiological changes that make you crave blood.
In this series, taking place between scenes from Betrayed (the second book in the wildly popular House of Night series, which has sold millions of copies internationally), Zoey is in desperate need of guidance as she prepares to take over the elite student group known as the Dark Daughters. Surrounded by her group of devoted friends, Zoey turns to The Fledgling Handbook, a historical vampyre tome, in hopes of better understanding this big, new world of vampyrism.
“Watching my characters and their world come to life with the fabulous team at Dark Horse has been fulfilling and fun,” said author P.C. Cast. “Fans are gonna love these comics!”
The comic will be co-written by Kent Dallan with art by Joelle Jones (Troublemaker). Look for House of Night in stores on November 9th.
Last, but certainly not least, is the upcoming comic adaptation of The Strain, created by visionary director Guillermo del Toro and novelist Chuck Hogan.
When a Boeing 777 lands at JFK International Airport and goes dark on the runway, the Center for Disease Control, fearing a terrorist attack, calls in Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team of expert biological-threat first responders. Only an elderly pawnbroker from Spanish Harlem suspects a darker purpose behind the event — an ancient threat intent on covering mankind in darkness.
Adapting the first novel from Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain Trilogy, this horrifying first chapter — told in eight issues — deals with an outbreak of diabolical proportions that puts a terrifying twist on the vampire genre.
“When discussing The Strain, Chuck and I agreed on one thing regarding any possible adaptation: It should not start until after we were done with the last book in the trilogy and we would only entertain a medium that would allow us to expand the world and the characters we had created,” said co-creator Guillermo del Toro. “Working with Dark Horse, David Lapham and Mike Huddleston provides us with the chance of expanding it further. A dream come true!”
“The chance to work with del Toro on any project was just too good to pass up,” said writer David Lapham. “But the fact that this is a vicious horror project, that I’m teamed with a great artist, and been given a great amount of creative freedom to interpret the novel has made this a dream project.”
Adapted by writer David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Kull), with art by Mike Huddleston (MK Ultra), the chilling first issue of The Strain arrives on sale on December 14th.
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