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Horror Comics: Don’t Miss ‘Bone Orchard’ and More this May!

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Horror Comics

With the calendar turning to the warmer months, May promises to be full of good horror comics and new series debuts! Here are some of the highlights to find on the racks of your local comic shop:

Bone Orchard: The Passageway (Image, $17.99) is a 96-page graphic novel from writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino, the creative team behind Gideon Falls and Primordial. When a geologist is sent to a remote lighthouse to investigate strange phenomena, he finds a seemingly endless pit in the rocks. What lurks within, and how will he escape its pull? The Passageway is the first book in the new Bone Orchard Mythos, a shared umbrella that will spawn future graphic novels and limited series. While at the graphic novel price point, this series will be essential to the stories that follow, and the creators are top notch so the odds are strong that this book will deliver.

Grim #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99) centers around freshly dead protagonist Jessica Harrow, whose journey is just beginning. In the afterlife, Jessica has been recruited as a Reaper, tasked with ferrying countless souls to their final destination. Unlike the rest of the Reapers, she has no memory of what killed her and put her into this predicament. In order to unravel the mystery of her own demise, she’ll have to solve an even bigger one – where is the actual Grim Reaper From writer Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn) and artist Flaviano (New Mutants) comes a bold new vision of what comes after death, as well as the nature of death itself.

 

The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country #2 (DC Comics, $3.99) by James Tynion IV (writer) and Lisandro Estherren and Christian Ward (art) continues from last month’s debut issue. With the Corinthian loose in the waking world, it’s no surprise that people are turning up dead…although this time, they’re not the nightmare’s doing. (Well, most of them.) The Corinthian is following a trail of bodies to the mysterious Mr. agony and Mr. ecstasy…but what’s their game? And even more pressing—whose tracks are they trying to cover? I enjoyed issue #1 immensely, it channeled the horror and magical realism of the initial Gaiman series in a fresh, yet nostalgic way. If issue #2 continues to deliver, we’re in for a great story.

Pentagram of Horror #2 (Black Caravan, $3.99) continues the stand-alone horror anthology. Hate can create and destroy. Hate can unite or divide. Hate is one of those characteristics that makes us human. For some it is an obstacle, a feeling to be ashamed of and repressed; for others it is a fuel that helps bring about great and revolutionary actions. In this chapter entitled “United in Hate” we will see a man who embraces his human nature and will do anything to give us the world we deserve. A world where we too can be free to be human. To be united. Marco Fontalini did a marvelous job in issue #1 with a strong story and gorgeous, atmospheric art and now is a good time to get on board.

horror comics pentagram

Finally, Absolute Swamp Thing (DC Comics, $100) collects the run by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson in DC’s Absolute format. This volume collects Swamp Thing’s first appearance in The House of Secrets #92 plus Swamp Thing #1-13. Any opportunity to get Bernie Wrightson art, much less oversized art, is a good one and this book will no doubt look great on anyone’s shelf.

Horror Comics Swamp Thing

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‘Alien’ is Being Made Into a Children’s ABC Book

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Alien Book

That Disney buyout of Fox is making for strange crossovers. Just look at this new children’s book that teaches children the alphabet via the 1979 Alien movie.

From the library of Penguin House’s classic Little Golden Books comes A is for Alien: An ABC Book.

Pre-Order Here

The next few years are going to be big for the space monster. First, just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, we are getting a new franchise film called Alien: Romulus. Then Hulu, also owned by Disney is creating a television series, although they say that might not be ready until 2025.

The book is currently available for pre-order here, and is set to release on July 9, 2024. It might be fun to guess which letter will represent which part of the movie. Such as “J is for Jonesy” or “M is for Mother.”

Romulus will be released in theaters on August 16, 2024. Not since 2017 have we revisited the Alien cinematic universe in Covenant. Apparently, this next entry follows, “Young people from a distant world facing the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

Until then “A is for Anticipation” and “F is for Facehugger.”

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Holland House Ent. Announces New Book “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

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Screenwriter and Director Tom Holland is delighting fans with books containing scripts, visual memoirs, continuation of stories, and now behind-the-scenes books on his iconic films. These books offer a fascinating glimpse into the creative process, script revisions, continued stories and the challenges faced during production. Holland’s accounts and personal anecdotes provide a treasure trove of insights for movie enthusiasts, shedding new light on the magic of filmmaking! Check out the press release below on Hollan’s newest fascinating story of the making of his critically acclaimed horror sequel Psycho II in a brand new book!

Horror icon and filmmaker Tom Holland returns to the world he envisioned in 1983’s critically acclaimed feature film Psycho II in the all-new 176-page book Oh Mother, What Have You Done? now available from Holland House Entertainment.

‘Psycho II’ House. “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

Authored by Tom Holland and containing unpublished memoirs by late Psycho II director Richard Franklin and conversations with the film’s editor Andrew London, Oh Mother, What Have You Done? offers fans a unique glimpse into the continuation of the beloved Psycho film franchise, which created nightmares for millions of people showering worldwide.

Created using never-before-seen production materials and photos – many from Holland’s own personal archive – Oh Mother, What Have You Done? abounds with rare hand-written development and production notes, early budgets, personal Polaroids and more, all set against fascinating conversations with the film’s writer, director and editor which document the development, filming, and reception of the much-celebrated Psycho II.  

‘Oh Mother, What Have you Done? – The Making of Psycho II

Says author Holland of writing Oh Mother, What Have You Done? (which contains an afterward by Bates Motel producer Anthony Cipriano), I wrote Psycho II, the first sequel that began the Psycho legacy, forty years ago this past summer, and the film was a huge success in the year 1983, but who remembers? To my surprise, apparently, they do, because on the film’s fortieth anniversary love from fans began to pour in, much to my amazement and pleasure. And then (Psycho II director) Richard Franklin’s unpublished memoirs arrived unexpectedly. I’d had no idea he’d written them before he passed in 2007.”

“Reading them,” continues Holland, “was like being transported back in time, and I had to share them, along with my memories and personal archives with the fans of Psycho, the sequels, and the excellent Bates Motel. I hope they enjoy reading the book as much as I did in putting it together. My thanks to Andrew London, who edited, and to Mr. Hitchcock, without whom none of this would have existed.”

“So, step back with me forty years and let’s see how it happened.”

Anthony Perkins – Norman Bates

Oh Mother, What Have You Done? is available now in both hardback and paperback through Amazon and at Terror Time (for copies autographed by Tom Holland)

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Sequel to ‘Cujo’ Just One Offering in New Stephen King Anthology

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It’s been a minute since Stephen King put out a short story anthology. But in 2024 a new one containing some original works is getting published just in time for summer. Even the book title “You Like It Darker,” suggests the author is giving readers something more.

The anthology will also contain a sequel to King’s 1981 novel “Cujo,” about a rabid Saint Bernard that wreaks havoc on a young mother and her child trapped inside a Ford Pinto. Called “Rattlesnakes,” you can read an excerpt from that story on Ew.com.

The website also gives a synopsis of some of the other shorts in the book: “The other tales include ‘Two Talented Bastids,’ which explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills, and ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,’ about a brief and unprecedented psychic flash that upends dozens of lives. In ‘The Dreamers,’ a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored while ‘The Answer Man’ asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.”

Here’s the table of contents from “You Like It Darker,”:

  • “Two Talented Bastids”
  • “The Fifth Step”
  • “Willie the Weirdo”
  • “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream”
  • “Finn”
  • “On Slide Inn Road”
  • “Red Screen”
  • “The Turbulence Expert”
  • “Laurie”
  • “Rattlesnakes”
  • “The Dreamers”
  • “The Answer Man”

Except for “The Outsider” (2018) King has been releasing crime novels and adventure books instead of true horror in the past few years. Known mostly for his terrifying early supernatural novels such as “Pet Sematary,” “It,” “The Shining” and “Christine,” the 76-year-old author has diversified from what made him famous starting with “Carrie” in 1974.

A 1986 article from Time Magazine explained that King planned on quitting horror after he wrote “It.” At the time he said there was too much competition, citing Clive Barker as “better than I am now” and “a lot more energetic.” But that was almost four decades ago. Since then he’s written some horror classics such as “The Dark Half, “Needful Things,” “Gerald’s Game,” and “Bag of Bones.”

Maybe the King of Horror is waxing nostalgic with this latest anthology by revisiting the “Cujo” universe in this latest book. We will have to find out when “You Like It Darker” hits bookshelves and digital platforms starting May 21, 2024.

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