Next year, Dark Horse will publish two new graphic adaptations of acclaimed short stories by bestselling novelist and comics writer Neil Gaiman.
In June 2016 Dark Horse will publish How to Talk to Girls at Parties, with art by the Eisner-award winning twin-brother team of artists Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon. The book marks the first time Gaiman has worked with the two Brazilians. In September 2016, Dark Horse will then release Troll Bridge, with art by longtime Gaiman artist collaborator, Colleen Doran.
Originally published in the 2006 short story collection Fragile Things: Short Fiction and Wonders (HarperCollins), “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” is about two teenage boys who attend a local party hoping to meet girls. “They’re just girls, they don’t come from another planet,” says one of the boys, setting the scene for what is to come later.
The short story “Troll Bridge” was first published in the 2009 collection Smoke and Mirrors (Morrow). It’s a reinterpretation of the Billy Goats Gruff fairy tale, about a young boy who must convince a troll under a bridge not to eat him and, instead, put off the meal until he returns when he is older.
Dark Horse has world rights to the books and print runs have not yet been determined. The house also plans to publish hardcover reprints of Gaiman’s Creatures of the Night and The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, in 2016. Both collections are are also graphic adaptations of Gaiman short stories and feature artwork by Michael Zulli. They were originally published by Dark Horse in 2004.
In an exclusive interview with Gaiman to announce the forthcoming Dark Horse titles, he said he chose Bá and Moon to adapt How to Talk to Girls at Parties because he's a "huge admirer" of the two artists. He went on: “They have a storytelling aesthetic where [depicting] body language is everything. The story is all about what’s in the narrators’ heads, so it can be very hard to do that in comics. It’s incredibly enjoyable to write a story and see them make it real.”
Gaiman said he has worked with Doran many times, beginning with Sandman, his acclaimed fantasy comics series. He chose her to adapt "Troll Bridge” because he knows "how good she is.” Gaiman added that Doran’s art choices for the story have been an “absolute delight." He explained: "She showed me an unusual style [done with color pencils] that isn’t like classic comics. Her pencils are wonderful, layered full-color drawings. They’re subversive, more like children’s book illustrations from 50 years ago.”
