For a sure sign of the horror genre's popularity—if not its creativity—one need look no further than the release of Saw V, the latest release in the formula-driven slasher film franchise, which took in $30 million on its first weekend. This pop-culture-wide trend has had just as big an impact on comics, where horror has enjoyed a resurgence thanks in part to the success of Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night—both the comics and the film—and Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead as well as similar books.
Indeed, readers can expect to see a wide variety of horror comics—from adaptations of classic horror writers like H.P. Lovecraft and sci-fi based horror both coming from Boom! Studios to revivals of classic 1950s and 1960s horror comics from Dark Horse and Papercutz. Horror comics based on the classic film actor Vincent Price (coming from Bluewater Comics) as well as classic J-horror and contemporary teen-targeted horror manga from Viz Media are anticipated. By most measures it seems to be a good time to publish scary comics.
Boom! Studios has jumped on the Niles bandwagon, publishing his Giant Monster graphic novel this year. But the company's horror books, which compose about a third of its output, also serve as an example of how diverse the horror genre is in comics. Passing on licensed horror works, Boom's only recognizable properties are a handful of H.P. Lovecraft-inspired books. Fall of Cthulhu has become the company's flagship title, Boom! publisher Ross Ritchie said. He views the growing popularity for horror as a wave, rising again after its last crest in the 1970s and '80s.
"Horror went on ice for a while, and a new generation discovered ironic love for the slasher genre via Scream in the 1990s, which led to making new horror movies," Ritchie said. "But if you ask me, war really fuels an interest in horror. With Vietnam in the '60s and '70s and the Cold War in the 1980s, we're hitting societal tension like that now with the war on terror and the war in Iraq. Horror is a great lens through which we examine our own mortality and violence."
But even though the genre is experiencing a resurgence, Ross said that it still takes a hook to sell it. The Cthulhu books have the Lovecraft connection and Steve Niles was the selling point on Giant Monster. Boom is taking more of a chance on the new series Station, a horror story set on the international space station that's bereft of aliens or supernatural elements. The trade paperback is set to be released early next year and Ritchie says, now is a good time to take some chances. "I'd love to do more horror books; the genre has a real vitality and a power," he said. "We're having a blast with it, and the fans are really responding."
Horror is nothing new at Dark Horse, which put a primary focus on the genre as far back as 2003, when the publisher began using the "Drawing on Your Nightmares" tag line. While the company relies heavily on creators like Niles and acclaimed Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, DH editor Shawna Gore said she and editor Scott Allie focus on a variety of creator-owned books, so long as they're rooted in the supernatural.
"A lot of modern horror movies and comics dive deeply into the realm of shock and gore to compel their audiences. But it's the shared opinion of a few people here that there are much more interesting approaches than those to take with horror," said Gore, who has perhaps the best aptonym in comics. "And as a result of that, we haven't spent much effort pursuing tie-ins to some of the bigger, more violent, torture-based films that have been flooding the theaters."
Gore works with Niles on Criminal Macabre and City of Others, she's editing a 25th anniversary edition of Bernie Wrightson's illustrated version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and she's handling the reprint collections of classic 1960s horror magazines Creepy and Eerie. This winter will see the release of another new horror series, The Cleaners, which features a group of trauma scene cleaners specializing in unexplainable crime scenes. And coming next spring from Dark Horse is a new Creepy comics anthology
"The new Creepy will not be a retro-homage approach to horror storytelling,” Gore said. “We are working very hard to make sure we maintain the fun and suspenseful feel of the original stories, and combine this with the work of illustrators who are really motivated by the craft of telling stories with incredible visuals," Gore said.
Papercutz, a graphic novel publisher focused on teens, has looked back to the halcyon days of horror comics—before Fredric Wertham and the Comics Code—to inspire its horror projects, which are led by the company's revival of Tales from the Crypt. " When we were deciding to add another title to our line, [Papercutz and NBM publisher] Terry Nantier wisely observed that kids have always loved scary stories, so we should consider a horror title," Papercutz editor in chief Jim Salicrup said. "Since the original Tales from the Crypt is considered the greatest horror comic ever published, we decided to go after it. As a comics fan and longtime comic book editor, I never imagined I'd be editing all-new stories for such a classic title."
The new Tales from the Crypt stories maintain the mission of the original EC Comics version, Salicrup said, "to present chilling tales of terror by the very best writers and artists to readers 10 and up. That doesn't mean we write down to our readers, but like the original EC Comics, we're not as graphic as most horror comics being produced today primarily for an older audience." Some of their recent issues have featured modern terrors, such as suicide bombers, reality TV, online gaming, haunted GPS and even Sarah Palin. Papercutz has had enough success with the genre to revive horror stories featured in Classics Illustrated, including Edgar Allen Poe's work illustrated by Gahan Wilson and a Marion Mousse-adapted version of Frankenstein.
Relying almost entirely on licensed works, up-and-coming publisher Bluewater Comics has added Vincent Price Presents, a new periodical series that debuted this fall. "There was just something about him that really freaked me out and brought the terror," publisher Darren G. Davis said of Price. "It's bringing back those old memories." Davis, who previously worked for Lionsgate Films, also plans to publish two series, Leprechaun and Warlock, that are based on movie properties he worked on. While licensed properties have proven to sell, Davis said he combines those projects with Bluewater's original books only when he has an attachment to a film, actor or director. "It's not picking up a license just to pick up a license," he said.
Over at Asylum Press, publisher Frank Forte has been putting out a variety of original horror books since 1991, when he was then with Studio Insidio. He said even with the genre's rise in popularity the changing economics of comics has made it more challenging for small houses to sell books. "We've done pretty well in the comic book stores, but it's not enough," Forte said. Forte says the house has signed an agreement with the West Coast-based Partners Publishers Group for distribution into the bookstore market and Diamond Comics and Haven Distributors distributes their titles in the comic books store market.
“Between the three distributors this casts a pretty wide net,” Forte said. “The comic book market isn't nearly as big as it was in the early '90s when I started publishing, so the challenge now is to find those fans again and to drive new ones into the comic stores." To do that, Forte has promoted Asylum books Warlash and the anthology Asylum of Horrors at horror film festivals, looking expressly to bring new horror fans to comics.
While the rise of Japanese horror films in America has been fairly recent, manga has maintained a heavy horror influence for decades, said Candice Uyloan, senior product marketing manager for manga publisher Viz Media. "One of Japan's top horror manga-ka, Kazuo Umezu, the creator behind Viz Media's The Drifting Classroom and Cat Eyed Boy, has been creating horror manga since the '60s, and his books were the source material for the film versions. As Asian horror films continue to be popular and mined by Hollywood for inspiration, I think consumers will take more and more notice of the genre in comics."
Uyloan also emphasized a recent trend in horror, one borne out by the popularity of books and films like Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight—teen-oriented books have outsold most titles in Viz's Signature imprint, which is for an 18 and older audience, Uyloan said. “Members of our acquisitions team are fans of the genre who are absolutely committed to finding the best titles for different age groups."
"Vampires and supernatural themes appear to be prevalent these days in almost any type of medium," she said. "We have several series with 'vampire' in the title that are selling strongly. One of our best selling shojo titles, Vampire Knight, is a teen romance with vampires, so it fits in nicely next to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series on any horror-themed table in a store,” she said.
Good point. In case anyone wondered if horror's popularity is on the wane, the movie version of Twilight took in more than $70 million on its opening weekend.
