THE SHINING Sequel, David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS Dreams, and More!
In this Issue:
- Horror History: A Look Back at the Best Vertigo Comics
- Image of the Week: Lovecraft Knows Best
- Tiny Bites – This Week’s Best Horror Headlines
- The A to Z of Subgenres: L is for Lesbian Vampires
- Things We Love: Cabin Fever
HORROR HISTORY: A LOOK BACK AT THE BEST VERTIGO COMICS
DC’s groundbreaking imprint Vertigo Comics reinvented what a comic story could be and established the careers of writers like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore. It also ushered in a new era of horror with literate, insightful takes on death, dreams, the occult, and shambling swamp creatures. DC is relaunching Vertigo this Fall with seven all-new titles, and while we wait to see what comes next, we thought it was a good time to look back at some of their all-time greats:
Hellblazer: Vertigo’s longest running title starred cynical, cigarette-smoking occult detective John Constantine, created by writer Alan Moore and artist Stephen R. Bissette. Though he was one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, he won most of his occult battles through street smarts, acerbic wit … and by looking cool in a trench coat.
iZOMBIE: If you only know this series from the TV show, writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred’s comic will blow your mind. It’s full of far more than just zombies: poltergeists, vampires, werewolves, and even a were-terrier. (Yes, a were-terrier.)
Preacher: A Texas preacher possessed by a being that’s part angel and part demon kills his entire congregation in this comic created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon. Naturally, that means it’s time for a road trip across the U.S. in search of God, who’s abandoned Heaven. Along, the way, Preacher meet cannibals, the Patron Saint of Murderers and Assassination, and someone we can only refer to here as You-Know-Who.
Sandman: After escaping a decades-long imprisonment, Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, fights to rebuild his kingdom in the famous series by writer Neil Gaiman with co-creator artists Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. The first of a new wave of “literary” comics, Sandman took us to hell, visited a gruesome serial killer convention, and gave us the ultra scary “24-Hour Diner,” where a ruby is used to torment customers by reshaping reality into nightmares.
Swamp Thing: Although Swamp Thing debuted more than a decade earlier, he helped launch Vertigo with writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson’s dark visions. Swamp Thing also featured a legendary run by Alan Moore that many consider one of the greatest comics ever written (which is also where he introduced John Constantine, aka Hellblazer, taking us full circle).
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Lovecraft Knows Best
H. P. Lovecraft shared his personal vision of Cthulhu in this 1934 sketch sent to writer R.H. Barlow.
TINY BITES
THE FLY REMAKE, THE SHINING 2 & MORE
Ridley Scott believes prestige horror works better when watched home alone rather than in a crowded theater — and says TV might someday replace feature films entirely.
David Lynch talks about the dreamer who dreams and lives inside their dreams (but not who dreamed) in this long, dreamy article about Twin Peaks: The Return.
Jeff Goldblum says he wants to return as Seth Brundle’s brother (or maybe even his own grandson?) in a remake of his 1986 movie The Fly.
The Shining’s Danny Torrance will be played by Ewan McGregor in the sequel Doctor Sleep, though you’ll have to wait until January 24, 2020, to see how the kid turned out. Also, Stephen King’s new novel The Outsider is being adapted into a 10-episode limited series.
Director James Wan’s trailer for The Nun gives us a glimpse of the continuing demonic war between the living and the undead. It kicks off with a warning to “make sure you watch to the end,” which is always promising.
The team behind the new Halloween movie has plans to make a Halloween 2 (which would actually be the 12th Halloween movie and the third Halloween 2) if the new one does well.
Oscar-winner Jordan Peele hopes to bring back the beloved ‘90s cartoon Gargoyles, but apparently Disney’s not interested, and is hoping the writer/director will … get out. (Sorry.)
Vice claims that Hereditary is the latest example of how horror films are “taking over cultural conversations like indie dramas of the past.”
Thanks to a fan campaign, Luciferhas been picked up for a fourth season on Netflix.
Victor LaValle’s The Changeling, set in a New York City with monsters and witches only a few can see, is being adapted into a TV series by FX. And though the network’s announcement is focusing on the fairy-tale elements, we’ve read the novel, and it’s filled with heart-stopping horror.
THE A TO Z OF SUBGENRES: L IS FOR LESBIAN VAMPIRES
Largely tracing back to Sheridan Le Fanu’s pioneering and much-adapted vampire novella, “Carmilla,” Lesbian Vampire films run a spectrum from meaningful subtext to shameless exploitation … and sometimes both. Often marked by seductive style, the subgenre – still sorely lacking in women directors – is at its best when allowing filmmakers to express what was once unspoken and celebrating sexuality; at its most boneheaded when salaciously focused on titillation; and at its worst when casting its lesbian characters as solely predatory.
Essentials: Dracula’s Daughter, The Vampire Lovers, Vampyros Lesbos, Blood and Roses, The Shiver of the Vampires
Favorites: We Are the Night, The Moth Diaries, The Hunger, Daughters of Darkness, Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural
THINGS WE LOVE: CABIN FEVER
Fright Rags just released a collection of The Cabin in the Woods T-shirts, but we’re most excited about a blind box of enamel pins featuring various monsters from the film like Merman and Sugar Plum Fairy. The Holy Grail is the bloody-horned unicorn, limited to only 50.