This post was originally published on Comics Beat
If you’re like me you are looking forward to the fall, complete with chilly temperatures, pumpkins, and plenty of horror to celebrate Halloween. AfterShock Comics is preparing for the spooky season with a new 48-page horror anthology AfterDark that is described as “Tales from the Crypt meets The Twilight Zone—four tales of horror, lost souls and things that go bump in the night.”
Read the details from the publisher here:
“A prestige format “One-Shock” featuring top creative talent just in time for the most horrific month of the calendar year, AFTERDARK is a collection of tales you’ll want to read with the lights on! A disparate tale from a possible future; a chance encounter with a mythical Black-Eyed Kid, a children’s fable gone awry; and a gut-wrenching last meal at the local diner.
These horrific, bone-chilling tales are conceived and written by Cullen Bunn (DARK ARK, EDEN, Harrow County), Jim Starlin (Thanos, Dreadstar, SHOCK), Joe Pruett (BLACK-EYED KIDS, Cable, X-Men Unlimited), Frank Tieri (Wolverine, Harley Quinn, PESTILENCE) and drawn by Cliff Richards (10 YEARS TO DEATH, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Nikkol Jelenic, Szymon Kudranski (BLACK-EYED KIDS, Spawn) and Joe Eisma (Morning Glories, SHOCK).”
To complete the top-notch creative teams, colors are by Guy Major and covers are from Tony Harris and Kudranski.
CULLEN BUNN ON WHAT HIS STORY IS ABOUT:
“Dust to Dust is a bittersweet sort of horror tale, a story of love and loss and undying commitment, both to the fleeting time we have left on this earth, and the time we’ll have in whatever’s next.”
CULLEN BUNN ON WHAT HE ENJOYS MOST ABOUT WORKING WITH AFTERSHOCK AS THE PUBLISHER CELEBRATES THE RELEASE OF THEIR 100TH TITLE IN JUST 6 YEARS:
“I like that AfterShock is always willing to take chances. They surprise me when it comes to the stories they want to publish, and that’s exciting to me as a creator. They’ll go ‘all in’ on some oddball concept, and their enthusiasm about it can be inspiring.”
FRANK TIERI ON WHAT HIS STORY IS ABOUT:
“We did a story for the Shock anthology called Little Red Hood, which was essentially the little red riding hood story as if it was told by Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese. In that story, Red was a drug courier, Grandma was a drug dealer, the Wolf was a rival drug lord, ‘Mother Goose’ was a mob boss called Don Orca… anyway, you get the idea. As it turned out, it was one of the more popular stories in that book so we thought hey, what the hell, why not do more? Why not play in that whacked-out universe again? And so, we got the LRH band of Joe Eisma and Matt Herms back together for more tales that will ruin your childhood, bringing us to…’Along Came A Spider’, our little horror tale for the AfterDark anthology, yet another f#%&ed up twist on a classic fairy tale. In this one, we pick up with a certain Detective Muffet who’s on the trail of an elusive and deadly serial killer called The Spider. Needless to say, it’s very dark. It’s very creepy. It’s going to lead to some nightmares. And it might lead to even more than that, so stay tuned…”
FRANK TIERI ON WHAT HE ENJOYS MOST ABOUT WORKING WITH THE PUBLISHER:
“I like the freedom and the trust Aftershock has shown me. I have very good relationships with Mike Marts, Joe Pruett, and the Kramers and I like having the ability to just call them up with whatever crazy idea I have and they’ll at least listen lol. As a result, AfterShock has become one of my main homes for my creator-owned projects and I’m happy to say there’s more coming, so as I said before, stay tuned, kids….”
JIM STARLIN ON WHAT HIS STORY IS ABOUT:
“It’s a tale of catastrophic generational dissatisfaction set in a dystopian future. Lots of laughs.”
JIM STARLIN ON WHAT HE WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH AFTERSHOCK CO-FOUNDER, PUBLISHER AND CCO JOE PRUETT:
“I gave him a toothbrush when he was homeless and he’s repaid the kindness by harassing me into writing a couple stories for him. Let no good deed go unpunished.”
JOE PRUETT ON WHAT HIS STORY IS ABOUT:
“It will be a stand-alone one-off story returning to the world of the BLACK-EYED KIDS, one of AfterShock’s first series, written by myself and drawn by original series artist Szymon Kudranski. We will see some familiar faces in the new story, but you do not have to have been a reader of the series to enjoy it. It’s new reader-friendly.”
JOE PRUETT ON HELPING LEAD AFTERSHOCK TO THEIR 100TH TITLE, AND WHAT HE HOPES TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEXT 100:
“It’s actually been pretty amazing how quickly we have reached 100 individual titles in such a short time. Seems like only yesterday we were sending REPLICA #1 off to press. I guess it’s true that time flies when you are having fun, I think now we have shown that we are here to stay and I truly believe that by the time the 200th title is released, we won’t be looked at as the “new kid on the block” any longer, but will be discussed with the other industry titans.”
JOE PRUETT ON WHAT CREATOR HE WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH THAT HE HAS YET TO AT AFTERSHOCK:
“Me personally? Brian K. Vaughan, Jonathan Hickman, Jeff Lemire, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland, Marjorie Liu, Barry Windsor-Smith, off the top of my head. There are many others though, for sure.”
AfterDark is slated to hit stores on October 13.
Correction: A previous version of this announcement listed Shock Anthology’s story as Little Red Riding Hood. The correct title is Little Red Hood.
The post AfterShock goes dark in a new horror anthology AFTERDARK appeared first on The Beat.
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