Tag: David Stoll

Nominees announced for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards

Comics by Cullen Bunn, Leomacs, Adam Cesare, David Stoll, Amy Chu, Soo Lee, Junji Ito and Gou Tanabe were nominated this year.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the final nominees for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards, which includes a graphic novel category.

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction, with a category dedicated to graphic novels. This year Dark Horse received three nominees, while BOOM! Studios and Viz Media each garnered one nomination. Last year’s winner was Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel edited by James Aquilone and published by Moonstone.

The nominees for the “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category are:

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Smash Pages Q&A | Adam Cesare and David Stoll on ‘Dead Mall’

The two creators discuss their love for malls, their approach to ‘mall horror,’ the potential for a sequel and more.

Horror novelist Adam Cesare‘s signature novel has a title that contains the two scariest words in the English language, Clown in a Cornfield, so right from the get-go you know that he gets horror. He’s also been adding comics to his resume over the last few years, having worked on Power Rangers comics, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and more.

David Stoll, meanwhile, was the artist for Pantomime, a Mad Cave title with writer Christopher Sebela from a few years back. The story featured students at a school for the deaf who become thieves, and I still remember how clever the visuals were in communicating what was being said and heard by the deaf characters.

The two of them more recently united on Dead Mall, a four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. Along with letterer Justin Birch, they told a complete story that combined horror and mall culture. The story takes place in — and is narrated by — the Penn Mills Galleria, a former mall that’s about to be demolished when a group of kids decide to visit it one last time. Only they find it isn’t quite so empty.

The miniseries was recently collected into a trade paperback by Dark Horse Comics, and it’s available now in comic shops and bookstores everywhere. I spoke with Both Cesare and Stoll about the story, abandoned malls and more.

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Cesare + Stoll present a ‘shopping spree from Hell’ in ‘Dead Mall’

The first issue of the four-issue miniseries arrives in October.

Horror novelist Adam Cesare, whose books include Clown in a Cornfield and Summer Job, will work with artist David Stoll (Pantomime) and letterer Justin Birch on Dead Mall, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year.

The story takes place in — and is narrated by — the Penn Mills Galleria, a former mall that’s about to be demolished when a group of kids decide to visit it one last time — only to find it isn’t so empty.

“The first comics I remember buying as a kid, during my first trips to the comic shop with my dad, were issues of Dark Horse Presents. It’s surreal, 30ish years later, to be talking about Dead Mall,” Cesare said. “I wanted to tell a story that readers of my books would enjoy, but also something that couldn’t be done–or couldn’t be done *best*–in prose. A supernatural, monster-filled, body-horror-tinged combination of Chopping Mall and The Ruins, where the mall itself is narrating the story? That sounded like a lot! Something that could only be achieved in the collaborative medium of comics. And what a collaborator to have in David Stoll, whose art is immaculate and storytelling sense is unimpeachable. Then there’s Justin Birch and the rest of the team at Dark Horse, a dream to be working with them. We’re just so excited for readers to enter Penn Mills Galleria.”

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Vault Comics’ Wonderbound imprint reveals its 2022 titles

Vault Comics’ young adult line announces new graphic novels by Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin, Michael Moreci and more.

Wonderbound, the middle grade/young adult-focused imprint of Vault Comics, has announced their 2022 line-up of graphic novels.

The slate of nine graphic novels includes new work by Agnes Garbowska, Shea Fontana, Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin, Galaad, Sam Beck, Michael Moreci, Brian Middleton and more. It also includes several sequels to works Wonderbound will publish later this year, when their first graphic novels debut in the fall, like Verse and Wrassle Castle.

“One of our goals with Wonderbound Year 2 was to present a wide range of genre graphic novels for young readers, but what blew me away was how each of these books also showed the depth of what genre stories can be for this age group,” said Wonderbound Managing Editor Rebecca Taylor. “I have laughed loudly and cried openly while watching pages come in on every single one of our 2022 titles. The sincerity and imagination at work in this slate–whether in a story about time traveling knights, orphaned detectives, or maniacal snowmen–is truly stunning, and I cannot wait for young readers to dive in!”

Here’s the complete list:

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Mad Cave announces four new titles for this fall

New titles from Christopher Sebela, David Stoll, Matthew Erman, Shelby Criswell and more will arrive from the publisher in October and November.

During The Mad Cave Showcase this past weekend, the publisher announced four new titles during the virtual event, by creators like Christopher Sebela, David Stoll, Matthew Erman, Shelby Criswell and more.

They also announced a new talent search, which will run from June 1 through Sept. 1. Three artists and three writers will be chosen to take part in an upcoming horror anthology from the publisher. Details can be found on their website.

Here’s a rundown of the four titles that were announced:

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