Fred Van Lente + Chris Panda provide a fast pass to ‘toon-themed terror’ in ‘Murder Kingdom’

The horror/mystery from Mad Cave Studios drops its ropes in October.

Writer Fred Van Lente and artist Chris Panda will set a madman loose inside the “Storybook Kingdom” theme park down in Florida in Murder Kingdom, a new title coming from Mad Cave Studios this fall.

Any similarities to existing Florida theme parks is, of course, coincidental. But Murder Kingdom is about a slasher who starts killing cast members, and it’s up to one fairytale princess to unmask the killer.

Murder Kingdom riffs on classic slashers and classic fairy tales in equal measure,” said Fred Van Lente. “It’s a giallo whodunit with a tomboy princess detective who has to make sure she and her best friend live to see the sunrise—and that means unmasking the killer. One of my first jobs was as a fry cook at a theme park and I feel like I’ve been working on this project ever since. I’m so thrilled that the team at Mad Cave have helped me bring it to bloody life. And I am so lucky to have Chris on artwork. His work is equal parts adorable and terrifying, resulting in some of the most shocking kills I’ve seen in any horror comic ever.”

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Dark Horse celebrates Halloween with two specials in October

The ‘Headless Horseman’ annual will return, while Christopher Chaos gets his own special.

October is typically the month when we can expect an onslaught of Halloween-themed comics, and it looks like this year will, thankfully, be no different. Dark Horse will celebrate the greatest of holidays twice this year, with a 2024 Headless Horseman Halloween Annual and the first Christopher Chaos Halloween Special. Both specials will feature multiple stories by different creative teams.

First up, coming your way Oct. 2 is the Christopher Chaos anthology, featuring stories set in the weird world of James Tynion IV and Isaac Goodhart’s hero. The two creators will contribute a story that Goodhart says springs from a personal conversation between the two of them.

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What Are You Reading? ‘Friday,’ Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.

If you’re looking for something to read while sheltering in place, you’ve come to the right blog, as the Smash Pages crew has a whole mess of comics to talk about this week. So without further ado …

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