‘Hotel REM’ awakens at Dark Horse next year

Zack Keller, Gabriele Bagnoli, Valerio Alloro and Frank Cvetkovic check into a hotel for dreams in March.

Former Unikitty! and Telltale Games writer Zack Keller will team with artist Gabriele Bagnoli, colorist Valerio Alloro and letterer Frank Cvetkovic on Hotel REM, an all-ages graphic novel coming from Dark Horse in 2023.

The fantastical Hotel REM is the place your dreams go when you’re awake. It’s run by Rembrandt Somner, who runs into problems when a difficult celebrity guest arrives.

“I have literally been dreaming about this story for over a decade so I’m thrilled readers can finally come visit this wild and wonderful hotel in book-form thanks to Dark Horse,” Keller said.

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Dark Horse brews an ‘Elixir’ for next year

Frank J. Barbiere, Ricky Mammone and Victor Santos bring a new graphic novel that mixes technology and magic to Dark Horse.

Frank J. Barbiere, Ricky Mammone and Victor Santos will team up on a new graphic novel, Elixir, that’s set to be published by Dark Horse Comics next March.

The dark fantasy story combines magic with modern technology, as the daughter of a druid seeks an artifact known as the “Elixir.”

“I began my career in Europe doing fantasy comics but basically I am known in the USA as a noir-crime author,” Santos said. “Thanks to this new collaboration with my partner Frank Barbiere and with the addition of the talented writer Ricky Mammone, I have had the chance to build a world with all the elements and aesthetics I loved reading as a teen but with my experience as a creator and a more modern point of view of what a good fantasy story should be.”

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Dark Horse announces a Criminal Macabre/Count Crowley crossover

Steve Niles, David Dastmalchian, Lukas Ketner and Lauren Affe will bring their two monster hunters together.

Legendary horror writer Steve Niles will team up with the crew behind Count Crowley for a monster-sized crossover in October — Criminal Macabre/Count Crowley: From The Pit They Came.

Niles will co-write the comic with David Dastmalchian, while artist Lukas Ketner and colorist Lauren Affe will bring the story to life.

“Working with David and Lukas has been a thrill and way too much fun,” said Niles. “Everything came together so smoothly by the time we were finished I wanted to keep going. I hope people enjoy the crossover half as much as I enjoyed working on it.”

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Dark Horse will release out-of-print + new material from Richard Corben

The publisher announces a partnership with Fantagor Press to publish old material and as-yet-unpublished comics by the legendary creator.

Iconic comics creator Richard Corben passed away in 2020, leaving behind a body of work that spanned multiple decades and publishers. The Eisner Hall of Famer and Grand Prix winner at Angoulême may be gone, but Dark Horse has entered into a partnership with Fantagor Press to ensure his legacy will endure.

Starting next year, Dark Horse will kick off an exclusive line that will reprint Corben’s long-out-of-print work with new material in deluxe hardcover editions.

“I’m so pleased and proud to share Corben art and stories with the world,” said his wife, Dona Corben. “It means so much to me to make his early works available in print again; and, I’m excited to share his new story that he poured all of his imagination and artistic vision into. I’m incredibly proud of him as an artist and a person, and touched that his work means so much to so many.”

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Before Dracula, there was ‘Carmilla: The First Vampire’

Amy Chu and Soo Lee bring the original bloodsucker back at Dark Horse.

A 19th century queer feminist murder mystery sees the sunlight again in Carmilla: The First Vampire. This new contemporary retelling set in 1990s New York Chinatown is crafted by writer Amy Chu  (Red Sonja, Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death, Netflix’s DOTA: Dragon’s Blood) and illustrator Soo Lee  (Ash and ThornStillwater: The Escape, Vampirella Fairy Tales).

The trade paperback will be published by Dark Horse Comics’ Berger Books imprint and available in January 2023.

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Mignola + Aragno bring ‘Leonide The Vampyr’ to Dark Horse

The first in a series of collaborations between the two creators features a vampire girl who washes ashore in a small coastal village.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola will team with Mel The Chosen artist Rachele Aragno for a new series of projects, starting with Leonide The Vampyr: Miracle At The Crow’s Head this October.

They’ll be joined colorist Dave Stewart and letter Clem Robins for the one-shot, which sprang from an image Aragno posted online.

“Last October I was publishing daily sketches on social media. Mike Mignola had seen the first one, a portrait of a vampire girl, and he loved it,” said Aragno. “From there we started talking about the idea of a collaboration between us, and that my vampire portrait could be the basis of a story. When Mike sent me the outline, I went crazy with joy. It was perfect, and I was delighted to be able to draw and put those words on paper. Mignola has always been in the pantheon of my favorite authors, and I was honored to be able to work with him.”

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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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Love is quite literally Hell in the new miniseries ‘Hellboy in Love’

Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Matt Smith, Chris O’Halloran and Clem Robins tell a story filled with love, ex-girlfriends, punk rock and goblin train robberies.

It’s all about the love in a new miniseries coming from the creative team of Hellboy: The Bones of Giants. Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Matt Smith, Chris O’Halloran, and Clem Robins reunite for Hellboy in Love, a five-issue series that also reunites Hellboy with Dr. Anastasia Bransfield, his ex-girlfriend from the novel Hellboy: The Lost Army.

“It’s been 25 years since Dr. Anastasia Bransfield first appeared as Hellboy’s ex-girlfriend in my novel Hellboy: The Lost Army,” Golden, who wrote the novel, said. “I’ve always thought one of the reasons Mike considered my three Hellboy novels as canon is because of that relationship. Over the years we talked many times about telling the stories of their adventures together, and the day has finally come. It’s Romancing the Stone-style action, occult weirdness, and first love, with gorgeous Matt Smith art! We’re having so much fun!”

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Ray Nadine’s ‘Light Carries On’ coming from Dark Horse next year

The otherworldly LGBTQ romance will arrive in stores next March.

Dark Horse has announced that they’ll publish Light Carries On, a new graphic novel by Dollhouse creator Ray Nadine, next March.

Described as “an otherworldly LGBTQ romance,” the graphic novel is about a photographer who is “haunted” by the ghost who used to own his camera. Together they try to figure out how the former owner actually died.

“For most of my life, I lived in St. Louis, and in that time I created my first comic,” Nadine said. “It was an important story to me, an open love letter to the city of St. Louis, a processing of grief and trauma, and a means for me to live truthfully in a time that I couldn’t. Eventually, I outgrew the story; continuing to create it kept me in a depressing place I didn’t want to be. I still love St. Louis dearly, but years ago I moved to Chicago. And now, Light Carries On is my open love letter to the city of Chicago, to the thought that we’re not alone in our struggles, and to being unapologetically queer. All of my stories are that last bit, unapologetically queer, but Light Carries On carries what my first comic didn’t: a light of hope at the end. I hope that those who read it find that light, as creating it helped me do the same!”

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Bogacs + Enger head into the ‘Under Kingdom’ at Dark Horse

The young-adult graphic novel will arrive in stores next March.

Dark Horse Comics has announced Under Kingdom, coming next year from the team of Christof Bogacs (Volume) and Marie Enger (Where Black Stars Rise).

Under Kingdom is a young-adult graphic novel about a high school kid whose mom disappears into the fantasy kingdom that exists under his West Virginia town. So he and his shape-shifting aunt go off to find her.

“It’s hard to know what to say about Under Kingdom,” said Bogacs and Enger. “As sappy as it sounds, I guess the easiest way to sum it up is love; a love of monsters, a love for the scrappy underdog and an unwavering belief in the power of empathy. Plus, there are fart jokes!”

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Robot love: Dark Horse announces ‘War Birds’ by Parkhouse + Wessel

Two drones on opposite sides of a war fall in love in the new graphic novel.

Geoffrey D. Wessel and Steve Parkhouse will tell the Romeo + Juliet-esque tale of two war robots in War Birds, a new graphic novel coming from Dark Horse Comics next year.

It’s “the story of two drones in love in the midst of endless war,” according to the writer, with Parkhouse both drawing and lettering it. And providing the cover:

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I.N.J. Culbard will write and draw ‘Salamandre’ graphic novel

Dark Horse will publish the graphic novel through their Berger Books imprint in November.

Dark Horse Comics has announced Salamandre, a “uniquely evocative” graphic novel written and drawn by I.N.J. Culbard coming later this year from their Berger Books imprint.

“Writing what you know is really about writing what you think you know,” said I.N.J. Culbard. “Instead of what really happened, a confabulation grows with each retelling—a story, transforming a factual truth into a universal one. I took an event from one hot summer afternoon in my own life, made it the finale and then worked backwards through my story, using the jigsaw puzzle of my own memories growing up on both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War as a foundation for this world—that is a little off-kilter to our own.”

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