After almost a decade, Steve Niles’ 30 Days of Night became a regular monthly comic from IDW.
Joe R. Lansdale scripted the four-part 30 Days of Night: Night, Again and a four- part contemporary version of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror, while the writer teamed up with his son John L. Lansdale for the three-part Robert Bloch’s That Hellbound Train, all from IDW.
Clive Barker and Christopher Monfette went back to the beginning for their new Hellraiser comic from BOOM! Studios, while Dark Shadows from Dynamite did the same for the 1960s TV series.
It Came from Beneath the Sea. Again from Bluewater was a sequel to the 1955 Ray Harryhausen movie, and BOOM!’s Planet of the Apes picked up from where the last film in the original series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, left off.
Let Me In was a prequel series to the Hammer version of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s vampire novel, while The Thing: The Northman Nightmare was a prequel to the recent movie prequel, both from Dark Horse. The Strain from the same publisher was adapted from the trilogy of novels by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
John Saul Presents The Blackstone Chronicles from Bluewater was based on the author’s serialised novel, and The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes were graphic adaptations of Ray Bradbury’s books by Dennis Calero and Ron Wimberly, respectively, with new Introductions by the author.
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Circus of the Damned Book 1: The Charmer and Book 2: The Ingenue each collected five issues of the Marvel comic book based on the novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, adapted by Jess Ruffner and illustrated by Ron Lim.
Illustrated by Alberto Dose, Killing the Cobra: Chinatown Trollop was a vampire mystery from IDW, based on the “PI Felix Gomez” series by Mario Acevedo, who contributed a new story to the graphic novel.
For all those who wanted their walking dead in four colours, they could choose from Daybreak, Battle for the Planet of the Living Dead, Fail of the Dead, iZombie: Dead to the World, Marvel Zombies Supreme, Night of the Living Dead: Death Valley, Zombie Chuck and many other zombie comics titles too numerous to mention.
In September, DC Comics completely rebooted its most popular titles, including Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, restarting the numbering with issue #1. It was hoped that the younger, more human characters would appeal to a greater number of casual readers.
In March, a near-mint copy of Marvel’s Amazing Fantasy #15 — featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man in 1962 — sold for a record $1.1 million (?680,000) in an online auction.
The following month, a 9.6 copy of Marvel’s X-Men #1 sold for $200,000 (?123,184) in a private sale conducted by Metropolis Comics/ComicConnect.com. The transaction set a new price record for 1963 debut issue.
A year-and-a-half after a previous edition of Action Comics #1 (June 1938) — which featured the first appearance of Superman — sold at auction for a reported $1.5 million (?950,000), another copy went under the hammer in November and broke that record, selling for $2.2 million (?1.4 million). The issue, which belonged to Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage, had been stolen in a 2000 burglary from a storage locker and was only recovered in April. The name of the buyer of the “mint” condition comic was not revealed.
The year’s clutch of movie tie-in editions included Conan by Michael A. Stackpole, Transformers: Dark of the Moon by Peter David and Cowboys and Aliens by Joan D. Vinge.
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright wrote the young adult tie-in to Red Riding Hood, which came with an Introduction from the film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke. The book was published without the final chapter, which only became available after the release of the movie.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Blackwood’s Guide to Dangerous Fairies, credited to Guillermo del Toro and Christopher Golden, was an epistolary prequel to the movie, set 100 years earlier. Troy Nixey supplied the illustrations.
Conan the Barbarian was a collection of six of Robert E. Howard’s original stories with a tie-in cover to the disappointing movie, while Susan Hill’s slim 1983 novel The Woman in Black was reissued in a tie-in edition to the forthcoming Hammer production.
The revived Hammer Films announced that it had done a deal with Random House UK to publish novelisations and new books based on the classic films under the Arrow Books imprint.
The first two titles to be released were Francis Cottam’s novelisation of the Hilary Swank thriller The Resident and a re-issue of The Witches (aka The Devil’s Own) by “Peter Curtis” (Nora Lofts). Cyril Frankel, director of the 1966 movie version, contributed a new Foreword to the latter.
The series properly kicked off later in the year with Guy Adams’ novelisation of Kronos (with a Foreword by writer/ director Brian Clemens), Shaun Hutson’s Twins of Evil (with a Foreword by director John Hough) and K. A. John’s Wake Wood.
More mystifying were re-issues of Graham Masterton’s The Pariah, Family Portrait and Mirror, also published under the Hammer banner.
Enjoying its first US publication from DreamHaven Books, Creature from the Black Lagoon was an official hardcover reprint of the super-rare 1954 British movie tie-in by “Vargo Statten” (John Russell Fearn) which came with a new Introduction by David J. Schow, and Afterword about the author by Philip Harbottle, a selection of uncommon production and behind-the-scenes stills, and a cover painting by Bob Eggleton. The 250-copy Limited Edition was signed by actress Julie Adams and stuntman/swimmer Ricou Browning.
TV show tie-ins included Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever by Greg Cox, and Supernatural: One Year Gone by Rebecca Dessertine and Supernatural: Night Terror by John Passarella. The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor was credited to the comic series creator Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga.
The Coming of the Terraphiles was a Doctor Who tie-in by none other than Michael Moorcock, while Paul Finch authored Doctor Who: Hunter’s Moon.
To tie-in to the spin-off series, Sarah Pinborough wrote Torchwood: Long Time Dead, while Torchwood: The Man Who Sold the World was by Guy Adams.
Tim Waggoner teamed up with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, the stars of the Syfy reality TV show Ghost Hunters, for the novel Ghost Trackers.
Mark Morris’ Dead Island and B. K. Evenson’s Dead Space: Martyr were both based on the video games. The tie-in to the post-apocalyptic Rage was written by Matthew Costello, who also contributed to the development of the video game it was based upon.
Arkham Horror: Dance of the Damned was the first volume in Alan Bligh’s “Lord of Nightmares” trilogy, a gaming tie-in inspired by the work of H. P. Lovecraft. From the same author, Arkham Horror: Ghouls of the Miskatonic was the first book in the “Dark Waters” series.
Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s was a welcome reissue of Kim Newman’s encyclopaedic 1988 volume, totally re-written, revised and updated.
Covering much of the same ground, Jason Zinoman’s Shock Value looked at the genre filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s.
Bob McCabe’s Harry Potter: Page to Screen weighed in at a hefty 540 pages.
