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VIPs making horror comics: Creepshow, Bruce Campbell, Owl Goingback

Chris Well

Need something to read for Halloween? Here are some important folks making horror comics you should check out.

While many look at the medium of comic books and only think of costumed vigilantes, there’s another genre that makes great use of the format: Horror comics. As a mix of pics and text, comics have proven over the years to be a great platform for horror stories.

Below, read about three new horror comic book series that come from the likes of award-winning horror author Owl Goingback and noted actor Bruce Campbell, plus a revisit to comics from the classic title Creepshow…

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VIPs making horror comics

Owl Goingback

Award-winning horror author Owl Goingback is writing a Werewolf by Night adventure—starring the new version of the wolfman—for Marvel Comics.

Of course, Goingback has been writing professionally more than 30 years. He’s the author of lots of novels, plus a children’s book, screenplays, magazine articles, and short stories. He’s a three-time Bram Stoker Award Winner, a Nebula Award Nominee, and a Storytelling World Awards Honor Recipient.

“I’ve always been in love with all things scary, even at a very early age,” Goingback told Horror Writers Association in an interview. “I remember watching horror movies with my family when I was only three or four-years-old, my hands pressed tightly over my eyes during the scary parts, peeking through the cracks between my fingers, promising my parents that I wasn’t scared and then tossing pieces of candy into my bedroom closet later at night so the closet monsters wouldn’t eat me.”

He’s writing the Werewolf by Night adventure for Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic:

Jake Gomez, AKA the Werewolf by Night, makes an ill-fated trip to the Canadian wilderness. Every True Believer knows the kind of threats that lurk among those snowy pines…. Renowned horror writer Owl Goingback and celebrated artist Alison Sampson join forces for a story unlike any on the Marvel’s Voices line!

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Bruce Campbell

Actor and writer Bruce Campbell is helping DC Comics revitalize its standing in horror comics with a new series that pits a classic DC Comics wartime character against an outbreak of Nazi zombies. Campbell, of course, is best known to horror fans for playing Ash Williams in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead film series. He has also starred in horror films like Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), and played several roles on TV, including replaying his Evil Dead character on Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015–2018).

Now, with DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead, the horror icon has teamed with comics legend Eduardo Risso to offer a terror-soaked Sgt. Rock tale like no other! Berlin, 1944. The Nazis are besieged on all fronts by the Allied forces. Defeat is inevitable. But Hitler and his team of scientists attempt a last-ditch effort that may turn the tide of the war and rewrite history itself: a serum that resurrects their dead soldiers, stronger than they were in life, and sends them back into the battlefield. Now Sgt. Frank Rock and Easy Company have been dispatched into enemy territory to face off against the strangest, most horrific enemies they’ve ever encountered: Nazi zombies!

Comic Book Resources gave the book a glowing review:

“Bruce Campbell’s recent Sgt Rock vs Army of the Dead presents the publisher’s best horror comic in years, and provides a solid template for DC to follow in later projects. There are a number of points Sgt. Rock vs the Army of the Dead gets right and that DC should keep in mind going forward. One of the best features is the use of lesser known characters to tell horror Elseworlds tales. Many of DC’s older and more obscure heroes have been left by the wayside, with the publisher struggling to find a place for them in the current, evermore Batman-focused continuity. Taking place near the front lines in WW2, when the Third Reich begins reanimating its dead soldiers, Sgt. Rock must assemble a fighting force to hit back. Armed with a set of new gadgets, the first issue left the unit on their way to fight the zombie hordes.”

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Buy DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead from Amazon

Creepshow

The star-studded new comic book anthology Creepshow—based on the hit Shudder TV series—builds on the foundation originally laid by George A. Romero and Stephen King’s iconic 1982 film. Published by Skybound, each issue of the five-part comic book anthology will feature different creative teams from the worlds of comics, film, television, and more.

“Creepshow has consistently been one of the best things in horror for the last 40 years,” said Skybound editor Jon Moisan. “We knew a franchise this prolific would require the best talent in the industry, so we assembled a collection of creators that will do the Creepshow name proud. The stories they have planned are going to scare the absolute hell out of people.” 

The superstar creative roster behind the comic book Creepshow includes Chris Burnham (Die!Die!Die!), Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series), Steve Langford (Creepshow TV series), Josh Malerman (Creepshow TV series, Bird Box), David & Maria Lapham (Stray Bullets), Steve Foxe (Razorblades: The Horror Magazine), John McCrea (Hitman), and Kelley Jones (Batman, The Sandman), and more. 

Creepshow is an homage to the EC horror comics of the 1950s, such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. The original film was created by horror legends George A. Romero (1940-2017), an influential pioneer of the horror film genre, and Stephen King, a blockbuster author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels that have sold more than 350 million copies, and been adapted into movies, TV shows, comic books, and more.

Buy the Creepshow comic book from Amazon

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