Although DC has ended their Vertigo line of comics after 25 years, that doesn’t mean its the end of more edgier and horror oriented material from the publisher. Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we’ve learned that writer Joe Hill, creator of Locke & Key and the currently running series NOS4A2, will be overseeing a new “pop-up line” of horror comics for DC. Called Hill House Comics, Hill will be writing at least one of these series, and collaborating with other creators for the rest.
DC launching new horror line from writer @joe_hill https://t.co/Vv5mp5Vt1s pic.twitter.com/j5H2dhiGdc
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 26, 2019
Hill House line will initially be comprised of five limited series: Basketful of Heads, written by Hill and illustrated by Leomacs; The Dollhouse Family, written by Lucifer’s Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross; The Low, Low Woods, written by Carmen Maria Machado and illustrated by Dani; Daphne Byrne, written by Laura Marks and illustrated by Kelley Jones; and Plunge, written by Hill, with the artist to be determined at a later date. Each of these series will also come with two-page installments of a back-up feature called Sea Dogs, which will be written by Hill.
Despite having a successful career as a prose novelist, Hill’s first love is comic books. Possibly due to the huge success of Locke & Key, Hill told Entertainment Weekly “I’ve always been a comic book writer first.” The new comics will run the gamut of the horror/suspense genre. Haunted artifacts will be the center of Basketful of Heads, and there will be Victorian horror with Daphne Byrne. Low, Low Woods concerns a strange plague in a small town, while Plunge is inspired by John Carpenter’s The Thing. Meanwhile, The Dollhouse Family is all about a mystical family of dolls. The first of these books is slated to hit in time for Halloween, this October.
Images: DC Comics