THE BRIDES OF DRACULA

In 1897, Bram Stoker’s classic novel introduced the most famous literary character of all time—the terrifying vampire lord, DRACULA. Yet much of this iconic monster’s background and origins are only hinted at in the course of the original narrative, leaving Dracula’s backstory both intriguing and mysterious. Legendary comic-book creators Matt Wagner (Grendel, Mage) and Kelley Jones (Batman: Red Rain, The Sandman) have teamed up to fill in these tantalizing gaps in the undying centuries of Dracula’s blood-drenched biography. After the resounding runaway success of their first volume DRACULA: BOOK I—THE IMPALER, these legendary masters of the comic-book arts are returning to the story of the count with DRACULA: BOOK II—THE BRIDES! DRACULA—BOOK II: THE BRIDES is now live on Kickstarter.

The first volume of Wagner and Jones’s DRACULA saga was a runaway hit, breaking the Top 20 in Kickstarter’s all-time most successful graphic novel campaigns. DRACULA: BOOK II—THE BRIDES presents 120 pages of sexy and sinister story and art, almost 30 pages longer than BOOK I. Wagner and Jones are once joined for this creepy foray into the shadows of Castle Dracula by the stellar talents of José Villarrubia on colors and lettering by Rob Leigh. This campaign is the only source for these beautiful, European-album sized hardcover editions of this book as well as the exceptional rewards tiers to be revealed after launch.

“I was so freaking excited when Matt first told me that the second volume in our DRACULA epic would be titled THE BRIDES,” artist Kelley Jones remarked to ageekdaddy.com. “And, wow… the story he’s written is absolutely chilling! It’s a complex portrait of what, up until now, have only ever been gruesome pin-up versions of these three women. And, make no mistake… this isn’t an attempt to shoehorn a contemporary agenda into the story. One of the things I love about Matt’s scripts is the distinct lack of modernity. These tales all feel completely accurate to the time period in which they’re set.”

And these Dracula comic books received a nice endorsement from someone who knows a bit about the horror genre:

Both books can be purchased through this Kickstarter campaign in digital format ($10 each). DRACULAA: BOOK II -- THE BRIDES can also be purchased in a variety of hardcover physical printed editions starting at $50. Head over to Kickstarter to bite into this campaign!

About the writer: 

Matt Wagner has enjoyed a career in comics for over forty years and is best known for one of comicdom's most respected creator-owned titles—the centuries-spanning epic, GRENDEL and for his other, more personal, allegory, MAGE. As both a writer and an artist, Matt has also worked on a wide variety of established characters over the years which include several landmark projects starring DC Comics icon, BATMAN including two crossovers series with GRENDEL. His other mainstream work includes; SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE, DR. MID-NITE, GREEN ARROW, TRINITY, MADAME XANADU, ZORRO, GREEN HORNET; YEAR ONE, THE SHADOW; YEAR ONE, THE SHADOW: THE DEATH OF MARGO LANE, THE SPIRIT RETURNS, and DJANGO/ZORRO, which he co-wrote with renowned film-maker Quentin Tarantino. Matt recently returned his roots to pen the final arc in his acclaimed fantasy trilogy, MAGE: THE HERO DENIED. 

Praised for his character-driven stories and his obvious love of world history and mythologies, Matt’s efforts have won multiple Eisner Awards. He has also enjoyed the distinction of being one of the only writer/artists to team his own creation with one of DC's flagship characters in two successive BATMAN/GRENDEL crossover publications. He later continued the same motif in another critically acclaimed crossover event, writing and drawing GRENDEL VS THE SHADOW.

About the artist: 

Kelley Jones was born in 1962 and as soon as he could recall he was held spellbound by strange things and stories. This made him perfect to enter the world of comics and bring shadows and the sense of the unknown to everything he touched.His eerie and evocative version of Deadman was an award-winning hit at DC, and led him to the legendary run of stories on Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, notably 'Dream of a Thousand Cats' and 'Seasons of Mist'. He followed these up with the now classic Batman graphic novel 'Red Rain', wherein Batman confronts....Dracula! This and a run of stunning covers for Batman and Detective for the 'Knightfall' epic led editor Denny O'Neil to assign Kelley the monthly Batman title which in the three years he drew it cemented him as one of Batman's greatest creators and a comic art legend. He has continued his trailblazing style with SWAMP THING with Len Wein and the award winning series 'Batman Kings of Fear' and 'Gotham after Midnight'. And now with Dracula, Kelley shows he still walks in the world of shadows and the unknown.

BOWLING WITH CORPSES AND OTHER STRANGE TALES FROM LANDS UNKNOWN

Thirty years after Mike Mignola created Hellboy, the legendary cartoonist is introducing readers to a brand new shared universe, created with frequent collaborator Ben Stenbeck, the writer/artist of the acclaimed series Our Bones Dust. In December, Dark Horse Comics will publish Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, an anthology of folklore-inspired fantasy stories written and illustrated by Mignola, colored by Dave Stewart, and lettered by Clem Robins. The book will be the first publication from Curious Objects, Mignola’s new imprint at Dark Horse and will set the stage for more weird, wicked, and whimsical stories in the “Lands Unknown” universe from Mignola and Stenbeck.

“It all started with an Italian Folktale about a boy who goes bowling with corpses,” Mignola commented to ageekdaddy.com. “I fell in love with the story as soon as I discovered it but I wanted to play fast and loose when adapting it, so I created a whole new world. Not TOO different than our world a few centuries ago, but with a lot more gods and monsters. Once I created that world new characters and stories just started pouring out of it. There is a whole lot to play with here and I expect to be at it for a very long time.”

In Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, the stories are fantastical, odd and charming — from a search for the beating heart of a long-dead sorcerer, to a pirate girl who makes a deal with the devil, to the titular boy who wins a grim prize in a game with undead interlopers. The graphic novel is a 112-page hardcover that will be released in bookstores on December 3, 2024 and in comic shops on December 4.

“For a few years now Mike has been emailing me designs and pages and ideas and maps and lists of place names for this world, and his enthusiasm for this project is indomitable and infectious,” remarked Stenbeck, who will be writing and drawing other, unannounced future Lands Unknown comics. “So often my reaction to these emails is ‘that's great Mike! But I still have two books to draw before I can even move on to this work!’ and then I find myself taking three days off to write a new story. Luckily Mike likes my stories. My first project is set far off in a distant corner of this world. That way I can't bump into anything Mike is doing and make a mess. Spoiler...it will have monsters in it.”

For more updates on this and future Tales from Lands Unknown follow @artofmmignola, @DarkHorseComics, @BenStenbeck and @Geekdad248 on Twitter. Yes, I'm still calling it "Twitter" because despite someone else calling it "X" all the social media site's url code still refers to twitter.com. Anyhow I'm still tweeting ... give me a shout out if you are too. 

A LEMONY SNICKET READING OF PINOCCHIO

The puppet who wished to be a boy, has been in the pop culture spotlight recently with Disney's recent live action movie adaption of Pinocchio, which my family thought was one of the worst House of Mouse movies we've seen in some time, and Guillermo Del Toro's Netflix flick that won this year's Best Animated Film Oscar award as well as a Geek Daddy nod of approval for a show my family thought very highly of. Now, Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, award-winning colorist Dave Stewart, and celebrated novelist Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) are teaming up with Beehive Books for an illustrated and annotated edition of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel PINOCCHIO. 

This all-new, deluxe hardcover edition includes original illustrations from Mignola, which breathe new life to the charm, gloom, and chaos of the seminal novel, alongside over 100 full text annotations by Snicket, presented as slipped-in typewritten sheets produced by Snicket during his Pinocchio-induced descent into madness. The project is part of Beehive Book’s acclaimed Illuminated Editions imprint, the Philadelphia-based company’s distinctive line of book art editions of literary classics which reimagine literary masterworks with all-new covers and illustrations from some of the world's greatest graphic artists, including the Balbusso Twins, Rebekka Dunlap, Brecht Evens, Dave McKean, Paul Pope, Yuko Shimizu, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams, and Jim Woodring, alongside original essays from the likes of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham. Beehive Books is now crowdfunding the PINOCCHIO: The Illuminated Edition on Kickstarter. 

“I’ve been in love with PINOCCHIO as long as I can remember,” Mignola remarked to ageekdaddy.com. “Probably starting with the classic Disney animated film and then really drilled into me when I finally read the Collodi novel. It’s just so brilliantly strange—very very funny and also heartbreakingly sad. It’s one of the two books (along with DRACULA) that I think sort of make me do what I do the way I do them."

"When Beehive Books approached me about doing a book… Well, at the time, the last thing I wanted to do was take on another project, but once I started thinking about doing Pinocchio I just couldn’t say no, added Mignola.  "The challenge was to come up with MY version of Pinocchio—much harder than I thought that was going to be but in the end I think I got there.” 

The Illuminated Edition of Pinocchio includes 10 original illustrations from Mignola and colorist Dave Stewart, as well as 40 additional black-and-white spot illustrations from Mignola. Beehive Book’s PINOCCHIO: The Illuminated Edition also provides commentary by Lemony Snicket, which takes both the reader and the acclaimed writer on a first experience of the iconic novel, chock full of surreal symbolism and commentary. 

“For many years I have been curious to see if I, too, will join the tradition of readers completely transformed into lunatics from a reading of PINOCCHIO, and although Carlo Collodi died long ago, I like to think that somewhere, somehow, he is interested in seeing what I might have to say as I read this book and likely lose my mind,” writes Snicket. “Perhaps you are too.” 

“Collodi’s PINOCCHIO is one of the most popular tales in the Western world, but perhaps also one of the most mis-remembered,” Beehive Book’s Publisher Josh O’Neill commented. “Best known among English-speakers for its sanitized Disney adaptation, PINOCCHIO is in fact a bizarre, fantastical tale in which the series of strange and horrific events that befall a foolhardy wooden puppet-child shed light on the cruelties of society, the redemptions of family, and what it means to be human. The story of Pinocchio, as Collodi told it, is full of betrayals, poisonings and assassins, among other various and sundry bedevilments to go along with all its magic, musicality, humor and warmth. In this edition, Beehive Books spotlights the glorious, troubling strangeness of this text, which truly has no parallel in children’s fiction – or maybe in fiction of any kind.” 

PINOCCHIO: An Illuminated Edition comes in three print editions: a slipcase hardcover, a signed and numbered edition, and a sketched and lettered edition. All ten titles in the Beehive Books’ Illuminated Editions series are also available through the Kickstarter campaign. Each title also comes as a DRM-free digital PDF, which is included along with every print edition. 

The standard print edition is an oversize 9x12" hardcover, bound in sewn signatures, and housed in an elaborately embossed and debossed die-cut slipcase, silk-screened or foil-stamped with artwork. The interior is printed on creamy, acid-free heavy-weight 140gsm uncoated paper with a fine tooth, and includes dozens of full color illustrations, illuminated letters, and special design pieces.

The Kickstarter campaign runs through April 20, 2023

HELLBOY CREATOR ILLUSTRATING FIRST NEW COMIC IN YEARS

For the first time in five years, the creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, is both writing and illustrating a full length comic book. Titled Sir Edward Grey: Acheron, the one shot story is set following the events of B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know, in which the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense managed to fight off the monsters on earth long enough for humanity to barely escape underground. This upcoming publication from Dark Horse Comics promises to start the next chapter in the Hellboy Universe of fantasy storytelling. 

The story is Mignola’s first full length comic book since Dark Horse Comics published Hellboy in Hell in 2016. In Sir Edward Grey: Acheron, Mignola reunites with award-winning colorist Dave Stewart, as well as letterer and longtime collaborator Clem Robbins. Dark Horse Comics is scheduled to release Sir Edward Grey: Acheron on December 1, 2021 featuring a main cover by Mignola and Stewart and a variant cover by acclaimed artist Ben Stenbeck and Stewart.

In Sir Edward Grey: Acheron, Hellboy is dead and gone and the B.P.R.D. are underground. So it turns to the ghost of a Victorian-era occult investigator named Edward Grey to return to Hell to confront a familiar foe and finish what needs to be done to truly save the world. This ghost is ready to bust some demons up to save the future of the Earth!

HELLBOY BEER

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the creation of the HELLBOY comic book, Oregon's Gigantic Brewing and Dark Horse Comics are teaming up to create a limited edition batch of 666 cases of themed beer, based on award-winning cartoonist Mike Mignola’s legendary character. Depicted as a well-meaning half-demon, Hellboy is a member of the United States Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) where he fights against dark forces that threaten the Earth such as monsters, magicians, witches and undead creatures. Involuntarily summoned from Hell by Nazi occultists as a baby, Hellyboy was rescued by Allied Forces and was raised as the son of the professor who was assigned to study him. He has lived here ever since defending the planet from evil.

Hellboy has been featured in numerous graphic novels and comic books, prose novels and short story collections over the last twenty-five years since his first appearance in the 1994 Dark Horse Comics mini-series Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. He also has been in two animated movies and two live action films. Another Hellboy film is also forthcoming starring David Harbour, Sasha Lane, Ian McShane, Penelope Mitchell, and Milla Jovovich which is set to be released by Lionsgate on April 12, 2019.

Celebrating twenty-five years of Hellboy, Gigantic Brewing will release six different beers with flavors inspired by fan-favorite characters from the Hellboy comic books throughout 2019. Each new beer will be a limited edition run of 666 cases. The first beer, Hellboy, features a maple syrup and pancake profile. That sounds so good! I want to taste a bottle of that for myself!

Gigantic Brewing’s first Hellboy beer will be released in March, ahead of Hellboy Day on March 23, 2019, when comic book stores and fans across the country will celebrate twenty-five years of Hellboy comics and graphic novels. New batches in the series will be released approximately every seven weeks after that. The limited edition beers will be released in the following order and feature different flavor profiles:

• Hellboy - Maple Syrup Pancake Beer (6.66% abv)
• Liz Sherman - Mole Chili Stout (6.66% abv)
• Johann Kraus - Citrus Wit Beer (6.66% abv)
• Abe Sapien - Indigo Blue Fruit Ale (6.66% abv)
• Blood Queen - Cranberry Yuzu Sour (6.66% abv)
• Trevor Bruttenholm - British Barleywine (9.99% abv)

Gigantic Brewing will also be selling prints and t-shirts featuring new Mike Mignola’s illustrations for each of the six Hellboy beers. There will be an introductory beer tasting party on March 15 at Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con followed the roll out of the beer to locations across the country. More details about distribution of these beers will be coming out closer to the release date.  To find out more information about Hellboy Beer, follow Gigantic Brewery on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or visit www.giganticbrewing.com/pages/hellboy.

Hellboy Hell Water Cinnamon Whiskey

Dark Horse Comics has partnered with XXX Distillery LLC and Prestige Imports LLC to give fans of Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic book their very own brand of 66.6 proof whiskey.  Hellboy Hell Water Cinnamon Whiskey is a craft distilled, small batch, naturally flavored cinnamon whiskey that retails for $19.99 for a 750 ml bottle.  It is micro--distilled, hand bottled and styled in the old traditional process of making Southern Corn Whiskey which means only the finest corn, natural ingredients, spring water, glassware and craftsmanship are involved in producing it.

"It's appropriate that Hellboy Hell Water Cinnamon Whiskey is made in the Smokey Mountains," Dark Horse Comics Publisher Mike Richardson told A Geek Daddy. "At 66.6 proof, Hellboy Hell Water packs a punch worthy of Mike Mignola's iconic creation."

Hellboy Hell Water Cinnamon Whiskey is available nationally and can be ordered online at hellboyhellwater.com.  The website also provides examples of Hellboy inspired drinks to stir up with his Hell Water Cinnamon Whiskey as well as some information about the comic book character.