HORROR STORIES
Scream! and Misty are back from the grave to haunt newsagent shelves this Halloween
As a childhood Scream! fanatic, Keith Richardson was always going to turn to the short-lived ’80s horror weekly when it came to producing new material from the IPC archive that Rebellion acquired last year. Bolstered by the similarly themed girls’ title, the Scream! & Misty special will arrive in time for Halloween. But Richardson insists that it isn’t catering for any specific age group or gender.
“This is loosely aimed at 12-15-year-olds, but we haven’t skewed it more towards one sex or set out to alienate older fans,” he says. “This comic is for people who like fun, horror-tinged stories with spectacular visuals.”
Also drawing on 1970’s Thunder, it features contributions from new and older talents. “If you ask any fan of the old Scream! what their favourite strip was, the majority would say ‘The Thirteenth Floor’,” suggests Richardson, who has teamed up Guy Adams, Fraser Irving and John Stokes on a tale of the malevolent tower block computer, later an Eagle mainstay.
“Grainne McEntee and Tristan Jones are doing ‘The Dracula File’,” he continues. “Hannah Berry and Ben Willsher are doing ‘Return of the Sentinels’ from Misty, which is still terrifying and ripe for a revisit, especially in our current political climate.”
Kek-W and Simon Coleby are collaborating on Thunder’s “Black Max”; Alec Worley and DaNi are paired on “The Fate of the Fairy Hunter”, and Henry Flint is on “DeathMan: The Gathering”.
“Henry’s strip is a stab at creating a new, shared universe of heroes, villains, freaks and oddities,” teases Richardson. “Who is in there? You’ll have to buy the comic to find out!”
The Scream! & Misty Special will be published by Rebellion on 18 October.