Recent Writing

Yuko Shimizu Illuminates Her Illustrative Inspirations For "JAPANESE GHOST STORIES" [INTERVIEW]

Nothing says October like a good old ghost story, and The Folio Society is here for your supernatural short story fix with “Japanese Ghost Stories”! The collection of spooky stories will feature the works of Lafcadio Hearn, a 19th-century Greek writer, journalist, and translator who brought Japanese Folklore to the rest of the world. Acclaimed illustrator Yuko Shimizu, who has illustrated everything from DC Comics covers to Target advertisements to pages of “The New Yorker,” will provide five ha...

"HELLBOY IN HELL: NOTHING BUT BLOOD #1" Brings Big Red Back To The Underworld [REVIEW] — Macabre Daily

Down into the darkness we go again, as Mike Mignola revisits Hellboy’s adventures in Hell. With art and letters by French illustrator Cyrille Pomès and colors by longtime Hellboy colorist Dave Stewart, Mignola has decided to delve back into the underworld. Mignola has taken a significant interest in telling tales of Hell since the end of “B.P.R.D.”, with multiple terrific comics released in the setting. Most recent stories of Hell have followed side characters in the afterlife, though, and “Hell...

FANTASTIC FEST 2026: "JANUR IRENG" and "FUTURE TENSE" [Review]

Prolific Indonesian Action/Horror director Kimo Stamboel has unleashed his latest film on Fantastic Fest, “Janur Ireng”, which is a prequel to “Sewu Dino”, which is itself an adaptation of a creepypasta Twitter thread by the user known as Simpleman. This is the first time I’ve seen a writer credited with an “@” in their name; the age of internet horror is truly upon us! Stamboel is perhaps best known to US audiences for his action work, co-directing “Headshot” and producing “The Night The Comes...

Chris Roberson And Michael Avon Oeming Share The Secrets Of "GHOST OF A GHOST" [Interview]

MD: Mike, the incredible coloring for “Ghost of a Ghost #1” is by your wife, the legendary Taki Soma. Coloring is vital to any comic, but it is especially iconic in the rich world of “Hellboy”. What was your collaborative process for crafting such a specific visual vision for “Ghost of a Ghost”?MAO: Honestly, I just tried to make sure the many layers on the digital file were clearly labeled so she could do her thing. Because we styled the approach to “Ghost of a Ghost” after our work on “Murder...

“DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: RAVENLOFT #1” Explores A Darker Fantasy World [Review]

It isn’t as if nothing happens in the comic; a lot happens as Ezmerelda launches from one situation to another, making new friends and dueling new foes. The pacing is fairly relentless, and it’s hard to breathe and get to know any of the new characters or places being introduced. Chu has certainly come up with some cool ideas and concepts (or are they all established D&D concepts? Do I need to buy a sourcebook to keep up?), but we don’t spend enough time with them to appreciate it all. It’s alwa...

What Exactly Makes "RESIDENT EVIL" (2026) Resident Evil? Zach Cregger Has It All Figured Out [Essay]

[This Rant Contains Major Spoilers for “Resident Evil (2026)” as well as various “Resident Evil” Games]What is “Resident Evil” even about?Zombies? Raccoon City? The Umbrella Corporation? Leon, Chris, Claire, and Jill? “Resident Evil 4” ditched the zombies and became not only the best game in the franchise but one of the most beloved and acclaimed video games in history. “Resident Evil 7” ditched the main cast almost completely in favor of Ethan Winters. “Resident Evil 8” added werewolves and vam...

”MIND MGMT: NEW AND IMPROVED #3” Is A Sublimely Paranoid Spy Story [Interview]

However paranoid you are, you are not paranoid enough. You can’t believe your eyes, your ears, or even your nose. Everyone is lying to you, whether they know it or not. It’s not easy being a MIND MGMT Agent. How do the people in charge of perpetrating worldwide deceptions keep hold of the truth? Who mind-manages the mind-managers? Only three issues into MIND MGMT: NEW AND IMPROVED, Matt Kindt has already sent me back to re-read issue one with new eyes and search for new clues. Down the rabbit ho...

Corinna Bechko On Conjuring A New Era of "SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH" [Interview]

MD: Music has always been a part of the world of Sabrina and Archie, from the cheery 60s pop classic “Sugar, Sugar” to Kiernan Shipka slaying with “Straight to Hell”. What music would you say is best to listen to while reading your new "Sabrina" series?CB: I’m going to show my true colors here and say you should listen to something Gothic, but with a pop edge? Or maybe the other way around. And I think the Raveonettes would definitely be appropriate no matter what.MD: Kano’s colorful art is brin...

Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard Dish The Deadly Details of "I LOVE APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE MISFITS" [Interview]

Macabre Daily: For Doug Wagner, I love how central and specific food, specifically snacks, is to this graphic novel, from Funyuns to pork rinds! Can you talk about how you incorporated food into the characters' lives and the story? Doug Wagner: That’s a funny question because I don’t really think of the food as being about the food. It’s about the road trip. When I was writing “AZM”, I wanted to capture every part of that experience - not just driving from Point A to Point B, but all the little...

“TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA” (2026) Is An Erotic Meta-Horror Slasher For Millennials [Review]

Meta-humor, deconstruction, and self-reflexivity are not something new to the slasher genre; at this point, it’s almost the opposite. Even in the genre's heyday in the 1980s, the tropes were so well established that self-aware films such as “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” began to poke holes in the formula. The first slasher movie about someone slashing a film crew, “Effects”, was made in 1979! Audiences are so familiar with tropes now that slasher movie writers almost have to acknowledge...

Take A Ride On The Highway To Hell In “JOHN CARPENTER'S CATHEDRAL” [Review]

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?The cry of “Officer Down” echoes through the air on a stormy Los Angeles night! The mutilated, mangled body of a beat cop brings three detectives to the doors of a strange and ancient cathedral. What they find in the bowels of the unholy ruin will take them on a journey to the gates of hell and beyond.HOW IS IT?It’s hard to know where to start when talking about “Cathedral,” which is an expansive project, but a fairly tight and narrow narrative for a graphic novel. In the forewor...

“SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY” (2026) Is A Spectacular And Sincere Superhero Story [Review]

I didn’t think Marvel Studios had it in them to make a “Spider-Man” film this good. I didn’t dare even hope they could pull off such a thing. Even now, writing this review, I’m questioning myself. Did Destin Daniel Cretton and Tom Holland make a better “Spider-Man” movie than Sam Raimi and Toby Maguire ever did? On that particular point, it’s maybe too early to say. For certain, though, “Brand New Day” eclipses all of Holland’s prior Spidey films, yes, even “No Way Home”. “Brand New Day” is a so...

“GIANT ROBOT HELLBOY RETURNS #1” In A Battle At The Bottom Of The Sea [Review]

One of the most incredible things about the world of “Hellboy” is the ludicrous range of stories that get told within it. This year alone, in addition to his standard monster hunting, Mike Mignola has put out a palace intrigue comedy (“The Crown: A Tale of Hell”), a western (“Carmen Red Claw: The Belly of the Beast”), and now a smashing kaiju adventure with “Giant Robot Hellboy Returns.” So if you’re a Hellboy fan but you really want more “Pacific Rim” in your life, Giant Robot Hellboy is back t...

Christian Ward Guides Us Through the Retro-Futurism Of "THE FOREVER HOME" [Interview]

MACABRE DAILY: How do you approach writing a non-linear narrative with two different time speeds? Do you have it all mapped out in a big chart, or does it just flow naturally?CHRISTIAN WARD: I wish I could say I was like Charlie Day from “Always Sunny” plotting this book, but honestly, as with any story, you just follow the characters. What do they want? What stops them getting what they want, and finally, what do they need? For “The Forever Home,” it’s pretty simple. Henry D’Mour, infamous bill...

These Psychics Might Be A Little Psychotic! “MIND MGMT: NEW AND IMPROVED #2” [Review]

It’s become clearer in this second issue that Delphi is not so much an investigator herself as Swan’s handler, meant to protect him and keep him on track. While she’s undergoing her own mental struggles, she is the bulwark against Swan’s own flood of insanity. It seems that he’s starting to suspect it, but fascinatingly he doesn’t resent this. The best dialogue in the entire issue sees Swan inquiring about Delphi’s “calming” powers that quiet the mind of those who get in the duo’s way. He wants...

Macabre Daily Remembers The Movies Of Sam Neill [In Memoriam]

Sam Neill transformed my understanding of cinema. Strong words, but I promise they are true. “Jurassic Park” will forever be my favorite movie. Not because it is impeccably crafted (which it is), but because of the transformative experience I had watching it. I was 11 years old when this movie came out. I don’t remember how I first became aware of it, but I remember vividly the fervor with which my friends embraced the hype. It is the first film that I remember seeing on opening day. I remember...

Frank Barbiere and Stephen Rhodes Game Out In "ZERO INSTANCE" [Interview]

Macabre Daily: What was your biggest challenge in translating the interactive nature of gaming to the medium of comics?Frank Barbiere:  Working to keep things feeling authentic while still being exciting. Stephen and I both work in the games industry and have seen things blatantly misrepresented more times than we can count; while we are telling a fictional story and there are plenty of fantastic elements (and an alt future), we wanted our actual experience to push on the themes and overall tone...

Spiritual Warfare Gets Gnarly In “CHAPLAIN” [Review]

Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers- the worst these guys can do is kill you. Jigsaw, Leatherface- they might torture you first, but once you’re dead, you’re dead. When you’re dealing with more supernatural horrors, the stakes get much higher. “Chaplain”, a new religious horror graphic novel written by Brad Sun and his brother Revered Wesley Sun, focuses on the battle for the immortal soul. Raúlo Cáceres, one of the great modern horror illustrators, brings the Sun brothers’ disturbing fears to the pag...

Sinister Trailers From Summer Games Fest, "DEAD BY DAYLIGHT" Updates, And More! — Macabre Daily

Gaming god and noted muppet aficionado Geoff Keighley took the stage at the Dolby Theater with veteran games journalist Lucy James to present a host of smashing new video game trailers at Summer Games Fest. Keighley has once again secured a ton of announcements and premieres to get gamers foaming at the mouth, and horror fans ate especially good this year. Here are seven of the most sizzling trailers that dropped at Summer Games Fest to spice up your summer and get you hyped for the future of h...

Muddled Found Footage Film "MUFFLED" (2026) Frustrates More Than It Frightens [Review]

Grace Thompson is long gone but not forgotten, and her childhood friends Nora and Harper are coming home to find her, over a decade after she vanished into thin air. “Muffled” is a found footage docu-horror in the vein of “Strange Harvest” and “Horror in the High Desert”, but with very little of those films’ inspiration. The true-crime approach to found footage is hard to pull off, and despite some good efforts by the cast, “Muffled” fails to effectively harness the subgenre to materialize any t...

Big Red Takes A Tragic Trip To Italy in “HELLBOY AND THE B.P.R.D.: THE MONSTER OF NIVOLA” [Review]

Sardinia, Italy, a Mediterranean paradise of gorgeous beaches, delicious Italian cooking, and ancient architecture. For some, it would be a wonderful island getaway. For Hellboy, who is there monster hunting, it will be a notably bad day in a career full of bad days. The monster-fighting career of Hellboy has been full of wild tales of adventure and excitement, but it’s also riddled with gothic tragedy. “Hellboy and The B.P.R.D.: The Monster of Nivola”, from writers Mike Mignola and Christopher...

What Capcom Needs to Nail In "RESIDENT EVIL: VERONICA" [Essay]

Secondly, Chris Redfield needs to have a real and consistent personality. There’s no debate that portrayals of Chris Redfield in the past decade have frustrated many fans. From his strange and baffling new look in “Resident Evil 7” to his gruff, borderline antagonistic relationship with Ethan Winters in “Resident Evil: Village", Chris’s angry, depressed nature has verged on self-parody from “Resident Evil 6” onwards. Early hints of chain-smoking and pill popping indicate that we will see Chris’...

“MISTER MAGIC” Is A Cathartic Exploration Of Creepy Children’s TV [Review]

“Come with me, and you'll be… in a world of pure imagination. Take a look, and you'll see into your imagination.  We'll begin with a spin, traveling in the world of my creation. What we'll see will defy explanation…” Everyone has that children’s movie or television show that was pretty wonderful and brilliant, but also creeped them out. Mine, of course, was a VHS copy of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. For those of us who grew up with TV as a default household appliance, the impact of c...

"MUTTER: DIARY OF A MOTHER" (2026) Evolves From Pregnancy Into Parenting Horror [Review]

Fans of slow, grim, existential horror rejoice, there’s finally a 2026 horror movie for those who love the cinema of despair. Alphan Eşeli is pulling very few punches as he puts Gül through the wringer across “Mutter’s” ninety-seven minutes. This movie is very light on fun and very heavy on emotional and physical agony. “Mutter” is a cinematic cry of pain and anguish, a primal scream into the uncaring void. This is one miserable monster movie. Admittedly, it’s fairly light on the monster part. D...
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