Comics Author James Tynion IV, Artist Christian Ward Team for Ghost Story ‘Spectregraph’ (Exclusive)
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Modern horror comics master James Tynion IV has some new scare fare for 2024, this time a series for upstart publisher DSTLRY.
The creator of acclaimed and best-selling comics Something Is Killing the Children and The Nice House on the Lake is teaming with Christian Ward, the writer-artist behind the current Batman miniseries Batman: City of Madness for Spectregraph, described as a ghost story steeped in the decay of a century of capitalism.
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The logline is thus: For years, the mansion has sat strangely, nestled into the coastline just a short drive north of Los Angeles. Rumors have haunted the place for years, its owner a titan of American industry, with a strange fascination in the occult and the paranormal. For decades, the richest men and women in the country have whispered to each other, trying to understand what he was building alone in that mansion for all those years. And now finally, with his death, and his estate open for sale, they are eager to find out for themselves. The publisher said the tones of the book could be compared to works such as The Haunting of Hill House and The Conjuring.
Tynion told The Hollywood Reporter that Spectregraph has been a comic several years in the making.
“When Christian and I first started talking about working on a project together, I had been reading about the spiritualist movement in the 19th century,” the author explained. “The two of us then started talking about how neither of us had ever really done a haunted house story. And then we started talking about how we could invert the trappings of the classic haunted house story and do something strange, brutally frightening and modern. It’s a project we’ve been talking about for years, and it’s a thrill to finally be putting it on paper.”
As with all DSTLRY books, the miniseries will be oversized and 48 pages per issue. The first issue hits in April 2024.
Ward said his influences ran the gamut from Michael Mann movies to the works by horror master Clive Barker.
“For me, a lot of what inspires a project is ‘what would my … look like?’ and for this the question was, what would my Ghosts look like,” Ward said. “Specifically, this project felt very cinematic, so I’ve been watching a lot of Michael Mann films. Mann will often use his locations like characters and that felt important here, not just with the house — after all, there needs to be a house for there to be a haunting — but also with the cities we find ourselves in. I want this to feel very grounded so that the ‘spectral’ elements feel really wild in comparison.
“In regards to our ghosts, I returned to my love of Clive Barker, whose worlds and monsters feel equal parts exotic and terrifying. I wanted that same tension here. I really wanted to push what a ghost could be.”
DSTLRY has high hopes for the title, with the publisher calling more not just a ghost story but rather a journey into the depths of horror and the American psyche. “This series epitomizes DSTLRY’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of storytelling and art,” said the company in a statement.
The publisher launched its first book this summer. An anthology of 11 stories, The Devil’s Cut was an 88-page blastoff that sold out of the more than 50,000 copies at the distributor level, landing it among the top-selling books of August. It was an impressive feat for a new publisher although clearly helped by the impressive roster DSTLRY creators David Steinberger and Chip Mosher assembled. Among the founding bold-faced creators are Brian Azzarello, Marc Bernardin, Elsa Charretier, Joëlle Jones, Scott Snyder and Eduardo Risso. Tynion is also a founding creator.
It has since unveiled a comic by writer-artist Jock titled Gone as well as Somna, by Tula Lotay & Becky Cloonan.
The company styles itself as a comics publisher and physical-digital collectibles company that seeks to redefine creator-owned comic books for consumers worldwide.
Check out one of the variant covers and some concept art for Spectregraph below.
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