This from Dark Horse Comics:
"The magazines that gave a whole generation the shivers are back. Creepy and Eerie were the definitive horror and sci-fi comics of the 1960s and flourished up until the early 1980s. Dark Horse Comics has entered into an agreement with New Comic Company to create archive editions of this classic material, as well as launch new Creepy and Eerie comics for modern horror fans. The licensing deal will encompass publishing, select film and TV development, and merchandising. Many of today's brightest stars will lend their talents to the venture, including horror legend Bernie Wrightson (City of Others) and modern master Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre).
Creepy is best remembered for its classic horror and was hosted by Uncle Creepy, while Eerie often ventured into science fiction and featured Cousin Eerie as its host. The rest of the gang includes Hunter, Child, El Cid, Marvin the Dead Thing, and the newly developed Creepy Family. The magazines, originally published by Jim Warren are remembered as presenting some of the era's greatest genre comics work.
'Both Creepy and Eerie are fondly remembered by comics fans as representing the best of science fiction and horror, and Dark Horse is proud and excited to relaunch these classic titles,' said Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson.
'Mike Richardson and Dark Horse have an impressive and deep understanding of what it will take to help us correctly re-launch Creepy and Eerie. It's a great fit for our brands,' said New Comic executive and Submarine Entertainment Co-President Dan Braun, who negotiated the deal in cooperation with CAA--who represents both New Comic and Dark Horse. Deals in TV and Film are expected to be announced shortly.
New Comic Company acquired all rights in all media to the Creepy and Eerie comic book series earlier this year and was formed by New York based Submarine Entertainment and Los Angeles based Grand Canal Film Works.
New efforts are expected to debut this fall with the classic tales being prepared for the hardcover Dark Horse Archive series.
New Comic and Grand Canal Film Works executive Craig Haffner added, 'The depth of this library across the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres makes it truly tantalizing for a multitude of different platforms. Our association with Dark Horse will take us one step closer to realizing our goal of returning the Creepy and Eerie brands to their former stature and beyond.'
Dark Horse has set a tentative release date for the comics in early 2008."
What to think of this? Of course I'll be giving them a glance and maybe picking a few up depending on how they look.
There's no mention of formats, and after learning what an uphill battle IDW had with Doomed, if I had to bet I'd say that the new Creepy and Eerie will be in a standard comic book format(like the new Savage Tales book).
And even though I love the magazine format(obviously!), I wouldn't say that Dark Horse necessairily needs to be slavishly devoted to the classic Warren look, but I do feel that if you make them look like all other comics then they just sorta get lost in the mass of covers at the store every week. Going for that slightly bigger format might make them stand out more, and if you're going to bother and restart Creepy and Eerie then you need to give them every chance to survive.
I get a little nervous, frankly, when some company I've never heard of starts using words like brand and platform, since I worry they just look at a classic, hard-wrought catalog of material as just a carcass to pick clean. Part of the thing that works about the Warrens is their context--sure, there might be a lesser story or two(or three!) amid the classic stuff, but that doesn't necessairily mean if you take those lesser stories, the letters pages, the Brancatelli rants, and the Captain Company ads out you're going to make them better. We'll see...
Thanks to B/W fan Braindumper for pointing this news out to me!
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