Comics
‘Twilight Zone Annual’ Strips Reality Away
Dynamite Entertainment will be releasing a “Twilight Zone Annual” this year to compliment their ongoing series. The Annual, which offers three stand-alone tales, is coming at you from Mark Rahner who assures that his work is both “horrifically disturbing” and “comically whimsical”.
Look for the “Twilight Zone Annual” 2014 in shops this June.
March 28th, 2014, Mt. Laurel, NJ: Following up on the best-selling Twilight Zone series by J. Michael Straczynski, Dynamite is releasing a Twilight Zone Annual to be released in 2014! The Twilight Zone Annual 2014 contains three stand-alone tales written by Mark Rahner, drawn by Randy Valiente, Andrea Mutti and Edu Menna, with a cover by Roberto Castro! This squarebound oversized issue will be available in June from Dynamite Entertainment in comic stores and digital.
The Twilight Zone Annual 2014 contains three stand-alone tales of the bizarre: A politician determined to cut aid to the poor finds himself in a Dust Bowl town in the Great Depression. Reality begins to slip away for a crusader against social network “over-sharing.” And a Renaissance player who doesn’t fit in with his present-day peers gets an ugly taste of the real thing.
“The story in this annual ranges from horrifically disturbing to comically whimsical,” says writer Mark Rahner. I hope readers hear Rod Serling’s voice – and a little of his anger – when they read my Twilight Zone annual. I feel like I was born to write this stuff, because I suspect my mom used one of those cone-speaker things to hardwire me with Twilight Zone while I was still in the womb. Instant addict. I wonder if it’s easy for some people to forget how much nerve Serling showed in those shows. He used them as vehicles for blistering commentary – odd, entertaining fantasy, science fiction and horror vehicles. And that kind of nerve inspired me from my first comic book, Rotten, right on through to this one. My Twilight Zone stories are old-school in their approach – you can’t improve on his formulas – to current things that would have given pause to our cigarette-smoking host.”
The Twilight Zone Annual 2014 will be solicited in Diamond Comic Distributors’ April Previews catalog, the premiere source of merchandise for the comic book specialty market, and slated for release on June 18th, 2014. Comic book fans are encouraged to reserve copies of The Twilight Zone Annual 2014 with their local comic book retailers. The Twilight Zone Annual 2014 will also be available for individual customer purchase through digital platforms courtesy of Comixology, iVerse, and Dark Horse Digital.
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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