Comics
Wes Craven Teams With Steve Niles On “Coming of Rage”
Horror film veteran Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream) has launched his first comic book series, “Coming of Rage,” with plans to adapt for the small screen.
THR writes that the five-issue series was created and written by Craven together with graphic novelist Steve Niles (“30 Days of Night,” “Criminal Macabre,” “Wake the Dead”).
The first three issues of the series have been released together as a special Halloween digital exclusive for Amazon’s Kindle.
“About a year ago, I had the beginning of an unwritten joke come into my head: A Vampire, a Werewolf and a Zombie walk into a bar. Just that. What was the punchline? Who cares – I just liked the sound of it,” Craven said. “My imagination went crazy thinking about what could happen when three such impossibly different characters were thrown together.”
Craven added that when he met with Niles, “we hit it off, and decided to beat out the story of a very special young man’s coming of age, and the two unlikely friends who helped him to survive it. After a bit of hard, fun work, a series of comic books was born, telling not only the story of how these three ended up on the run together, but how the central character, Ritchie, lost his innocence and became one of the most powerful vampires in the world.”
“Wes Craven is not only a great writer, producer and director, he is one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve had the honor to work with,” added Niles. “I not only had fun working on Coming of Rage, I also learned a great deal.”
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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