Credit to Boom! Studios’ Bryce Carlson for keeping an eye out for new talent. By mixing stories from old hands with new voices, he’s made Hello Darkness one of the best new horror anthologies in comics. And there are a lot of new horror anthologies in comics. Such books can be a crapshoot, but so far Hello Darkness has not delivered a story that drops the ball.
So it’s exciting for me to see Shawn Patrick Boyd and Elijah Henry get a shot at mainstream publication. Hopefully, their names sound familiar to you from their self-published Winona Forever. I’d met actor Shawn at Cinequest years ago for the movie Nina of the Woods, so was eager to see what he’d do in comics. Through him I met Elijah. Despite their book being more suspense than horror, I’d seen some of Elijah’s art online and I knew Winona Forever only scratched the surface of what he could do.
At Comic-Con, he showed me a little of what he was doing for Hello Darkness #4, and all I can say is he’s an artist to watch. (Shawn is also a writer to watch, of course, but he knows I think that.)
Enough of me gushing, and my excitement that a creative team I knew from the beginning is about to get a new level of recognition. Let’s share what Boom! Studios has to say about the book:
BOOM! Studios today revealed a terrifying first look at HELLO DARKNESS #4, the horrifying continuation to the brand new ongoing anthology series featuring what BOOM! Studios is known for–the best in modern Horror, Fantasy, and Mystery, not to mention the darkest stories yet from a murderer’s row of world class creators including R.L. Stine, Francesco Francavilla, Garth Ennis, Becky Cloonan, James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera, John Arcudi, Ryan Sook, Cullen Bunn, Daniel Bayliss, Sas Milledge, Sarah Gailey, Liana Kangas, Marguerite Bennett, Luana Vecchio, Michael W. Conrad, Martín Morazzo, Andy Lanning, Trevor Hairsine, Steve Orlando, A.L. Kaplan, Genevieve Valentine, Ming Doyle, Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Letizia Cadonici, Sarah Andersen, Chuck Tingle, Robert Hack, and more! Everything from primal fears to modern political horrors will be explored, in the classic style of Creepy and Eerie and the contemporary chills of Black Mirror.
In the next issue of this groundbreaking horror anthology featuring the top creators in the industry at their absolute darkest, Garth Ennis and Becky Cloonan unveil part 4 of The War, where two couples fight for survival in New York, but it’s not just the world around them crumbling, as the long night stretches on. In addition, All Eyes on Me by Chloe Brailsford, Dying for Quiet by writer Shawn Patrick Boyd, artist Elijah Henry, colorist Jason Wordie, and letterer Taylor Esposito, and more madcap madness in I Can’t Take You Anywhere by Robert Hack.
HELLO DARKNESS #4 features a main cover by Paolo Rivera (Daredevil), and variant covers by Jenny Frison (Something is Killing the Children), Jay Shaw (Coda), a Halloween variant by Frazer Irving (Necronauts), and a limited BOOM! Studios Direct Reserve exclusive variant by Jenny Frison!
HELLO DARKNESS #4 will be available in comic shops October 23, 2024. It is available for pre-order at your local comic shop. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including Kindle, iBooks, and Google Play.
Hello Darkness #4 A Main: AUG240042
Hello Darkness #4 B Variant: AUG240043
Hello Darkness #4 C Variant: AUG240044
Hello Darkness #4 D Hello Halloween Variant: JUL247378
In addition to running Fanboy Planet, Derek has written for ActionAce, Daily Radar, Once Upon A Dime, and The Wave. He has contributed stories to Arcana Comics (The Greatest American Hero) and Monsterverse Comics (Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave). He has performed with ComedySportz and Silicon Valley Shakespeare, though relocated to Hollywood to... work in an office? If you ever played Eric's Ultimate Solitaire on the Macintosh, it was Derek's voice as The Weasel that urged you to play longer. You can buy his book "I Was Flesh Gordon" on the Amazon link at the right. Email him at [email protected].
