Stephen Jones - Best New Horror #26

Compiled by Robert Weinberg, Douglas Ellis and Robert T. Garcia, The Collectors’ Book of Virgil Finlay from American Fantasy Press featured stunning black and white and colour reproductions of the work of the “Dean of SF Artists”, taken from the original illustrations themselves. This was also published in a 400-copy limited edition signed by all three compilers, a Kickstarter-funded edition additionally signed by Finlay’s daughter Lail, and a twenty-six copy leatherbound lettered edition.

Containing more than 200 pages of never-before-seen and newly scanned images, Clive Barker: Imaginer: Paintings and Drawings Volume One 1998-2014 from Century Guild was the first in a proposed eight volumes of Barker’s art financed via Kickstarter campaigns. Featuring text by Thomas Negovan, it was issued in a 1,000-copy hardcover edition ($100.00) plus a signed bookplate, boxed, faux-leatherbound edition limited to 100 copies ($400.00).

Presented by Roy Thomas, the fourth volume in PS Art Books’ reprints of Dick Briefer’s 1940s Frankenstein comics included a wonderfully entertaining Foreword by Donald F. Glut.

Neil Gaiman had fun re-inventing the expected fairy tale tropes in his story The Sleeper and the Spindle . Bloomsbury’s beautifully produced standalone hardcover edition added copious pen-and-ink drawings by the talented Chris Riddell. Meanwhile, The Art of Neil Gaiman edited by Hayley Campbell contained illustrations for Gaiman’s work, examples of the author’s own sketches, script notes for comics, personal photographs, and plenty of other miscellany, along with a Foreword by Audrey Niffenegger.

Written by Kim Newman and Maura McHugh and illustrated by Tyler Crook, Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland was a limited five-part series from Dark Horse Comics featuring the 19th century psychic investigator created by Mike Mignola.

From the same imprint, Timothy Truman, Tomás Giorello and José Villarrubia’s King Conan the Conqueror adapted Robert E. Howard’s ‘Hour of the Dragon’, while The Strain: The Night Eternal adapted the final volume in Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s vampire apocalypse trilogy.

Written by Jonathan Maberry and illustrated by Tyler Crook, Dark Horse Comics’ five-part Bad Blood was about a boy dying of cancer who fought back against the vampire that attacked him.

The Premature Burial included graphic versions by the legendary Richard Corben of both Edgar Allan Poe’s title story and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’. Corben followed it up with two more Poe adaptations for Dark Horse, Morella and the Murders in the Rue Morgue .

Dark Horse’s eighteenth issue of the revived Creepy celebrated the title’s 50th Anniversary.

Clive Barker’s Night Breed from BOOM! was a new series that revisited the author’s literary and movie mythos, while the publisher’s four-issue mini-series Sleepy Hollow was based on the Fox TV show.

IDW’s The Fly: Outbreak was a five-part sequel to David Cronenberg’s 1986 movie, and Millennium from the same publisher was a sequel to the 1990s TV show, in which a reclusive Frank Black teamed up with X Files agent Fox Mulder.

Cemetery Girl: The Pretenders was the first in a YA graphic novel series written by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden and illustrated by Don Kramer.

Founded by writer/editor-in-chief Debbie Lynn Smith to promote creative women in comics, Kymera Press was launched with the supernatural thriller Gates of Midnight , created by Smith and developed with Barbara Hambly.

Stately Wayne Manor was turned into a home for the criminally insane in Gerry Duggan’s Batman spin-off series, Arkham Manor , from DC Comics.

George A. Romero’s Empire of the Dead from Marvel Comics was set in the director’s long-running Night of the Living Dead universe and illustrated by Alex Maleev.

Jeff Lindsay continued the exploits of his sympathetic serial killer in Marvel’s five-issue mini-series Dexter Down Under , in which Miami forensics expert Dexter Morgan travelled to Canberra, Australia, to help investigate the brutal murders of Asian immigrants.

Writer Charles Soule and artist Steve McNiven apparently killed off the most popular X-Man in Marvel’s four-issue mini-series Death of Wolverine .

As part of a special Halloween ComicFest promotion, Batman and Robin joined the Scooby gang to track down Man-Bat in DC Comics’ Scooby Doo! Team-Up , while in DC’s Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight , a decidedly darker Batman celebrated his 75th Anniversary year by battling the Scarecrow. The story was continued in the graphic novel Batman: The Long Halloween from the Eisner Award-winning team of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale.

Viz Media participated in the Halloween promotion with a “sneak peek” issue of Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire , written and illustrated by Naoki Serizawa.

It wasn’t a good year for Riverdale’s perennial teenager Archie Andrews. In the penultimate issue of Life with Archie , published in July, an adult Archie was shot to death while protecting an openly-gay friend, and in an alternate timeline in the decidedly adult Afterlife with Archie , the all-American town was overrun with zombies, thanks to Sabrina the Teenage Witch and a stolen copy of the Necronomicon . Sabrina Spellman also got her own supernatural spin-off title, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina , set in the 1960s.

The big movie tie-ins of the year included Godzilla by Greg Cox, Interstellar by Greg Keyes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes by Alex Irvine.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm was a prequel to the movie by Greg Keyes. The Woman in Black: Angel of Death by Martyn Waites was a sequel to the Susan Hill novel and Hammer film, while Dan Abnett’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket Racoon & Groot—Steal the Galaxy! was a spin-off from the Marvel comic book and movies series.

Credited to director Greg McLean and Australian horror writers Aaron Sterns and Brett McBean, respectively, Wolf Creek: Origins and Wolf Creek: Desolation Game were prequel novels to the movies.

Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon and Alien: Sea of Sorrows by James A. Moore were both based on an older movie franchise.

Grimm: The Chopping Block by John Passarella and Grimm: The Killing Time by Tim Waggoner were based on the NBC-TV series, while Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido took its inspiration from the Fox Network show.

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead: Descent was the fifth tie-in to the AMC series by Jay Bonansinga (who received a solo by-line for the first time), and Seth Patrick’s The Returned was based on the French zombie TV series Les Revenants .

Nancy Holder’s Beauty & the Beast: Vendetta and Kass Morgan’s The 100: Day 21 were both based on The CW teen series, while Christa Faust’s Fringe: Sins of the Father was a belated tie-in to the cancelled Fox show.

Titan Books’ hardcover “Penny Dreadful Collection” reprinted Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde as tie-ins to the HBO series. Each volume had coloured page edges and a matching bookmark ribbon.

Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker, Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards and Doctor Who: Blood Cell by James Goss all featured Peter Capaldi’s twelfth Doctor, while the War Doctor was the focus of Doctor Who: Engines of War by George Mann.