There's a new interview with Stuart Moore and myself discussing the process of putting together THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY series of graphic novels.
An excerpt:
O'Shea: How has screenwriting influenced your approach toward the comics medium (if at all) and vice versa?
Harris: Honestly, I think my ambitions to direct more influence my comic scripts more than the actual screenwriting does. When writing comics, I set out to direct the movie on paper. I love the collaboration with my artists. I tend to view them as both my cast and cinematographer. When the partnership is good, the only thing I appreciate more than an incredible depiction of the panel just as I saw it is an artist's rendition that brings something out of the panel, the page, book, etc. that I never saw coming. But make no mistake. I'm sitting in my mental director's chair while curled up at my desk and scripting the book. My scripts direct the camera and the actors and I'm cutting the movie in my head while shooting the entire time.
THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY has been awarded the 2008 International Horror Guild Award for "Best Illustrated Narrative". Heidi has more on The Beat.
Congratulations to Stuart, Colleen, Michael, Ted, Ben, Heidi and Eric. We just released VOLUME TWO which is an even better package of these elegantly adapted, disturbingly frightening tales. And thanks to author Thomas Ligotti for his support and prodigiously wonderful body of work to pick from.
Hopefully, those of you who entered and won the NIGHTMARE FACTORY Contest we ran a few weeks back have received their prizes and will agree with me that there's some spooky poop-smack in this book. Writers Stuart Moore and Joe Harris do a great job of cutting through all of the wordiness in exchange for upping the scare quotient while adapting these tales of terror from horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. But the thing that impressed me most about this book is how many amazing artists show up to lend their eerie stylings for this book.
Heidi MacDonald, all-knowing comics chronicler (and NIGHTMARE FACTORY editrix) has posted another preview page from the upcoming THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY, VOL. 2 graphic novel which drops this Tuesday.
Check out this killer page by Vasilis. Beware the Showman!
I can't believe the second of these graphic novels is actually being released already, but here we go. THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY Vol. 2 comes out this tuesday, 9/2. Once again, Stuart Moore and I adapted a total of four frightening and disturbingly cerebral horror tales by Thomas Ligotti. Fox Atomic Comics and Harper Collins are great with the promotion of these books and an exclusive preview just went up on MySpace Comic Books:
Editrix Heidi MacDonald unveiled the upcoming THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY Volume 2 on her comics news blog, The Beat on Thursday. Good, excited hype for this book. We're all very proud of the work and look forward to its release this fall.
We were handing out this promo card at the New York Comic-Con last weekend, so I guess the cat is out of the bag. Just like the first volume from Fox Atomic Comics and Harper Collins, I've written two stories based on the works of Thomas Ligotti:
"Gas Station Carnivals" with Vasilis Lolos illustrating and "The Clown Puppet" with the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz!
I'm very excited for this book's release. The first volume of THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY was beautiful and I learned a lot while making it. This new collection is going to be top-shelf fucking stellar.
The sales and critical response to THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY were great. Fox Atomic Comics and publisher Harper Collins loved the book. As did, I understand, the great Thomas Ligotti upon whose brilliantly disturbing horror writings the book was based.
Announcements to come re: what's next. Stay tuned!
Thanks to Eric Lieb for compiling and making this list so easily swipeable...
"In a fall season typified by much more categorizable frights, NIGHTMARE FACTORY provides a bitterly entertaining treat for those attuned to its storyteller's grim sentiments." --The Boston Globe
"A large and generally very impressive gathering of imaginative and stylish horror fiction . . . Poe and Lovecraft are the obvious influences in these richly atmospheric (and often funny) tales of introversion blossoming into obsession. ..[These stories] show Ligotti doing what he does best: turning the abstract matter of our unguarded dreaming moments into vivid and compelling nightmares." --Kirkus Reviews
"Fox Atomic Comics accomplished what many though impossible: successfully translating the author's work into a graphic novel...THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY lives up to its title, cleverly manufacturing disturbing dreams for discerning horror comic readers." --Rue Morgue magazine
"Deliciously bleak. B+" --EW.com
"These twisted tales based on Thomas Ligotti's stories come alive in the hands of Ben Templesmith and Michael Gaydos, and others. Retaining unique styles, Ligotti's brand of psychological terror still permeates, oozing into your nightmares." --Wizard magazine
"[E]ntertaining from start to finish...These tales of terror exude waves of paranoia and pathos from every page...There isn't a story in this book that doesn't have the highest amount of professionalism added to it...a special compilation." --Ain't It Cool News.com
Fox Atomic is doing flash animated trailers for each of the four stories collected in THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY. First up is DR. LOCRIAN'S ASYLUM... written by me with art by Ted McKeever.
I'm going to be taking part in a "live talk show" put on by the folks at Comic Book Club to support THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY the night before Haloween, 10/30 here in New York City.
I'll be joining Stuart Moore, Michael Gaydos and Coleen Doran for an hour-long discussion which, I believe, goes out on the radio too.
I've never heard one of their shows, but everyone seems to say good things about the production these guys put on each week. For THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY SPECIAL, the show is temporarily moving to COMIX on 14th Street.
THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY has been getting great reviews and Harper Collins has got the creators doing signings, radio shows and Halloween events all this month to promote. But try and stop by and say hi if you're in the neighborhood of Jim Hanley's Universe on 10/11. There's no potential Yankee playoff game that night. The gods wouldn't have it any other way.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2007 - NEW YORK, NY
JIM HANLEY'S UNIVERSE -- 6:30 p.m.
4 West 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001
(off 5th Ave. - opposite the Empire State Building)
Tel: (212) 268-7088
*Signing event with Nightmare Factory writers/artists: Stuart Moore, Joe Harris, Michael Gaydos -- FREE
NIGHTMARE FACTORY OGN
Four Short Stories by Thomas Ligotti
Words adapted by: Stuart Moore & Joe Harris
Art by Colleen Doran, Ben Templesmith, Ted McKeever, & Michael Gaydos
Publisher: Fox Atomic
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
Both Vroom Socko and stone's throw have mentioned recently that compilations are a mixed bag. Like music albums, you often find that you like one or two of the songs, but it is hard to have that same level of goodness throughout. Fortunately for me, I found this compilation of four short stories by Thomas Ligotti to be entertaining from start to finish.
Eric Lieb and Heidi MacDonald talk with CRB about putting together THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY graphic novel, illuminating the process of selecting the four short stories we eventually included, the hiring of artists thought to be ideal for each, etc.
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