Joe Hill to Oversee New Black Label Line of Horror Comics

[Hilden B. Lade]

Horror novelist Joe Hill, best known in the comics for writing Locke & Key, will be overseeing a new horror-themed pop-up line in the vein of Way's Young Animals. The line will be called Hill House and the first books in the line will be releasing this fall.

https://ew.com/books/2019/06/26/joe-...cs-hill-house/

Hill House’s initial offerings will consist of five limited series: Basketful of Heads, written by Hill and illustrated by Leomacs; The Dollhouse Family, written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross; The Low, Low Woods, written by Carmen Maria Machado and illustrated by Dani; Daphne Byrne, written by Laura Marks and illustrated by Kelley Jones; and Plunge, written by Hill with an artist to be revealed at a later date. Each comic will also come with two-page installments of a back-up feature called Sea Dogs, written by Hill.

I wonder if these books will be creator-owned given they don't seem to be working with DC-owned properties and don't seem to tie into broader DC universe based on their descriptions.

[Dark-Flux]

Neat! Always down for some horror from Hill and Carey.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Wow, this is pretty exciting news. Locke and Key is one of my all-time favourite series and it's nice to see Mike Carey and Peter Gross back at DC doing what is basically a Vertigo book.

These popup imprints really do seem to be the future of DC as they are routinely among the best stuff that DC puts out - both officially (Wonder Comics, Young Animal) and unofficially (the Superman line of books is basically Bendis' imprint at this point and is all the better for it).

I'm still confused, though, how DC is shutting down its imprints on one hand and starting a new one at the same time. Or do these not count as imprints in the way Zoom or Vertigo do?

[iron chimp]

Very cool.

[scribbleMind]

I'm excited. Joe Hill is such a good writer.

[iron chimp]

The more I read this ... really looking forward to it. If this is their idea instead of Vertigo then I'm up for it. Short seasons of different themes ran by one writer is great idea. I still dont understand how this kind of material is going to be ran alongside superman on the same banner but whatever. These and omac and kamandi on horizon is adding more DC to my pull list. I just hope they stagger them out so I don't have to cherry pick

[Timothy Hunter]

These will be outside of DC Continuity, I assume.

Link To My Comics Review Blog:
https://comicbookheartbreak.blogspot.com/
New Review Out

[Vordan]

Sounds great! Glad that Black Label isn’t just becoming the Batman Label.

[MRP]

I am actually excited for these. I prefer shorter self-contained works that tell a complete story rather than never-ending drawn out things that lack a single creative vision or voice these days.

-M

[Frontier]

Cool for those who are into horror comics. I'm more into stuff with actual DC characters though .

[Bruce Wayne]

This definitely beats Marvel getting Henry Abrams.

[numberthirty]

Wow, this is pretty exciting news. Locke and Key is one of my all-time favourite series and it's nice to see Mike Carey and Peter Gross back at DC doing what is basically a Vertigo book.

These popup imprints really do seem to be the future of DC as they are routinely among the best stuff that DC puts out - both officially (Wonder Comics, Young Animal) and unofficially (the Superman line of books is basically Bendis' imprint at this point and is all the better for it).

I'm still confused, though, how DC is shutting down its imprints on one hand and starting a new one at the same time. Or do these not count as imprints in the way Zoom or Vertigo do?

I almost wonder if this isn't an intentional move.

While it will almost certainly be what would have been a "Vertigo" book if the imprint was still up and running, it seems like they might be trying to avoid saddling the book with whatever negatives the company might think go with the "Vertigo" name.

One other thing...

I can't help but wonder if the "Black Label" work that is the creator's(as opposed to existing DC Comics IP) might be subject to a different deal than the old "Vertigo" deal. Make the change without even mentioning that you have done so.

[kjn]

I almost wonder if this isn't an intentional move.

While it will almost certainly be what would have been a "Vertigo" book if the imprint was still up and running, it seems like they might be trying to avoid saddling the book with whatever negatives the company might think go with the "Vertigo" name.

Not sure if it was intentional, but I think there is a difference between how DC's new corporate leadership views "lines" (like Bendis's Wonder Comics and now Hill's "Hill House") versus how they view "imprints". For us outside the sausage factory it's likely a distinction without a difference, but within the DC corporate structure I think it means that the lines are much less independent.

[Robotman]

Would love it if he included some DC’s amazing supernatural characters.