Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #238 – Monkey Shines

Stephen King News From the Dead Zone

In this episode of News from the Dead Zone, I’ll be dealing with two things from the opposite ends of the age spectrum: My ramblings about a very R-rated adaptation, The Monkey, and news of an unexpected book coming up this fall that is targeted at 6-8 year-olds that was announced recently.

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What Screams May Come: The Night Crew by Brad Ricks

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

photo of author Brad Ricks
Brad Ricks

The Night Crew by Brad Ricks
Crystal Lake Entertainment (February 2025)

The Synopsis

After coming home to find his wife brutally murdered, Michael copes with his depression by searching for his wife’s killer. When they finally meet face to face, he uncovers a disturbing truth. Monsters are real, and a group of hunters known as The Night Crew are charged with keeping them in line. Michael must team up with them to get vengeance for his wife’s murder, but also retain his own humanity.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Manuel Arenas

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Unity of Effect,” “Southwest Gothic,” and “The Burning Ember Mission of Helldorado”

photo of author Mnauel Arenas
Manuel Arenas/Photo by Sara J. Griffin

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance and over on my YouTube channel.

Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.

My short story collection with Cemetery Dance is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to Aickman and his kind of stories that operate this way. It can be found here.

I spoke with Manuel Arenas about his work including his latest short story collection titled The Burning Ember Mission of Helldorado from Jackanapes Press. 

In addition to his fiction our conversation covered his artistic and musical collaborations. We began our talk about creating a locality for the book.Continue Reading

Horror Drive-In: Saying Goodbye to Fictional Characters

banner reading Horror Drive-In and Mark Sieber and Cemetery Dance

We’ve all met those tiresome people who scoff at intense grieving over a pet. “It’s a cat!” they sneer, never realizing the total and encompassing love we have for our nonhuman family members. How would they feel if they knew how deeply some of us grieve when we say goodbye to characters in book we love?Continue Reading

Alisa Kwitney is Ready to HOWL

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cover of HowlAlisa Kwitney’s new five-issue comic series Howl has a title that references the Allen Ginsberg poem that became a Beat generation anthem — and the alien howl given by the pod people in the 1978 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Kwitney spoke to Cemetery Dance about her new science fiction horror story, the influence of her mother Ziva and science fiction writer father Robert Sheckley, and about her time as an editor at DC Comics.Continue Reading

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #237

Stephen King News From the Dead Zone

I should start off by saying Happy New Year. We can hope it will be happy anyway. And why not? For the first time in a while, we know not only what King’s next book is going to be, but also what he’s currently working on for the book after that, assuming inspiration continues to flow in his direction. Or, as he so colorfully put it, that the “red thread that comes out of a mousehole in the ground” doesn’t break. And there will be at least six adaptations hitting screens of various sizes during 2025.

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Exhumed: “Diary” and “The Left Behind”

banner reading Exhumed - The Fiction of Cemetery Dance by K. Edwin Fritz

Hi there. I’m Keith, or “K. Edwin” if you prefer. I’m a middle school English teacher, a writer, and like any perfectly normal fan of horror these days, another random guy who is totally obsessed with Cemetery Dance Magazine. Ok, maybe I take it a bit further than most… I actually own every single copy (but that’s a story for another post). 

Exhumed is my humble attempt to read and review every short story and novel excerpt ever published by CD. In their 35+ years of publication, there have been 577 pieces spread out over 79 issues featuring no less than 283 different authors. That’s a lot of scares! But since each Exhumed post covers just 2 stories (one “old” and one “new”), I think I’m going to be doing this for a while. I sure hope you’ll join me along the way. So grab your shovel and dig in. There’s no telling what we’ll unearth together. Continue Reading

Mike Mignola Goes BOWLING

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cover of Bowling with CorpsesHellboy creator Mike Mignola is ushering in 2025 with a brand-new anthology of folklore-inspired stories, Bowling with Corpses. Labeled as “weird, wicked and whimsical” by publisher Dark Horse Comics, this collection sees Mignola writing and illustrating stories featuring sorcerers, pirate girls, the undead and more. Mignola is joined on the project by long-time collaborator Dave Stewart on colors, along with letterer Clem Robins.

Mignola answered a few questions for Cemetery Dance about the new project. Stick around afterwards for a few pages from Bowling with CorpsesContinue Reading

Review: Shadowplay (Book 1): Midnight School by Samuel Fonseca

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Shadowplay (Book 1): Midnight School by Samuel Fonseca
Top Shelf Productions (February 11, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Sam Fonseca has been drawing comics since he discovered that the anime he watched on TV as a child came from manga — and that it was possible to create all that stuff by himself using paper and pencil (still his tools of choice). Nowadays, he alternates duties between art direction, storyboard art, script writing for animation and TV projects, and creating comics. His comic project Age of Rust was nominated three times for the HQMix Prize, and his other title, Dynamite & Laser Beam, won in the “best webcomic” category. Sam also has the strange hobby of creating soundtracks for his comics. His newest collection is the dystopian nightmare, ShadowplayContinue Reading

Night Time Logic with Laird Barron

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Messy and Mysterious”, the “Indiscernible, Unknowable, and Ambiguous,” and a “Destabilization of Perceptions”

photo of author Laird Barron
Laird Barron (Photo by Ellen Datlow)

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance and over on my YouTube channel.

Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.

My short story collection with Cemetery Dance is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to Aickman and his kind of stories that operate this way. It can be found here.

I spoke with Laird Barron in early December 2024 about his latest short story collection titled Not A Speck of Light. You can watch our conversation here.

Our conversation for the column contains topics and stories we did not cover for the YouTube show. We began our talk about the opening quote for the book.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Bess Lovejoy

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Borderlines of the Uncanny, Polysemy, and a Hunger for the Mysterious”

photo of author Bess Lovejoy
Bess Lovejoy

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance and over on my YouTube channel.

Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.

My short story collection with Cemetery Dance is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to Aickman and his kind of stories that operate this way. It can be found here.

I spoke with Bess Lovejoy in early November 2024 about her latest short story titled “Internal Theft” which appeared in the most recent issue of the acclaimed ‘zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, the work of Robert Aickman, and much more. We began our conversation about her death-related non-fiction work and publications.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Ian Rogers

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Noir, Supernatural Noir, and The Black Lands”

photo of author Ian Rogers
Ian Rogers

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance and over on my YouTube channel.

Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.

My short story collection with Cemetery Dance is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to Aickman and his kind of stories that operate this way. It can be found here.

I spoke with Ian Rogers in early October 2024 about his new novel from Cemetery Dance, Sycamore. Our conversation is available on YouTube.

We begin our conversation today catching up with some of Ian’s 2024 publications before diving into Sycamore and the Black Lands.Continue Reading

Meet Marco Finnegan’s Undead Detective

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cover of Calavera, P.I. Cartoonist Marco Finnegan’s love of film noir and pulps led him to creating Calavera, P.I., about an undead murdered detective who comes back on Dia de los Muertos. Not only will Detective Juan Calavera have to solve a new crime, he also needs to find out who killed him. Finnegan spoke with Cemetery Dance about the use of Mexican folklore in the graphic novel, his horror influences, and what he would like people to take away from his newest work.Continue Reading

Kolchak Kickstarted Again! Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters

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Cover of Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters
Art by Dave Acosta

After successfully Kickstarting Kolchak: The Night Stalker 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel and  Jeff Rice’s original novel Kolchack: The Night Stalker, editor James Aquilone is back with a Kickstarter campaign for Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters from Moonstone Books. Cemetery Dance spoke with Aquilone, along with writers Rodney Barnes and Steve Niles, both of whom are contributing stories, about this latest project in the world of Kolchak.  Continue Reading

Review: Leviathan Volume 1 by Shiro Kuroi

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cover of Leviathan Volume 1Leviathan Volume 1 by Shiro Kuroi
Abrams Comic Arts (October 29, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Shiro Kuroi is a rising star manga author who lives in Toyko, Japan. Leviathan is his first international serialized work, which has been published simultaneously in France and Japan. Highly praised for his character writing and illustration, Leviathan went on to become one of the top 10 bestselling new manga titles in France, and he has already received international attention online from manga fans hoping for an English release of his work. Fortunately, the wait is over, as Leviathan, Volume 1 has finally arrived. Continue Reading