The Demon (1972)

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The Demon was created by Jack Kirby. The titular character, named Etrigan, is a demon from Hell who, despite his violent tendencies, usually finds himself allied to the forces of good, mainly because of the alliance between the heroic characters of the DC Universe and Jason Blood, a human to whom Etrigan is bound.

Jack Kirby created the Demon in 1972 when his Fourth World titles were cancelled. According to Mark Evanier, Kirby had no interest in horror comics, but created Etrigan in response to a demand from DC for a horror character. Kirby was annoyed that the first issue sold so well that DC required him to remain on it and abandon the Fourth World titles before he was done with them. Etrigan was inspired by a comic strip of Prince Valiant in which the titular character dressed as a demon. Kirby gave his creation the same appearance as Valiant’s mask.

Adventure into Fear (1974)

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Morbius, the Living Vampire, introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971), became the starring feature with Adventure into Fear #20 (Feb. 1974), and continued through the rest of the run. After a single issue by writer Mike Friedrich and penciler Paul Gulacy, Steve Gerber wrote several issues in which Morbius went on a picaresque interdimensional journey and fought the Caretakers of Arcturus and was advised by the eyeball-headed character I. Doug Moench and Bill Mantlo followed, successively, as the feature’s writers. Its round-robin of artists included Gil Kane, P. Craig Russell, Frank Robbins, George Evans, and Don Heck. Back up reprints shortly resumed in issue #20. Morbius would receive his own short-lived comic-book series in the 1990s.

The Sandman Overture (2013)

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To commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Sandman, Gaiman wrote a new tale involving the battle that had exhausted Morpheus prior to the beginning of the original story. Written by Gaiman and with art by J. H. Williams III, Overture tells the previously hinted story of Dream’s adventure prior to Preludes and Nocturnes, which had exhausted him so much that it made Burgess’ actions capable of capturing him. The limited series had six issues. Issue #1 was released on October 30, 2013, and although it was planned to have a bi-monthly release schedule, issue 2 was delayed until March 2014, which Gaiman explained was “mostly due to the giant signing tour I was on from June, and me not getting script written on the tour, with knock-on effects”. Special editions were released approximately a month after the original editions, which contain interviews with the creative team, alongside rare artwork.

Avengers A.I. (2013)

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Avengers A.I. was an ongoing comic book series published by Marvel Comics that was released in July 2013, as part of the company’s Marvel NOW! initiative. The series takes place after the events of Age of Ultron, where the world has been colonized by A.I.s “who may or may not have positive feelings about the way humanity has been treating them for the past 100 years.” The series ended in April 2014.

Creepy (2009)

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In July 2009, Dark Horse Comics and New Comic Company LLC released the new Creepy magazine. Edited by Shawna Gore and Dan Braun with Craig Haffner, it displayed the work of artists Bernie Wrightson, Angelo Torres, Saskia Gutekunst and Jason Shawn Alexander illustrating scripts by Michael Woods, Dan Braun, Joe Harris and Bill Dubay.

Elektra – Root of Evil (1995)

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Created by Frank Miller, Elektra first appeared in Daredevil #168 (January 1981). Miller originally intended this issue, which was essentially a filler story, to be Elektra’s only appearance, but she instead became a frequently appearing villain in Daredevil until her death in issue #181 (April 1982). She was resurrected shortly after, but the story contained a narrative note which indicated that Daredevil would never encounter her again.

After over a decade’s absence, she reappeared in Daredevil #324-327 (January–April 1994), and went on to a brief stint as a supporting character in Wolverine (in #100-106). Daredevil writer D. G. Chichester recounted that he and editor Ralph Macchio had

bandied about the idea [of bringing back Elektra] in a casual fashion now and again, but neither of us wanted to do it as a gimmick. On the rare occasion I thought I had a legitimate angle to use her, Ralph was cool to the idea. But as we geared up for what would become Fall From Grace, Ralph out of the blue said, “What about bringing back Elektra?” — and it was really the missing piece that clicked together all the loose pieces of the story in my head, and became the nexus for everything tying together as well as it did. In my mind, it’s always been her to whom the title refers.

This upset Frank Miller, who claimed that Marvel had previously promised him that the character would not be used in any publication. She has since appeared in two eponymous ongoing series and several mini-series.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1993)

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a four-issue Topps comic book adaptation of Columbia Pictures’ (Sony Pictures Entertainment) 1992 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola which starred a young Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, Winona Ryder as Mina Murray, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing and Gary Oldman as Dracula. Topps Comics released a 120-page adaptation in 1993, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Mike Mignola, one of the last projects before launching Hellboy.

 

Tomb of Dracula V4 (2004)

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Every thousand years, Dracula enters a chrysalis state for four days, leaving him in a vulnerable state. During this time the most powerful vampires from around the world gather in Transylvania to protect him. Now they are about to be joined by an eclectic team of vampire slayers that have gathered to take down the legendary Vampire King – including the best and most dangerous slayer of them all – Blade!

Blade Runner (1982)

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Blade Runner is a comic book adaptation of the film Blade Runner, published by Marvel Comics in 1982. It was written by Archie Goodwin with art by Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon with Dan Green and Ralph Reese.

This film adaptation includes one possible explanation of the title’s significance in story context: the narrative line, “Blade runner. You’re always movin’ on the edge.”

This was a reprint of issue 22 of the Marvel Comics Super Special series of titles, which by this time only printed Marvel’s movie adaptations, but without the feature content contained in the special.

Heroes in Crisis (2018)

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Heroes in Crisis primarily deals with the emotional cost of being a superhero and explores “what violence does to a society”, a common theme in King’s work. King, a former CIA counterterrorism officer, believed this was an important subject that needed to be discussed. King described this creative decision: “Comic books, throughout the whole history of the medium, have been reflective of history. In World War II, there were comics about fighting in World War II. In the seventies, the comics were about psychedelic escape. Today, our moment right now is a moment of violence and living with violence and our comics have to address that”.