Entertainment Weekly has exclusively announced that Joe Hill (“Locke & Key”) will oversee a horror pop-up imprint for DC Black Label called Hill House. Initially the pop-up will launch with five limited series. Hill will also write two of the five announced titles, as well as a back-up story that is featured throughout all of the titles.
The first comic, “Basketful of Heads,” will be written by Hill and illustrated by Leomacs (“Dark Side”). It will follow a young couple house-sitting a New England mansion filled with Viking artifacts, like coins, shields, and an ax. When a storm hits, home invaders strike, and the girl goes to hide. When she returns, her boyfriend is nowhere to be found, but one of the assailants has stayed behind for her, but she is able to reach for the ax, which has the supernatural power to cleave someone’s head off in one stroke – and keep them alive…
Next up for Hill is “Plunge,” which Hill describes as “my chance to riff on one of the greatest horror films of all time, John Carpenter’s The Thing.” Beginning in the 1980s, a highly advanced research vessel goes missing near the Arctic Circle, only to suddenly reappear 40 years later, now sending a distress signal. As a wintry storm approaches, a team is dispatched to recover the vessel and they find oil with unusual properties, as well as the original research crew – who haven’t aged a day, and are all are missing their eyes. Hill says “There’s something terribly wrong with them. And then the storm closes in.”
DC will also bring some Vertigo alums in to write for the imprint. Former “Lucifer” writer Mike Carey and artist Peter Gross will tackle “The Dollhouse Family,” which is about Alice, who was gifted a big beautiful dollhouse as a child, filled with a magical family of dolls. As she gets older, Alice returns to the dollhouse, with unexpected results.
“Daphne Byrne” will be written by comics newcomer Laura Marks, who collaborated with Hill on the upcoming Locke & Key Netflix series, and illustrated by Kelley Jones (“Archie vs. Predator”). Set in the gaslit 1800s New York, the titular protagonist will discover a strange, insidious entity within her body.
“The Low, Low Woods,” will be written by Carmen Maria Machado, whose collection of short stories Her Body and Other Parties is hailed by Hill as “disturbing and wild and wonderful.” The series will be illustrated by Dani (“The Dreaming”). The story follows a Pennsylvania mining town afflicted by a mysterious plague that eats memories.
Finally, Hill will write “Seadogs,” a two-page backup within each comic that tells a larger story about three American werewolves unleashed upon the British naval fleet during the American Revolution.
Keep an eye out for more news about the pop-up, and catch “Basketful of Heads” #1 in comic stores October 30, 2019.
