Official Press Release

San Diego, CA, January 29, 2004. When the TV station in Jackson, Oklahoma bows to the wishes of the community’s parents and forces local TV horror host Aleister Arcane into an unwanted retirement, the repercussions of this act spawn more terror than any of the films that Aleister used to present.

Who is behind this plague of arcane activities… the TV station, the parents, the kids, Aleister, or something bigger?

“Aleister Arcane is probably one of my favorite projects going right now because of the gorgeous work being done by Breehn Burns,” says Niles, “This is a very personal story for me and he has really stepped up to the plate.”

“Aleister Arcane doesn’t look like anything else we’ve published,” Jeff Mariotte, IDW’s Editor-in-Chief said. “Breehn Burns and Steve Niles are both pushing themselves in new directions, taking risks, and coming up with an incredible piece of comic book storytelling here. People who think they know what to expect from these creators, or from IDW, have a big surprise in store—and a pleasant one.”

Aleister Arcane #1 is a full color, 32-page comic book on sale in April 2004, with a retail price of $3.99.

IDW PUBLISHING is a division of Idea + Design Works, LLC, a revolutionary creative service company with a wide range of clients including The Upper Deck Company, Electronic Arts, Ultima Online, WizKids, Cartoon Network, Sony Online Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and many more. IDW Publishing focuses on a small number of high-quality titles. Among them are CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night and its sequel, Dark Days; Ashley Wood’s Lore; CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations; Beau Smith’s Wynonna Earp; and Steve Niles’ Wake The Dead. Columbia Pictures has optioned the movie rights to 30 Days of Night, with Sam Raimi attached to produce. Konami is producing a video game based on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations. Dimension Films has optioned the movie rights to Wake The Dead and Hyde.

Official Press Release

San Diego, CA, January 28, 2004. The premiere zombie movie of all time is now a comic book reality. George A. Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead will soon be stalking comic shops everywhere.

IDW Publishing, known for their innovative approach to horror comics, will publish the zombie-infested Dawn Of The Dead this April with modern day horror master Steve Niles as the writer. Niles is the writer and creator of the mega-hit 30 Days Of Night. Niles will be leading this zombie attack with Wake The Dead artist Chee at his side.

The license to adapt the 1979 horror classic into a comic book miniseries was granted to IDW Publishing by an affiliate of New Amsterdam Entertainment Inc., whose CEO, Richard P. Rubinstein, was the producer of the original feature. Michael Messina, New Amsterdam VP, said, “After reading a long piece about Steve [Niles] in Fango, we were convinced that he had to adapt Dawn. So, I was pretty pumped when I approached him because to me it was a no-brainer! Steve thought about it for like two seconds… He then put me in touch with Ted Adams at IDW, who also took no time at all to say they were in. Now with Chee on board, the final piece is in place and we couldn’t be happier. The fans are going to love this.”

“Dawn of the Dead is one of the most, if not the most important film of my childhood,” says Niles. “It was the first movie I waited and waited to come out. I read every update and I’ll never forget the picture of the exploding head in Fangoria #1. It is nothing short of an honor to now, all these years later, adapt it into a comic and maybe expose this horror classic to a whole new audience.”

Readers will never approach a mall in the same way after they read this classic adaptation of Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead, the follow up to his famous Night Of The Living Dead. Although the original Dawn of the Dead was released in the 1970s, it remains a favorite of horror fans around the world.

Anchor Bay Entertainment will release a new DVD of the classic fright film around three weeks ahead of the comic book release, and IDW has arranged to have a link from the DVD to IDW’s website, where a preview of the comic will be available. Anchor Bay Entertainment will include the Comic Shop Locator Service phone number on the DVD as well.

IDW Editor-in-Chief Jeff Mariotte said, “You can’t look at IDW’s publishing line and not realize that we love horror. When it comes to horror films, George Romero’s is one of those names that stands at the forefront, and we’re thrilled to be adapting his work, especially with horror maestro Steve Niles at the helm. Getting the Comic Shop Locator Service number on the Dawn of the Dead DVD should help retailers take advantage of the huge audience that will be looking for this adaptation.”

George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is a full color, 32-page comic book miniseries, debuting in April 2004, with a retail price of $3.99.

IDW PUBLISHING is a division of Idea + Design Works, LLC, a revolutionary creative service company with a wide range of clients including The Upper Deck Company, Electronic Arts, Ultima Online, WizKids, Cartoon Network, Sony Online Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and many more. IDW Publishing focuses on a small number of high-quality titles. Among them are CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night and its sequel, Dark Days; Ashley Wood’s Lore; CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations; Beau Smith’s Wynonna Earp; and Steve Niles’ Wake The Dead. Columbia Pictures has optioned the movie rights to 30 Days of Night, with Sam Raimi attached to produce. Konami is producing a video game based on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations. Dimension Films has optioned the movie rights to Wake The Dead and Hyde.

New Amsterdam Entertainment is a New York City based developer and producer of feature films and longform television programming. The company’s most recent production (in association with Strike Entertainment) “Dawn of the Dead” (2004) stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer in a reinterpretation of Romero’s classic and is scheduled for theatrical release by Universal Studios in March (www.dawnofthedeadmovie.net). The company’s recent credits include the two hit Emmy winning 6-hr miniseries “Frank Herbert’s Dune” (2000) and “Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune” (2003) with William Hurt and Susan Sarandon leading ensemble casts respectively. The company is currently developing the feature films “Keller” based on the Lawrence Block novel Hit Man with Jeff Bridges attached to star and “Stephen King’s The Night Flier II: Fear of Flying” with Night Flier writer/director Mark Pavia.

Official Press Release

San Diego, CA, January 27, 2004. IDW Publishing is collecting the Dark Days miniseries by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith into a trade paperback compilation.

Dark Days is the sequel to the breakout hit of 2003, 30 Days Of Night. The 30 Days of Night trade paperback was Diamond Comic Distributors’ #4 bestselling book of 2003. The full six-issue Dark Days series is collected here with an exclusive introduction by screenwriter Eric Red (Hitcher, Near Dark). It will be have the same high quality production values that readers have come to expect from IDW Publishing.

“I can’t wait to see Dark Days collected,” says Niles. “IDW always does a beautiful job, Ben’s art is nothing short of spectacular and I had a blast writing it. Stella Olemaun is rapidly becoming one of my favorite reluctant heroes to write. I hope the fans agree.”

Dark Days is a full color, 144-page trade paperback with a retail price of $19.99.

IDW PUBLISHING is a division of Idea + Design Works, LLC, a revolutionary creative service company with a wide range of clients including The Upper Deck Company, Electronic Arts, Ultima Online, WizKids, Cartoon Network, Sony Online Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and many more. IDW Publishing focuses on a small number of high-quality titles. Among them are CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night and its sequel, Dark Days; Ashley Wood’s Lore; CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations; Beau Smith’s Wynonna Earp; and Steve Niles’ Wake The Dead. Columbia Pictures has optioned the movie rights to 30 Days of Night, with Sam Raimi attached to produce. Konami is producing a video game based on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations. Dimension Films has optioned the movie rights to Wake The Dead and Hyde.

Official Press Release

From: Dark Horse

The creative team behind 30 Days of Night, Wizard magazine’s “breakout hit of 2002,” launch a new series of occult detective stories featuring the monstrously hard-boiled Cal McDonald. A pill-popping alcoholic reprobate, Cal is the only line of defense between Los Angeles and a growing horde of zombies, vampires, and werewolves. The best-selling comics series is collected in this massive graphic novel, including the hard-to-find short from last Halloween’s Drawing on Your Nightmares special issue, and a new cover by Templesmith!

MGM has picked up the film rights to Steve Niles’ and Ben Teplesmith’s comic book miniseries Criminal Macabre through Dark Horse Entertainment!

The Criminal Macabre: A Cal Mcdonald Mystery tpb features the writing talents of Steve Niles and art by Ben Templesmith. It arrives in stores April 28, with a retail price of $17.95.

Three new additions to the store here at SteveNiles.com today. First off, we now have signed copies of FUSED: THINK LIKE A MACHINE #1 and FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND #1 available for order. Plus, we now have copies of the COMPLETE 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. This special edition of the hit series contains loads of great extras. Oversized approx 9” x 13.5”, slip-cased, containing all three issues, all three scripts with Ben Templesmith’s original sketchbook material, the never-reprinted story from Wizard Edge, the pitch-book that sold the movie, a brand new short prose story by Niles, illustrated by Templesmith, and more–this book has everything the legions of 30 Days fans crave! Plus, everyone who orders a copy of the COMPLETE 30 DAYS OF NIGHT will receive one free SteveNiles.com Tee Shirt! That’s right, free! Head on over to the store right now for more details.

Over at Newsarama Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith talk about their RETURN TO BARROW later this year. Read the interview to learn more and to get a look at the covers to the series.

Diamond Comics Distributors has released sales activity results for 2003 and the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT trade paperback did great! The collection of the hit mini-series landed at #4 based on total number of books sold in Diamond’s Top 100 Graphic Novels for 2003. The retail ranking indicates total money made by a trade, which saw the trade come in at #3! Thanks for your support and for making 2003 the year of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.

The kids over at Ain’t It Cool News took a gander at LOVE ME TENDERLOIN and seemed to take a liking to haunted meat.

LOVE ME TENDERLOIN opens with hard knocks, supernatural detective Cal McDonald beaten up and passed out on a toilet. He wakes up, checks his new set of cuts and bruises in the mirror and walks out into his office where he is startled by Mo’Lok, Cal’s sometime partner and all-the-time ghoul. After screaming like a schoolgirl, Cal whips out his revolver, blasts a hole in Mo’Lok’s chest, screams “That’s for scaring me,” comments on the fact that he’s got a lot of mail piled up, and asks what day it is. Welcome to the offbeat world of Cal McDonald, a brilliant creation by the new modern master of comic book macabre, Steve Niles.

Comic Book Resources has a rather extensive preview of HYDE #1 in J. Torres Open Your Mouth column for January 15th. Scroll about half way down the page and click on the thumbnails.

This past Sunday January 11th Steve made an appearance at the Media City Convention in North Hollywood, California. Steve brought along Ben Templesmith and friends! Click the images below to see a larger version of each.

The fans swarm around Steve!	Breehn Burns with Steve
Dan Wickline, Lorelei (Ben’s fiancee), Ben and Steve	Ben sketches for a fan
Steve with Shannon Denton