Image has announced their shipping schedule for November, and it includes the issue 6 of Steve and Thomas Jayne’s BAD PLANET maxi-series. Here’s the solicitation description:

BAD PLANET #6 (of 12)
story STEVE NILES & THOMAS JANE art JIM DALY & TIM BRADSTREET
covers DAVE STEVENS

32 PAGES FC
NOVEMBER 21
$2.99

THE FIRST HALF OF THE BAD PLANET SAGA CONCLUDES!
It’s a spine-tingling cliffhanger that will leave you with your hair standing on end, praying that the Earth has a quick and painless end. Plus Nikola Tesla’s inventions set the stage for an unwitting hero.

RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

SIMON DARK’s second issue is coming! From the latest set of DC solicits is the following description:

SIMON DARK #2
Written by Steve Niles
Art and cover by Scott Hampton
The most offbeat superhero in the DCU, from the creator responsible for the most offbeat horror film, 30 Days of Night! Gotham City has a new protector?the urban legend they call Simon Dark. And he’s a very thin line of defense against a vicious serial killer!
On sale November 14 o 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Cal McDonald is one step closer to making his way to the big screen with a director possibly to be named as soon as within the next month! Shock Till You Drop shares the details here.

“We’ll probably be announcing a director [for ‘Criminal Macabre’] within a month,” Cal creator Steve Niles revealed at the Festival of Fear’s 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails panel.

Niles says “a” script went through two studios, both insistent on removing the film’s drug references. “Instead of the old Philip Marlowe, who’s a recovering alcoholic, [Cal] is a recovering junkie. That’s all. Recovering,” laughs Niles. Still, creative execs didn’t jive with that. “It’s not like Cheech & Chong, endorsing [drugs]. So, I’ve had to yank it from the studios who wanted to sanitize it.”

We’ve just added the a preview of the first six pages of the new Cal McDonald mini series to the galllery. Check them out!

Steve’s collaborator, artist Nick Stakal, was recently featured in an interview about their new Cal McDonald mini series. We’ve got an excerpt below, and the entire interview can be found online at CBR, here.

Stakal said film-noir and down-and-out detective type stories fascinate him, which “Criminal Macabre” delivers with a ghoulish twist, naturally. “I draw a lot of inspiration from movies and my favorites are stuff like ‘Touch of Evil,’ ‘Third Man,’ ‘Out of the Past,’ ‘Chinatown,’ ‘Angel Heart,’ etc. I guess that’s what I’m trying to bring to the project too, a kind of cinematic vibe with stark lighting and maybe a more realistic look to the characters than what’s been done in the past.”

Niles & Stakal have stayed in touch since their “Hyde” collaboration and have discussed working together again, but the timing just wasn’t right until now. “It just happened that they were looking for a new artist and I was finishing up my commitment on ‘Strange Girl.’ I showed Dark Horse my ‘Strange Girl’ work and some Cal McDonald doodles I’d done and we were off and running.

“Criminal Macabre: My Demon Baby” #1, pages 3 and 4
“I’ve been drawing it for a while now, with a few issues already in the bag,” continued Stakal. “I don’t want to say too much about what I’ve been drawing for fear of spoiling the story, but let’s just say the undead Knights Templar has been one of the most fun bits to draw.”

We’ve just added the first 7 (uncolored) pages from Steve’s first issue of SIMON DARK to the gallery. Take a look now!

Horror website BloodyDisgusting.com has a gallery of stills from “30 Days of Night” online for your viewing pleasure. Click here to take a look!

CBR recently ran an article on the process it took to get Steve’s “Strange Cases” from the video game screen to the printed comic book page.

Wickline explained Steve Niles’ involvement in the project with the following metaphor: “If David, Jason and I are the ones rowing the boat, Steve is the guy banging the drum. Just kidding. Steve came up with the concept for the video game and the basic direction for the comic. He also goes over the scripts and makes suggestions, etc. He was crucial in getting David (he found the virgin inkers) and is the reason this series exists. It’s his world, I just write the stories that take place in it.”

The new, unrated trailer for “30 Days” is online - be warned, it’s not worksafe!

MoviesOnline.ca sat down for a one-on-six interview session at last weekend’s Comic-Con to discuss the “30 Days” flick with Steve, David Slave, Sam Raimi, Josh Hartnett, Ben Foster and Ben Templesmith.

Steven, as creator of this project, you handed your baby over to Hollywood, you’re putting it in somebody else’s hands. Do some people take the approach where a comic is a comic and film is separate and I have nothing to do with it. Some people want to be really involved. What’s your process?

Steve Niles: Well for me, you know, they took me onto—they gave me first shot at the screenplay. So I got to that and then it’s been great. Ever since then every single person from Sam, David, the producers, everybody has kept me in the loop throughout the entire process. It’s been absolutely amazing. I felt really attached to it and, you know, I—pretty much since I met David, I knew I was in good hands. Yeah and I’ve been—so I just trust him and just they’ve kept me updated the entire time. It’s been pretty amazing.

You can read the interview in it’s entirety here!