Steve’s Criminal Macabre: The Trouble With Brains featuring art by Kyle Hotz is currently being featured on MySpace Comics. The entire story is online and free to read as a part of issue #9 of MySpace/Dark Horse Presents. Next month’s issue #10 will feature another Cal McDonald adventure, so be sure to check back!

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.”

Check out what Steve has coming from Dark Horse this October!

CRIMINAL MACABRE: MY DEMON BABY #2 (of 4)
STEVE NILES (W), NICK STAKAL (A), MICHELLE MADSEN (C), and TIM BRADSTREET (Cover)

On sale Oct. 24
FC, 32 pages
$2.99
Miniseries

Cal McDonald has faced down all manner of monsters from bloodthirsty zombies to ancient vampires, but his newest case is the thorniest yet. Cal has to find out if a devil-worshiping cult has succeeded in their quest to bring Satan to earth, dodge vengeful cops, and stay one step ahead of a group of vicious priests in possession of a terrifying secret weapon.

From the creator of 30 Days of Night!

That’s right, the latest Cal McDonald story is in stores today and we encourage you to check it out! Steve Niles and Kyle Hotz bring you the action, featuring a beautifully rendered cover by cover artist extraordinaire, Tim Bradstreet. Have a look.

Over on his MySpace blog, Steve’s added six pages from the December 20th shipping “Criminal Macabre: Two Red Eyes” from Dark Horse. With beautiful art by Kyle Hotz, this latest Cal McDonald mystery is one not to be missed. Click the image below to be taken to the MySpace exclusive preview.

Our good buddy Tim Bradstreet shared the cover to the upcoming “Criminal Macabre: Two Red Eyes” #3 on his blog. The book is out in February from Dark Horse Comics. Tim had some interesting comments regarding this photo shoot:

“I had a ball shooting this stuff with Jane, Niles, my buddy Scott Harben, and (though you haven’t seen him on a cover yet) Christopher Nelson as Mo’Lock. We should be seeing Mo on the next cover. That’s Niles in the back seat of Cal’s Smoke Gray Nova, covered in prosthetics. Isn’t it every kid’s fantasy to dress up like it’s Halloween and be on the cover of a Monster boook? Niles is kind of “our” Ron Perlman, he get’s all the dirty assignments like dressing up in a sweaty Werewolf costume for “In The Blood”, and having to wear all sorts of rubber masks and other nasty things that rub against your supple flesh and stink like a caveman has been wearing it. But that’s the price you pay for realism. Regardless, it seems Steve is having the time of his life with this. And it shows in the scripts. I really can’t wait for these to start hitting the shelves. Criminal Macabre is shaping up to be one helluva great read.”

In January of 2007, Steve has two items up for grabs at Dark Horse Comics that you’ll want to check out. Here are the details.

CRIMINAL MACABRE: TWO RED EYES #2 (of 4)

STEVE NILES (W), KYLE HOTZ (A), MICHELLE MADSEN (C), and TIM BRADSTREET (Cover)

On sale Jan.24
FC. 32 pages
$2.99
Miniseries

A hospital bed might seem like a nice, safe place for an injured man to be, but not if he’s Cal McDonald. As if it weren’t bad enough that Cal was hospitalized after being on the receiving end of an extreme case of police brutality-now he’s enduring an even more surreal horror, one known commonly to drug addicts as “withdrawal.” Cal’s body may be healing but the nightmare visions the withdrawal brings threaten to tear what remains of his sanity to shreds. And when Cal finally does make it to the other side of this ordeal, he wakes up only to discover that the world’s deepest, oldest evil-the vampire Nosferatu -came calling and took Cal’s ex Sabrina with him!

CRIMINAL MACABRE: SUPERNATURAL FREAK MACHINE

STEVE NILES (W), KELLEY JONES (A), and TIM BRADSTREET (A)

On sale Apr. 7
FC, 120 pages
$17.95
TPB, 7″ x 10″

Escaped mad doctors and possessed muscle cars are all in a day’s work for supernatural investigator Cal McDonald and his undead sidekick Mo’Lock.

When an old enemy Cal sent to prison escapes, his sights are set on exacting cold revenge on the guy who put him there. And it looks like he’ll have to cut through everyone Cal loves to get to him . . . perfect! Cal knows what he’s up against, and he’s hardly batting an eye. He’s already put this guy away once, and it’s not like prison makes people bitter, right? And besides-things are looking up. He’s even got a new car to brag about-a spiffy 1973 Nova. Too bad the guy who died in the car before Cal bought it has no intention of leaving!

o Steve Niles is a bona fide star in the world of horror comics, and he’s taking a bite out of Hollywood, too. Production on the film adaptation of his hit comic-book 30 Days of Night started in New Zealand in summer 2006!

Steve sat down for a long chat with Sam Moyerman over at Broken Frontier to talk all things Cal McDonald and “The Creeper.” It’s an interview published in three parts, so here are the direct links to each article: