When the TV series  Supernatural premiered in 2005, few could have guessed it would turn into the cult hit it is today. But five seasons in, the adventures of the supernatural-investigating Winchester brothers are still creeping out their ravenous fan base. So it makes sense that Supernatural would follow in the footsteps of fellow horror-action predecessors Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files and transport the demon-hunting tales to the world of comics. (Hey, if Ghost Whisperer can inspire a comic, then so can Supernatural.)

Coming on the heels of the popular Rising Son miniseries, DC/Wildstorm's latest Supernatural series, Beginning's End, delves farther into Sam's decision to leave his family for Stanford. But don't worry: There's still plenty of action as the Winchester boys finding themselves hunting monsters in the Big Apple. The story, written by show writers Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin, explores what makes the Winchesters such beloved loose cannons, and also appears to conform to the show's canon, something few TV comics bother doing.) Artist Diego Olmos will be familiar to fans of Rising Son, but Batman geeks might also want to take a look -- the rising comics star's recent Batman: Dragon's Knight one-shot was both a fun adventure story and a thrilling tour of Barcelona.

To see more great comic artwork, check out our Horror Comics photo gallery.

Legendary Pictures knows what comic book fans want -- quality movies featuring their favorite characters. And so far they've delivered, bringing us The Dark Knight, 300, Watchmen, and the upcoming Jonah Hex. Now, the studio has optioned Gravel, a supernatural action series from hot comic book writer (and Twitter enthusiast) Warren Ellis (Planetary).

William Gravel is a British SAS agent who fights supernatural horror once the sun goes down. (Gravel first appeared in a series of minis, and later an ongoing series, from Avatar Press.) The surly, no-nonsense Gravel is a standard Ellis creation -- an everyday, hard-drinking bloke caught up in crazy zombie and demon battles.

Word has it that Ellis will take a pass at the Gravel screenplay, and serve as the movie's executive producer. Will Ellis' distinctively dark and satiric voice shine through? Are moviegoers ready for James Bond meets Blade? And will Gravel make it to the screen faster than Red, Ocean, and Desolation Jones, three other projects based on Ellis' work, currently languishing in development? For now, we wait, and enjoy his comics (and tweets).

To see more great comic artwork, check out our Horror Comics photo gallery.

For more on Gravel, visit ComicMonsters.com.

As serious fans know, most movie tie-in comic book are pretty lackluster: Scripts that recycle concepts already explored in the movie, art that turns flesh-and-blood actors into stiff mannequins. At best, they are celebrity vanity projects. But Boom! Studios, the publisher behind the new 28 Days Later series, is giving movie comics a good name. Their recent Die Hard: Year One series is already far more thrilling than Live Free or Die Hard. (They've also had great success with some gorgeous-looking comics based on the Pixar and Muppet characters.) And with their new, ongoing 28 Days Later series, the story of what happened between the first movie and 28 Weeks Later will finally be told.

The 28 Days Later franchise is no stranger to quality comics. 2007's 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, written by 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles, expanded the back story of the zombie-making Rage virus through a series of grisly vignettes. The new 28 Days Later series focuses on Selena, one of the first movie's survivors, and her quest to return to Great Britain. (Wait, isn't that where all those zombified people are?) Writer Michael Alan Nelson will be familiar to fans of BOOM!'s horror titles Hexed and Fall of Cthulhu, while artist Declan Shalvey is a rising star on the scene. And if that isn't enough to convince you to pick it up, the first cover features a tough babe coming at a Rage zombie person with a giant knife. You pretty much can't beat that on the awesome scale.

To see more great comic artwork, check out our Horror Comics photo gallery.

For more on 28 Days Later, visit ComicMonsters.com.

The horror anthology Trick 'r Treat is finally coming out, and die-hard horror fans can't help but wonder whether it was worth the wait. Actor-turned-filmmaker Michael Dougherty's movie, which stars Brian Cox, Anna Paquin and Dylan Baker, pays homage to old-school horror comics like Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror and House of Mystery, and Wildstorm Comics is diving into the genre with its brand-new comic book adaptation of Trick 'r Treat.

On the treat side is writer Marc Andreyko (who's also behind DC Comics' underrated Manhunter series and penned the true-crime tale Torso), and among a bevy of great artists, Mike Huddleston (who illustrated the Lovecraftian Mnemovore).

To see more great comic artwork, check out our Horror Comics photo gallery.

For more on Trick 'r Treat, visit ComicMonsters.com.

Steve Niles Dark Days, the sequel to his hit vampires-in-Alaska comic book series 30 Days of Night, is following its predecessor to the big screen courtesy of Niles and writer-director Ben Ketai. Ketai is no stranger to the franchise, having worked on the webisodes 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails and 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust, which further flesh out Niles' vampire world. It's too soon to say whether 30 Days of Night: Dark Days will improve on the original, but it's a great excuse to catch up on the comic, espcially given that the moody artwork is by Ben Templesmith, one of the best in the biz today.

To see more great comic artwork, check out our Horror Comics photo gallery.

For more on Dark Days, visit ComicMonsters.com.

AMCtv.com's own David Wellington, who writes a weekly column most Mondays for the Horror Hacker, has a new book out tomorrow, Tue., Jun. 23. The latest installment in Wellington's popular series of vampire novels, 23 Hours finds its heroine (the ever-resourceful vampire-hunter Laura Caxton) dealing with an invasion of bloodsuckers at a women's prison. Frankly, the combination of vamps and convicts, prison guards and fanged gore sounds like a winning formula to us. "Since we killed off a lot of the people in the last one, this is a good place to start," Wellington assures us. Wellington has written six previous books, including the Monster Island trilogy which is available free online. 23 Hours is also available in a Kindle version.

How do you scare the bejabbbers out of 21st-century readers with Bram Stoker's 100+ year-old Dracula? Sure, vampires are hotter than ever, but the O.V. is looking a little long in the tooth (yeah, we said it). Everyone from Wes Craven to Mel Brooks has tried to revive the Count, with mixed results. Can the artist behind the hit vampire comic-turned-mediocre-movie 30 Days of Night inject some fresh blood (we've got a ton of 'em, folks) into Stoker's legendary creation? Ben Templesmith is no stranger to comic book fans -- his work on everything from G.I. Joe to Fell has made him a fan favorite (and possible heir to the Mike Mignola horror-comic throne.) Templesmith's lush, darkly gothic images are both unsettling and worthy of mounting on your wall (or desktop) and, unlike many contemporary comic-book artists, the guy can actually tell a creepy story (look no further than Fell, a visual treat and a low-cost publishing breakthrough).

For his take on Dracula, Templesmith created new, spine-chilling illustrations for every chapter of the novel, and his slick, impressionistic images conjure up another classic vampire -- the bald ghoul of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu. Templesmith, who's worked in film as a concept artist, could easily provide the ground work for a bloody, retro big-screen take on Dracula (think Sweeney Todd meets Twilight), as long as no-one gets the bright idea to cast Leslie Nielsen, lest the count be completely de-fanged (and don't let the puns drive you batty... not yet, anyway).

To learn more, check out our photo gallery of comic book art.

For more on Ben Templesmith's Dracula (and other horror comics), visit ComicMonsters.com.

Looking for a good, old vampire movie? Check out Bloood of Dracula on AMC. Click here for full schedule.

How long has it been since Hollywood has splurged on a holiday horror movie for the whole family? Well, let's just say that impressionable youngsters who got their first taste of spooky sweetness from The Nightmare Before Christmas are now plenty old enough to drive themselves to the movies. And apparently that fact hasn't been lost on the folks at Kickstart Entertainment (who gave us the not-so-family friendly Angelina Jolie packing heat in Wanted), if their plans to bring the Image Comics graphic novel Dear Dracula to the big screen are anything by which to judge.

Like the Nightmare team, Dear Dracula creators Joshua Williamson and Vinnie Navarrete started from the premise that Halloween and Christmas are two great tastes that taste great together. Young Sam is seriously into horror movies. In fact, he's so into the macabre, he passes on writing a yuletide letter to Santa in favor of appealing to the Prince of Darkness on his hallmark holiday. Where a lesser kid might stop at angling for extra candy corn, Sam aims high and asks Dracula to make him king of the vampires for a day. And wouldn't you just know that Dracula's so tickled that he shows up and takes Sam out for a night on the town. Williamson and Navarrete, who have children's book backgrounds, bring a young reader-friendly sensibility to comics, and fans of Jill Thompson's whimsical Scary Godmother series or the works of Roald Dahl will find much to like in Dear Dracula.

To learn more, check out our photo gallery. For more on Dear Dracula and other horror comics, visit ComicMonsters.com.

Whitley Strieber doesn't quite rank with horror superstars Stephen King and Clive Barker, but two of his novels became much-loved movies: 1978's Wolfen and the erotic vampire outing The Hunger (1983), starring David Bowie, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve. But Strieber's latest, the graphic novel The Nye Incidents (Devil's Due) is more reminiscent of Communion (1989), the UFO thriller he scripted from his own book. Like Communion, The Nye Incidents is based on supposedly true accounts of human/alien interaction, and now that Dark Castle has optioned it for the big screen, Strieber might help bring back the era of the extraterrestrial thriller.

A mash-up of Bones and The X-Files with a dash of Signs, The Nye Incidents follows level-headed medical examiner Lynn Devlin's investigations into the gruesome murder of an alien abductee. Of course, she's haunted by dreams of creepy saucer-eyed people, despite her logical, Dana Scully-esque side. Strieber has said that the story, inspired by true events, is so scary he didn't dare tell it himself, so he enlisted writer Craig Spector and artist Gus Floor to bring the tale to life. (Too scared, or too busy, Mr. Strieber? Only the aliens know for sure!)

Dark Castle has enlisted Todd Lincoln (visual effects supervisor for From Dusk Till Dawn and director of the upcoming Hack/Slash) to bring The Nye Incidents to multiplexes. But who should play Lynn Devlin? Perhaps Strieber could convince his old pal Susan Sarandon to delve into the world of scifi/horror? Or maybe it's the perfect big screen vehicle for Gillian Anderson... that would certainly make up for that recent lackluster X-Files movie. 

To learn more, check out our photo gallery. For more on The Nye Incidents and other horror comics, visit ComicMonsters.com.

Hellboy may be the star attraction, but Mike Mignola's darkly Gothic universe gets much of its appeal from Hellboy's friends/co-workers/de facto family: The moody fire starters, disembodied spirits and intellectual mermen who staff the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). Various members -- from Hellboy's fiery paramour, Liz Sherman, to the ethereal Johann Kraus -- have quietly starred in their own Dark Horse comics, and now the new B.P.R.D.: 1947 series (co-written by Mignola and Joshua Dysart) promises to delve deep into the team's murky origins.

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