This year marks the 50th anniversary since newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin, first hit our screens in the TV horror film The Night Stalker – written by speculative fiction legend Richard Matheson. This was followed in 1973 by The Night Strangler and, in 1974, came a 20-episode TV series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, that, perhaps criminally, was canceled after just one year. However, thanks in part to a generous amount of late-night reruns throughout the years, Kolchak’s influence was cast far and wide. To mark this 50th anniversary, Moonstone Books and editor James Aquilone are bringing the cult classic back as a 120+ page anthology graphic novel via Kickstarter. The campaign has already met its funding target within hours of launch and, at the time of writing, still has 31 days to run.
The book will include at least one story from each decade of Kolchak’s life, spanning his entire illustrious investigative career from the 1930s all the way up to the early 2000s, written and illustrated by a stellar team of creatives.
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The lineup so far includes:
1930s:
David Avellone (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Bettie Page) & Julius Ohta (Iron Man, Bettie Page)
1940s:
Jonathan Maberry (V-Wars) & Marco Finnegan (Lizard in a Zoot Suit)
1950s:
Peter David (Fallen Angel) & JK Woodward (Fallen Angel, Star Trek)
1960s:
Richard Christian Matheson (Masters of Horror) & Tom Rogers (Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla)
1970s:
Kim Newman (Anno Dracula) & Paul McCaffrey (Anno Dracula)
Rodney Barnes (Killadelphia) & Jonathan Marks Barravecchia (Scarlet Witch)
Tim Waggoner (Supernatural) & Clara Meath (Midnight Vista)
1980s:
James Aquilone (Dead Jack) & Colton Worley (The Shadow)
1990s:
Nancy Collins (Swamp Thing) & Warwick Johnson-Cadwell (Falconsphere)
2000s:
James Chambers (Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe) & Paul McCaffrey (Anno Dracula)
All the stories will be lettered by Tom Napolitano (Lugosi – The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Dracula) and colored by Zac Atkinson (Young Justice).
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The anthology also includes an intro by Richard Christian Matheson, an essay on the 50th anniversary by Mark Dawidziak, author of The Nightstalker Companion, and a retrospective of Moonstone Book’s publication history of Kolchak by publisher Joe Gentile. There are many reward tiers available including digital, paperback, or hardcover copies of the anthology as well as variant covers to choose from, signed copies, a deluxe edition that includes 10 new, original, short stories, plus dioramas and a plethora of add-ons. Head over to the Kickstarter page to grab yourself some Kolchak!