Rebellion have opened preorders for this year’s Scream! Halloween Special, offering a devilish mix of doppelgängers and horrifying transformations to entice the unwary!
Due for release on Wednesday 28th October 2026, featuring a cover by Designer and Illustrator Salvador Lavado, the 52-page Scream! Halloween Special 2026 features strips written by GLAAD award winning writer and classicist Oliver Gerlach, whose credits include credits include 2000AD, Red Sonja, and the multi-award winning anthology Young Men In Love; Michael Gorman, who has written the story to be drawn by Babs Tarr (“I grew up glued to 2000AD during long Scotrail summers,” he says, “so being able to contribute back means the world”); Scream! Special regular Alex Paknadel (writer of Image Comics All Against All, TMNT: Casey Jones, Marvel’s Cyclops), award-nominated multidisciplinary writer Zac Thompson (Cable, Marvellous X-Men, Into The Unbeing, Cemetery Kids Don’t Die); and Zoe Tunnell (Blade Maidens, Godzilla, Marvel United, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)
Artists on board are Argentinian artist Alejandro Aragon, co-creator of Death Orb, a sci-fi cyberpunk story written by Ryan Ferrier, whose credits also include The Expanse for Boom! Studios and Overlook at Image Comics; Chloe Brailsford (Catwoman, Let Her Be Evil); Vic Malhotra (Narcos, for IDW, Roche Limit, for Image Comics); Italian artist Mattia Monaco (Eat Your Young, and the upcoming Crimes Against Nature, for Image Comics); and Babs Tarr, an award-nominated comic artist and illustrator known for her work on Sirens: Love Hurts, Batgirl of Burnside, Critical Role: Pub Draw, and Motor Crush.
Doppelgängers and horrifying transformations lurk in the shadows of the Scream! Halloween Special 2026, as the lines between reality and nightmare blur across five twisted tales – ranging from vampire conspiracies to an AI software update from hell, to body-altering experimental tech, to a mutating archeological find…
Following 40 Years of Scream! and the success of the Eisner-nominated Scream! The Specials 1985-2024, the anthology comic is back with all-new episodes of “The Dracula File” and “The Thirteenth Floor”, and brand new one-shots to keep you up at night all through Halloween season… and beyond…
A short-lived horror comic anthology published by IPC Magazines in 1984, Scream! originally lasted just 15 weekly issues before it was abruptly cancelled and merged with Eagle comic, but has enjoyed much more success under Rebellion’s ownership, although they’ve stopped short of reviving the original format. Tagged as “not for the nervous,” it featured tongue-in-cheek horror and sci-fi stories overseen by a mysterious, hooded, undead editor named Ghastly McNasty.
• Preorder the Scream! Halloween Special 2026 direct from Rebellion here
Head downthetubes for…
• 40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection: Volume 1 (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Celebrating 40 years since IPC launched the UK’s most iconic ‘horror’ anthology, this single volume collects all of the strips included in the 15-issue run of Scream!
Produced ‘from the depths’ of King’s Reach Tower by the mysterious ‘undead’ editor Ghastly McNasty, the first issue of Scream! was unleashed in March 1984. More tongue-in-cheek than horrific, the comic was an immediate hit with younger fans as it included a pair of fake vampire fangs attached to the cover and a number of fantastic new strips from such talents as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Jose Ortiz, Cam Kennedy, Tom Tully, Alan Grant and Eric Bradbury.
• Scream! The Specials 1985-2024: Volume 2 (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Enter this nightmare world at your peril! Following the acclaimed 40 Years of Scream!, this companion volume features previously uncollected material from the holiday specials spinning out of the main title. From the original run in the 1980s to the latest, oversized 40th anniversary issue, this collection completes the Scream! archives with stories by veteran writers and artists Dave Gibbons, Eric Bradbury, Barrie Tomlinson and Tom Tully, as well as recent revival strips including the work of Alex Paknadel, Torunn Grønbekk, Henry Flint, and DaNi.
With thanks to Lew Stringer for the heads up (or should that be heads off?)
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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