Terrific news this week for digital comic fans, with word from publisher Russell Willis that SEQUENTIAL has added David Hine‘s stunning Strange Embrace title to their catalogue – a work that helped redefine graphic novel horror when it was first released by Atomeka Press back in 1993. (The story was subsequently collected by Richard Starkings’ Active Images, then reprinted by Image.
Strange Embrace is a tortured modern gothic tale of madness, death and sexual longing. The world of Strange Embrace is one of pain and sorrow, obsession and damnation – a world that twists and pollutes the lives of all that enter it.
Sukumar helps with the deliveries for his father’s shop, and every Friday he takes groceries to an old, seemingly abandoned antiques shop. He has never seen the mysterious customer, but the dark, dusty shop is filled with strange, sculpted demons…
When Sukumar meets Alex, a manipulative, amoral psychic with an obsessive desire to discover the story of the old man in the antiques shop, he is plunged into a terrifying world of madness, murder, torture, psychological horror, suicide and damnation. Strange Embrace is frightening, shocking, chilling… and very strange.
This new expanded version, exclusively available on SEQUENTIAL, takes David Hine’s original 200-page black and white masterpiece and supplements it with a whole host of extra features including an audio commentary on each and every page, a gallery of original covers, the first panel breakdowns and dialog, synced with the pages they became, an interview with comics historian Paul Gravett and an academic piece, Visualizising the Fantastic in Strange Embrace by Marcus Oppolzer.
Additional artwork and characters sketches and the whole 150-page original script are also part of this amazing package.
David, who I’ve known since his days working for Marvel UK, is a Harvey Award nominee and has worked for 2000AD, Marvel, DC, and written Civil War X-Men, Spider-Man Noir, Batman, The Spirit, The Bulletproof Coffin, Storm Dogs and Daredevil: Redemption, amongst many others. More recently, for Self-MadeHero he wrote the superb The Man Who Laughs with Mark Stafford – with whom he is currently working on The Bad, Bad Place.
Included in both 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, and Graphic Novels, Stories to Change Your Life, Strange Embrace is a landmark in the development of the graphic novel, and possibly the greatest horror graphic novel ever produced.
Comics historian Paul Gravett has called SEQUENTIAL “the thinking man’s Comixology” as a way to describe how SEQUENTIAL works with the finest graphic novel publishers and independent artists around the world, and curates its fast-expanding selection of work. The company specialises in “expanded graphic novels” that can feature audio, video, interviews, and other extras, that supplement the main graphic novel, similar to the way DVD extras have worked.
SEQUENTIAL has the widest selection of graphic novels available on the iPad, featuring work from publishers such as Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, NBM, Secret Acres, Knockabout, Blank Slate, SelfMadeHero and more. Many of the hundreds of graphic novels are exclusive to SEQUENTIAL, including titles by Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, David Lloyd and Hunt Emerson.
“We don’t do superheroes,” says Russell Willis. “There’s lots of places for them already.”
• Strange Embrace on SEQUENTIAL is available now for just $9.99 / £6.99. More info on the release here: http://store.sequential.cc/catalogue/book/strange_embrace_by_david_hine/654
• Get the SEQUENTIAL App from iTunes
- About the Author
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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.
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