The folks at Vault Comics are gearing up to introduce their fall horror imprint titles that come under the Nightfall banner and this year looks to introduce an intriguing one. With Black Stars Above before and The Plot as well, this year looks to bring The Autumnal, which comes from NYT bestselling author Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water, Trollhunters), artist Chris Shehan, colorist Jason Wordie, and letterer Jim Campbell.
“In ten novels, I’d written about a lot of monsters, but most were humans, or lighthearted, or greatly sympathetic,” said Daniel Kraus. “I still had a hankering to create an original, frightening, supernatural thing that had a shot at being iconic. While discussing horror with friends, I stumbled upon the concept of fallen leaves being like stepping stones for some kind of forest monster — a pathway it could use to follow you home and so forth. It was such a visual idea to me that I thought it’d be the perfect story to be my comic debut. I’m a gigantic fan of EC Comics, but I wanted to go in the opposite direction here, and make something sophisticated and sad.
“I’ve been a devotee of folk horror since I saw The Wicker Man on late-night TV as a little kid,” continued Kraus, “and coming from a rural area, I’ve always been especially keyed into the isolating dread of small towns. You whiz by them on interstates in a flash, but you never really know what’s going on inside all those little houses, do you?”
“When you write novels without pictures, you have to be good at giving the reader strong visuals through your words, and Daniel is very good at that,” added Chris Shehan. “For this comic, I’m drawing the visuals (along with outstanding colorist Jason Wordie), but before I drew a single line, I could see this entire story in my head beautifully and that’s thanks to a great writer like Daniel. My goal with this book is to move you, scare you, make you laugh, and make you cry with my art. This story has haunted me in the best way and I’m excited and grateful to be able to pass that on to you.”
Plot Concept: Following the death of her estranged mother, Kat Somerville and her daughter, Sybil, flee a difficult life in Chicago for the quaint–and possibly pernicious–town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire. From NY Times best-selling author, Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water, Trollhunters, The Living Dead), and rising star Chris Shehan, comes a haunting vision of America’s prettiest autumn.
