Tales of Syzpense #76
Dread the Hall H is on its way, and so is Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis graphic novel; also, Moonshine Bigfoot 2 hits FOC, the Spinner Rack goes on location, and bit o' Rom, too.
Mega City
In April 2022, I got in email with a simple Subject line: “Greetings.”
The e-mail was from Francis Ford Coppola, a legendary writer/director with whom I’d only ever been acquainted through his films and wineries. I knew of Francis, of course. But I’d never had reason to speak to the man before.
So I assumed the email was some sort of mailing list, perhaps for his winery or one of his resorts, or otherwise. I certainly never assumed it was Francis himself, reaching out this this query (excerpted and redacted in places to preserve others’ anonymity. But those others have my thanks for the recommendation!):
Hi Chris,
My dear friends [redacted] suggested I reach out to you with the idea of helping me achieve a graphic novel.
I guess the best way to indicate what I have in mind is to send the script, with the note that I see this as a visually strong dramatic visual style… perhaps with a somewhat WPA ‘mural’ style, and told as a Fairy tale for adults, like THE RED SHOWS, or BLACK NARCISSUS of the old UK films, or for that matter, the old H.G. Wells 1936 film THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, all sorts of political fairy tales.
Here are is a view of things. What they call the log line:
“The fate of ROME haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems. An epic tale of ambition, politics, genius and conflicted-love leading to the vision of utopia we all long for.”
If you’d care to take a peek, and hoping what I’ve written communicating my idea, and hopefully most helpful of all, I hope — the script.
Hope my intentions are clear.
Very best, f.
The outreach came at an interesting time. My post-IDW existence in a not-quite-post-pandemic freelance publishing world had been more uncertain and precarious than was comfortable. But whatever the case and whatever my situation at a time when an email like this arrived, there’s no way I wouldn’t have seen it through.
So I responded in the affirmative, we chatted a bit about the particulars, and then set up a video call to discuss the project in more detail with Coppola’s team. Which turned out to be just Francis. Which was great in itself, to hear directly his vision for the graphic novel, to discuss, among so many other things, the childhood comics that made him love comic books back in the day, and so on. (Once he mentioned being enamored with The Heap, a swamp monster precursor to Swamp Thing or Man-Thing, I knew he was speaking my language.) It all led to some truly exhilarating and wide-ranging conversations about not only the world he was creating and the specific visual language at its core. We were off and running.
In thinking about artists who might be able to tackle something like this, I put together a wide array of samples, pulling from numerous eras, art styles, and storytelling approaches to show Francis what was possible. And Jacob Phillips was certainly a standout. I’d already been a fan of Jacob’s works, from his thrilling colors on the Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips graphic novels, but even more so of the way his art and colors worked in tandem in such a cohesive way on books like Newburn and especially That Texas Blood. The Enfield Gang Massacre storyline in particular is one that really showed how effective his art was at conveying mood, lighting, characters, and a firmly established sense of place and time.
Happily, Jacob signed on. He probably had no idea at the time that his stay in the confines of Megalopolis would be as lengthy as it turned out to be.
There’s much more to say about the journey along the way, and I’ll do so periodically from now til the book is released this fall, but the point of all this in this newsletter is, while I’ve been able to talk a bit about the graphic novel development and share an image here or there from my time with Francis on the set of the film, we’ve not discussed release plans, timing, or the publisher who will be putting out this very special graphic novel. Until now, anyway. Yesterday saw the official word on the coming book:
Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel announcement at The Hollywood Reporter
As the article states, this is not a straight retelling or simple adaptation of the film; indeed, Jacob drew all 160 pages of the book without seeing one image from the film. I’ve done straight adaptations before. This one is far from that. I like how Francis refers to it in the piece, that the book is a “sibling of the film, rather than just an echo."
But by any name, it’s an utter thrill and unique honor to have been able to work on this directly with Francis and Jacob, as well as the added bonus of having talents like letterer Jared Fletcher and designer Josh Johnson finish it off so well. Likewise, the team at Abrams ComicArts. Can’t wait to tell you and show you more. The book is officially up for pre-order now, and will be released in October. I hope it will enhance the way the world regards this unique city and universe that Francis has created.
Dread the Halls Summer Special
Last December, Jordan Hart and I put together a one-shot horror anthology centered around the Christmas holiday and other December celebrations, called Dread the Halls. Working on the comic, released through our Syzygy imprint at Image Comics, was a blast. So of course we started talking about doing it again this coming December, and then also joked about applying the same “Dread the Halls” horror ethos to other holidays. “Dread the Trees” in honor of Arbor Day? No, of course not—that doesn’t even sound funny.
But as we talked, we threw out other ideas, expanding the Dread into other realms. One such idea that was tossed off casually was “Dread the Hall H,” telling horror stories about that massive celebrity-filled hall at San Diego’s premiere comic-con that has been the scene of so much joy (for the people who get in) and anguish (for the many who can’t).
And then something clicked for both of us at the same time—that was just a ridiculous enough idea that we had to do it. And so we are. Coming this July from Syzygy/Image – releasing the week of Comic-Con, in fact, is Dread the Hall H, a 40-page one-shot featuring stories set in and around the convention.
Dread the Hall H official announcement at The Beat
Also, there was some Dread the Hall H announcement news at Bleeding Cool and you can preview all of Image’s titles for July at Lunar Distribution’s May catalog for July release.
The best part is we’re doing it once again surrounded by stellar talents: like with Dread the Halls, artist Maria Wolf just killed it on her cover. As did my longtime compatriot Nelson Daniel, who not only delivered a perfectly rendered wraparound cover showing some of the interesting characters waiting in line for a Hall H panel—including Jordan and I, dressed like a couple of our comic creations, as well as a number of others that I’ll detail in another newsletter—but Nelson also drew one of my two stories, “Q&A” and what he did in that story is one of my favorite things I’ve ever been involved with. The story features… well, to say too much about it would potentially spoil it but I will say that it’s set at the tail end of a Hall H panel, during the waning minutes of the “questions and answers” part of the panel, and it features a special guest-appearance by convention gadlfy Ming Chen as the panel moderator:
We’ve also got artists Jimmy Kucaj and Chris Anderson on Jordan’s two stories, Piotr Kowalski on my other story, “Spoiler Alert,” and colors by the super-talented Vladimir Popov.
And once again proving he’s a triple (or maybe quadruple) threat, Jordan not only colored Maria’s cover and its variant, but he’s designing the book, lettering the stories, and created the “Dread the Hall H badge cover,” too.
As with the first go-round, working on this one has been a blast, and there should be more Dread tidings to come as we get closer to its release; a store signing with an exclusive cover, a panel and convention signing (quite possible with its own excusive cover), and more to come.
Now, none of these stories are specifically torn from our real experiences at Comic-Con or other such conventions, but they did at least influence them in ways that will be evident when you see this one. Likewise, if you’ve ever slept on the convention center lawn to try to secure a seat in Hall H, or just been to other pop-culture conventions, you just might find some catharsis here as well.
Dread the Hall H is available for pre-order from your local shop now, or you can get signed copies from us directly at the time the comic releases. Ideally, we’ll be able to scribble on copies for some of you at Comic-Con itself. And then in years to come, I’m sure we’ll lead “Jack the Ripper”-like tours around the convention hall and surrounding area, pointing out the real locations on display in this comic…
Moonshine B2gfoot
The second issue of our current series, Moonshine Bigfoot, hits FOC on Monday, April 29, so there’s still a little time remaining to order a copy from your local retailer. And here’s some visual incentives to do so. The series only gets more wonderfully lunatic as it goes along, and the visuals as you can see here likewise only get better and better, too.
The Lunar Distribution order code for this issue if your retailer needs it is: 0325IM343
Spinner Rack on Location
Recently, I’ve done a couple live presentations that detail the portrayal of San Diego in various comic series over the decades; which has also led me to dig deeper into other real locations and the way they’ve been shown in comics over the years. And so along those lines, I’ve been pulling together a theme for the spinner rack that showcases these locales.
And Finally…
Some things I’ve been enjoying of late:
I was lucky enough to be only of Joe Hill’s early readers as he worked through the final draft of his new novel, King Sorrow (William Morrow, October 21, 2025) and really loved reading it in pieces like I did. But what I’m liking even more is reading it again in this advance copy, since it’s now a lean 896 pages — and really, while that’s quite a page count in its own right, it does feel lean since the story Joe’s telling is so massive in scope that even at this page count, it’s a story you hope will continue on. It’s somehow both intimate and incredibly epic, in its way like nothing Joe has ever done before and yet rooted in the same fantastic character work, fully realized characters, unbelievable set pieces, and of course featuring a uniquely otherworldly threat, too. It’s a burner, and I think everyone’s going to be blown away by it.
It’s up for pre-order everywhere now, but since it would be far too long a newsletter to link to everywhere, I’ll instead send you here if you want to preorder a signed copy of the book.
My current read is also one being released this fall, and it’s Keith Rosson’s Coffin Moon. This is Keith’s first book after the duology that really brought him deserved wider acclaim, Fever House and The Devil By Name. And it’s one of those gripping page-turners that feels immediately familiar and totally fresh. I’m certainly not going to say more about the story than is described at the above link but it’s a smart and edgy spin on a vampire story that really delivers on the ample promise Keith displayed in his previous books.
In fact, the only problem with reading advance copies of great new books is it will mean the wait is that much longer for me before their next books. But both of these leave me eager to see what comes next.
And I’m typing all of this en route to a convention in New Jersey that’s pretty packed with talent (and this image doesn’t even include Larry Lieber, who as a late addition to the show). I’ll recap this show next time.
And the ROM revival continues, too: after the release of the three-volume hardcover Omnibus collections, Marvel is now beginning to release their original Rom series in the softcover Epic Collection format. This first book features issues 1-20 and also includes my introduction/Rom history, too.
The first official Rom action figure in [years? Decades? It depends how you count: there hasn’t been a mass-market release since the original toy in 1979, but my prior Rom series at IDW did lead to a Rom figure being issued as a part of a Comic-Con-exclusive set in 2018. But still, this new figure is the first one to really match the look of the Marvel series. And it comes with a tiny replica of the first issue, too.
And the final picture here? Based on the wording at the bottom of the “Hardware” sign, the Rom revival has been going on far even longer than I thought…
the Rom figure looks so so good! ah!
And can't wait to read your vision of Megalopolis.
Congrats on all of these amazing projects!