Are You Afraid of the Dark? franchise expands with books and graphic novels

The kid-friendly horror anthology TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark? originally ran from 1991 to 1996. Nickelodeon brought the series back in 2019 – and now the franchise is set to expand further with a series of books and graphic novels! Publishers Weekly reported that Abrams’s Amulet Books imprint acquired the rights from Paramount Consumer Products to produce books and graphic novels based on Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and now the first two releases are available to order! The first book is called The Tale of the Gravemother, and it can be purchased at THIS LINK. Set for release on October 3rd, the first graphic novel is called The Witch’s Wings and Other Terrifying Tales, and you can pre-order that one HERE.

The Are You Afraid of the Dark? Wiki tells that the show revolved around a group of teenagers who referred to themselves as “The Midnight Society”. Every week, at a secret location in the woods, one member would tell a scary story to the group. The actual story, rather than the telling, was displayed to the television viewer. The story was shown between the group’s arrival at the site and their departure. Each storyteller would begin their story by saying “Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story…” at which point he or she would toss a handful of “midnight dust” from a leather pouch into a campfire to heighten the flames and produce an eerie white smoke. The storyteller would continue by announcing its title (The Tale of…).

Publishers Weekly noted that like the TV series, the novels and graphic novels feature a story-within-a-story format. In the novels, for example, an original horror story is told by a member of the Midnight Society, whose contemporary story is interspersed throughout and influences the main horror tale.

Written by Rin Chupeco, The Tale of the Gravemother has the following description: Everyone in Southridge knows about the legend of the Gravemother. They know how to leave offerings by the abandoned house she was supposedly murdered in to pacify her. They know better than to trespass on her property. But not everyone believes in the tale—especially not fourteen-year-old Rhett, who lives around the corner from the old mansion. Then it’s announced that the Gravemother’s place is one of several to be demolished to give way for new townhouses. When disaster strikes the construction site and strange sightings of a woman in white begin haunting the neighbors, Rhett must figure out how to put the ghost permanently to rest before it’s too late. 

As for The Witch’s Wings and Other Terrifying Tales, the graphic novels feature three interrelated stories based on lore and legends—again with the storyteller’s contemporary story woven in—with the first title, written by Tehlor Kay Mejia, including tales inspired by urban legends and Mexican folklore. Each of the three graphic novel stories is illustrated by a separate but complementary artist, in this case Justin and Lexis Hernandez, Junyi Wu, and Kaylee Rowena. In “The Tale of the Witch’s Wings,” a young boy with a habit of bullying meets his match when an ancient witch sets her eyes on him. In “The Tale of the Haunting of Bus #13,” a young girl finds herself potentially trapped on a bus haunted by more than just ghosts! And in “The Tale of the Stray Comet,” two siblings bring home a stray dog that is much more monstrous than they could ever imagine!

Are you a fan of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and will you be collecting the books and graphic novels? Let us know by leaving a comment below.