Joe Hill’s Tales from the Darkside to become a comic book

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

For roughly a year and a half, author Joe Hill was working on a reboot of the television anthology series Tales from the Darkside, which ran from 1983 to 1988 and was executive produced by George A. Romero. Two episodes of the original series were even adaptations of stories written by Hill's father, Stephen King, and when TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE was made in 1990 one of the anthology's segments was another King adaptation, so Hill certainly seemed like the right person to be handling the material.

Hill wrote out a three season blueprint and The CW ordered a pilot, which Kris Lemche was cast to star in, but the network ultimately passed on the project, which had the following synopsis: 

The anthology series will feature only one regular character, Newman (Lemche). A weathered and tortured young man, Newman is the guide to the unsuspecting who come across The Darkside. Newman – a man with his own desperate, wrenching secrets – knows exactly what’s causing the terrifying Darkside Events that drive the series. What he doesn’t know is how to stop them.

Hill's take on the Darkside may not end up on TV, but all is not lost. Starting in June, IDW will be publishing a four issue Tales from the Darkside comic book mini-series by Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez, with whom he created the Locke & Key comic series.

Described as "a heartfelt tribute to icons of screen and page such as George Romero, Alan Moore, Bernie Wrightson, Neil Gaiman", the four issue comic will give readers a sample of Hill's approach to the anthology, which would have told standalone stories that were gradually revealed to all be part of one larger story with a vast mythology. Hill says that his Darkside is a bit meta in that the original TV show exists in its world just like it does in ours, his characters would have the ability to watch the old episodes.

I'm glad to see that Hill's Darkside hasn't been entirely tossed aside. I'm looking forward to reading this comic, and hope that if it does well enough it might continue on to tell a version of the three season story Hill had in mind.

Debbie Harry in TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE