With Halloween just around the corner, I thought that for my next fancasting effort, I'd go with something a little more....terrifying. Luckily, I had a good piece of reading material to draw inspiration from--a trade paperback given to me among a pile of loot a relative accquired at the Saturn Awards a couple of years ago. The book in question? A collection of the first miniseries entry of writer/artist Dan Brereton's pulp-oriented horror comic, Nocturnals.
(Get ready for a Wiki-sourced infodump....Or feel free to visit http://www.nocturnals.com/...)
The comic originally started in January 1995 under the Bravura imprint of Malibu Comics, before being serialized in three issues of Dark Horse Presents in 1997. For most of the 2000's, the comic called Oni Press home, until the series went to Image, which published The Nocturnals: Carnival of Beasts in 2008. A new story, The Sinister Path, was just released this year through BigWowArt.
"Nocturnals follows the supernatural exploits of Doc Horror and his daughter Eve in Pacific City, a fictional California town which seems to have more than its fair share of paranormal activity. The series is noted for its eclectic combination of pulp storytelling, fantastic creatures, moody atmosphere, Halloween style and colorful characters, as well as Brereton's signature painted art style. Joining the Horror family is a group of societal outcasts who shun the light of day and avoid mainstream society: spectral apparition, Polychrome; amphibious spitfire, Starfish; pyrokinetic swordsman, Firelion; reptilian, Komodo; streetwise animal-human chimera, Raccoon; the silent undead gunslinger, Gunwitch. They live in or frequent Doc Horror's underground sanctuary called the Tomb, both home and fortress to the group, as they battle the criminal underworld and various supernatural threats which often rear up in nearby Pacific City.
Doc Horror's chief nemeses are the Crim, a parasitic species of extradimensional conquerors who ravaged his home world before he and Eve escaped to Earth. They have aligned themselves with the insidious Narn K Corporation, a powerful bioengineering firm specializing in controversial experimentation and covert weapons development, and have been busy producing animal-human hybrids and synthetic soldiers for use in warfare and ultimately global invasion. Aside from the Narn K and the Crim, Horror and his crew have encountered everything from wish-granting demon lanterns and vampire street gangs to hillbilly swamp witches and robotic mobster hitmen.
The hallmark of the Eisner Award-nominated, Nocturnals: Black Planet is Brereton's moody, gothic style realized by hand painted art in every panel. The storytelling and visual imagery draws its influences from an eclectic mix of sources, including gangster films, science fiction, Lovecraftian creatures, and film noir. Brereton's supernatural art made a fan of rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie, who tapped Brereton to paint an interior illustration for his multi-platinum Hellbilly Deluxe album."
Many of you here may recognize Brereton's style from a number of DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and Bongo comics, with probably one of the most famous being the DC Comics Elseworlds story Batman: Thrillkiller.
Now normally, I'm not that big a horror comics guy--but Black Planet impressed me so much that my fancast gears started slowly turning. So with that in mind, here's my vision for an animated adaptation of this fright-fisted funnybook.
1. The Venue: SyFy (*SHUDDER* I still feel a bit dirty calling it that)
The TV channel formerly known as The Sci-Fi Channel really needs some new life injected into it beyond the b-movie fodder and ghost-hunting shows currently airing, which is why--in past fancasts of mine such as Alien Legion--a block of animated programming, if done right, could give it something new, different and exciting to offer to the viewership.
2. The Executive Producers/Showrunners--Dan Brereton himself, Guillermo Del Toro, Sam Raimi, Ben Edlund, and/or John Carpenter
Of course Brereton should be a part of this, as the series is his creation; he'd also help in the 'translation' of his characters from page to animation. For one or two additional producers, my qualifiers were that they A) have left a mark of their own on the horror genre, and B) would be intrigued by the material. Thus, the candidates before you--Del Toro I believe would enjoy the material the most (unless he's heard of it already), and after all is behind the TV adaptation of The Strain, along with his work on the Hellboy films, the Dreamworks/Netflix series Troll Hunters, and his lifelong fandom of monster movies; Raimi's work on the Evil Dead trilogy and Darkman give him some leeway into backing something like this show; Edlund, despite being the creator of The Tick, is a candidate due to his involvement in shows such as Angel, Supernatural, and currently Gotham; and of course, Carpenter needs no introduction--his horror movies have made their impact on audiences for years, and having directed a film like Big Trouble in Little China would make the case for being involved in this show.
3. The Voice Cast
+Ron Perlman as the voice of Doc Horror
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000579/?ref_=nv_sr_2
"A man of science, occult expert, heliophobe, and notorious underworld figure, Doc divides his time between saving the world from gangsters and monsters that lurk in the darkness and raising his gifted and adventurous daughter, Eve, in their subterrranean home and base of operations."
A character perfect for the frequent Del Toro collaborator, Perlman's Deathstroke from Teen Titans would be a good place to draw on when portraying the good doctor.
+Liliana Mumy as the voice of Evening 'Eve' Horror
http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Liliana-Mumy/
"For young Evening, every night is Halloween. When your life is filled with gangsters, devils, and monsters, then dressing in black, carrying a Jack-o-Lantern full of toys, and talking to spirits is no biggie. Eve's recently begun attending a private school for spooky kids like herself in hopes of making friends with kids her own age."
+Voice N/A for the Gunwitch
"Resurrected to battle evil, the former gunslinging outlaw is equal parts scarecrow and blood-curdling zombie. This lethal spectre in the tall pointy hat serves as both Doc's silent arm of death and Eve's doting bodyguard."
+Annie Ilzoneh as the voice of Polychrome
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2679753/?ref_=nv_sr_3
"Her violent murder resulted in Poly's returning to the material plane as a vengeful "wraith". Having managed to stray from the path of revenge, the pacifist ectomorph spends her nights trying to help the living stay that way."
Alternate choice: Laura Vandervoort
+Travis Willingham as the voice of Firelion
http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Travis-Willingham/
"Phestus Gold was a dedicated cop and martial arts instructor when his body spontaneously combusted, ending his life. The Government swooped in an rebuilt him as a "burner", housing his resurrected remains in an indestructible android frame. The newly pyrokinetic dynamo eventually escaped, finding refuge as one of the Nocturnals."
+Jaime Pressly as the voice of Starfish
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005326/?ref_=nv_sr_2
"Discovered in a peat bog, Starfish was a mere proto-humanoid, more amphibian than human. Doc brought her back to the lab where she incubated in seawater, rapidly growing into a feisty young woman with an itchy trigger finger and a yearning to know who and what she is..."
+Steve Blum as the voice of Procyon "The Raccoon" Cleanhands
http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Steve-Blum/
"Engineered and raised in a lab, the human/animal hybrid dreamt of escaping his cage and living the life of the gangsters and outlaws he read about in a small collection of pulp novels. After Doc helped the Raccoon slip his chains, the creature known as Procyon Cleanhands cut a swath through the underworld, literally clawing and shooting his way to infamy."
+Khary Payton as the voice of Komodo
http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Khary-Payton/
"A Narn K Hybrid refugee, designed by the gene-smiths at the Monster Shop. Extremely intelligent, strong and quick, Komodo had wings, but they were surgically removed after his first escape attempt. Oddly, Komodo doesn't seem to mind. Aside from the humiliation of this mutilative condition, no longer having the ability to fly short distances is almost a relief, as the concept of flying made him uncomfortable. He suffers from vertigo and direct sunlight effects his vision.Komodo is cold blooded, but is large enough to store sufficient heat in the way a crocodile does."
Hope I didn't startle you too much, folks...Safe travels on All-Hallow's Eve--and careful not to pig out on all that candy. 'Cause spending the night sick to your stomach? Now THAT'S scary.
And now, ladies and gents, boys and ghouls, time for the mayhem to really begin--give it up for the high priest of Black Sabbath, the chief conductor on the Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley himself, OZZY OSBOURNE: