Interview: Editor James Aquilone Kickstarts Kolchak

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Moonstone Books and editor James Aquilone recently took to Kickstarter to launch Kolchak: The Night Stalker 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel, featuring 11 original stories based on the series featuring monster-hunting report Carl Kolchak. Participating authors include Jonathan Maberry, Kim Newman, Peter David, and more.

While the initial Kickstarter campaign has finished after reaching its goal, the creators are still accepting late pledges.

Danica Davidson recently sat down with Aquilone to discuss the project for Cemetery Dance.

Batman cover of Kolchak graphic novelCEMETERY DANCE: How did the idea of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel come to be?
JAMES AQUILONE: I had always been a big fan of Carl Kolchak. What’s not to love about a reporter in a seersucker suit hunting monsters? So when I saw that the 50th anniversary of The Night Stalker TV movie — written by Richard Matheson — was coming up in January, I figured the time was ripe for a big Kolchak project. I reached out to Moonstone Books, pitched them the idea, and soon we were off to Kickstarter.

How have the original movies and TV show influenced you? Do you remember when you first watched them?

 

I got a journalism degree because of Kolchak and other fictional reporters like Clark Kent. My first novel was about an underdog investigator fighting monsters. I wear a straw hat every chance I get. So it would seem that Kolchak has pretty much shaped my life.
I probably first saw Kolchak when it aired as a midnight movie. I was too young to see Kolchak when it originally aired, but reruns began in the late ’70s and then it was available on the Sci-Fi Channel in the ’90s because of its influence on The X-Files.

As the editor of the anthology, what were you looking for in stories?

 

I was looking for stories that stayed true to the original TV movies and series, which was created by Jeff Rice in a then-unpublished novel and adapted by Richard Matheson. I wanted stories that could be seen as the 21st episode of the series or the third TV movie. Like those stories, I wanted Kolchak tales that combined elements of mystery, horror, and humor. So far, I’ve gotten scripts from Kim Newman, David Avallone, Peter David, Tim Waggoner, and Nancy Collins — and let me tell you, they got it right. They’re all big Kolchak fans and amazing writers, so it wasn’t surprising.

What do you think makes a good anthology?

 

A good anthology should offer a wide variety of stories and styles. That’s the fun of it, to see how all the contributors bring their own voice and style to the theme.

You’ve made more than enough on your Kickstarter! With the extra money, what do you plan to do? Do you think there might be more Kolchak graphic novels?

 

Graphic novels are expensive and we’re not just publishing one book — we’re publishing three books and tons of merchandise. Plus, the deluxe hardcover will have 10 prose stories in addition to the comic book stories. (Actually, we open to submissions for Kolchak prose stories after the campaign. Guidelines are here.)
Yes, we’ve raised a lot of money, and most of that money goes back into the books. So, as we’ve raised more money, we’ve added stories. We just added 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles and earlier we added Green Lantern writer/artist Gabriel Hardman.
We are talking about more Kolchak comics, so hopefully we can announce something about that soon.

What else are you up to? What’s going on with Weird Tales?

After the success of my first anthology, Classic Monsters Unleashed, the publishers — Crystal Lake Publishing and Black Spot Books — decided to create an Unleashed series. The next will be Shakespeare Unleashed, featuring horror stories based on Shakespearean characters and plays. We’re planning a Kickstarter in the summer and we’ll open to submissions after that.

Weird Tales recently signed a publishing deal with Blackstone Publishing for its own imprint. So expect to see Weird Tales novels and anthologies starting in 2023. Also the magazine should finally return to a more regular schedule, publishing three issues a year. Upcoming themes are sword and sorcery, cosmic horror and occult detectives.

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