Fresh off the reveal of a secret room behind one person’s bathroom mirror on TikTok, Dark Horse Comics is introducing an even creepier new fad: Creeping. It is an online challenge to spend the night in a frightening location – an abandoned house, a poky cemetery, a foreboding cave… whatever. Would you do it?
For now the challenge is fictional, but it’s the subject of a new graphic novel titled Creeping (opens in new tab) by writer Zack Keller and artist Doug Wheatley. Based on an original story by Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson, Creeping mixes thrill-seeking with social media into a modern-day horror story that might inspire imitators.
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“I caught the end of a news clip about college kids staying overnight in an abandoned house and that got me thinking about a new story – a fad in which people sought out the scariest places to camp while live-streaming themselves,” Richardson says in the announcement. “The fad, ‘creeping’, turns into a competition as each group seeks to outdo the last. What could be more frightening than an abandoned asylum avoided by locals for 100 years? Of course, this location has a secret…”
Richardson pitched the idea to Keller, who published his 2016 horror series Death Head (opens in new tab) at Dark Horse. Keller quickly picked up on the idea, and Dark Horse connected him with Wheatley, a long-time artist at the publisher.
The Creeping OGN goes on sale October 13 in comic shops and on digital platforms, and debuts in bookstores on October 26.
There are many digital comics reading platforms out there… but which one’s the best for what you want to read? Check out Newarama’s guide to the best digital comics readers for Android and iOS devices.