About this project
Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is a new 200 page, 7.5x10" full-colour anthology of gothic romance comics by comics' most talented creators!
Love is a spectre which haunts us all.
In 1950s Vietnam, a lost soul comes to the aid of a farmer’s field under attack. In Victorian Boston, a new governess comes to care for the rogueish widower of a stately manor and his charming brood of children. A fashion journalist lands the interview of her dreams – but it unearths deadly secrets of Taiwan’s most popular fashion designer. A Sioux elder heals a recently deceased woman who sets out to recover her lost love. And a young bride spins a story of murder and deceit that paints her husband as a killer . . . but is there any truth to her tale?
Featuring 22 original stories from some of modern comics’ finest talent, Gothic Tales of Haunted Love collects fragments of lovers torn apart, ghostly revenge, and horrific deeds, in the vein of 1970s gothic romance comics such as Haunted Love, Ghostly Tales, Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, and Gothic Romances. Discover a diverse range of heroes and villains, spirits and monsters, in a modern reimagining that will leave your heart pounding and broken in the same seductive breath.
New stories and art by:
ALB • Cecil Castellucci/Willow Dawson • Kitty Curran/Larissa Zageris • Xavière Daumarie • Leslie Doyle • Mel Gillman/Jen Vaughn • Barbara Guttman • Janet Hetherington/Ronn Sutton/Becka Kinzie/Zakk Saam • Cherelle Higgins/Rina Rozsas • Janine Johnston • Megan Kearney • Dante L./H. Pueyo • David Lafuente • Hope Nicholson/Scott Chantler • Nika • Svetla Nikolova/LAB • Amber Noelle/Allison Paige • Hien Pham • Rob Pincombe/Daniel Wong • Rahzzah • David Robertson/Scott Henderson • Sarah Searle • Femi Sobowale/Caroline Dougherty • Chris Stone/Danielle Bethel • Adrienne Valdes • Katie West/Ray Fawkes • Kelly Williams
And classic content featuring:
A reprinted story by Sanho Kim - the first Korean artist to make it big in western comics, creating art for Charlton Comics in the 1970s. Upon returning to Korea, he became a best-selling graphic novelist. The Promise is restored by Digikore studios and was originally published in Ghostly Tales #101 (1973)
Prints by James Hill - a prolific and talented artist renowned as one of the best illustrators and artists that Canada has ever produced. Artwork prints are donated by his daughter Amanda Hill.
Prints by Lou Marchetti - the undisputed master of the classic gothic romance covers, featuring lonely women running away from spectral mansions. Artwork prints are donated by his daughter, Louise Marchetti Zeitlin.
Edited by S.M. Beiko (Scion of the Fox) and Hope Nicholson (The Secret Loves of Geek Girls)
Even though gothic romance comics enjoyed a particular heyday in the 1970s, the general gothic romance genre has been alive and well in literature, film, and television beyond cultural memory. Why? Well, maybe we like to be scared and seduced at the same time (safely distanced by the page!). The genre though is also full of tired tropes--blonde women shrieking across the thunderstorm-streaked moors of England, anyone?--and while we love the images gothic romance conjures, there could be so much more to it.
When reviewing the 150+ fervent submissions we received for this anthology, we selected our table of contents with an eye for not only subverting stereotypes, but reimagining them with claws sunk deep. While you’ll still find swooners and ghosts and sprawling manses in these pages, you’ll also find heroines falling in love with ghostly heiresses, creeping dread in Jamaica, a helpful spirit in 1950s Vietnam, desperation in 1890s gold-rush Yukon, Mexican and Japanese folklore, fashion and murder in 1970s Taiwan, and a clear demonstration that ghostly love isn’t limited to white girls in white dresses and brooding lords in Victorian England.
"As far as genre mashups go, Gothic romances comics are where it's at. While love and fear may seem as if they are opposite ends of the spectrum of emotions, what Gothic romance stories do so expertly is show us that those feelings are intricately intertwined. Though not your typical romance stories, the Gothic romance issues of the 1970s enjoy a well-earned place in both comic book history and our hearts." - Jacque Nodell
Gothic Tales of Haunted Love will be a 200 page full-colour, soft cover, 7.5 x 10 graphic novel, featuring not only full-length stories but standalone pinup artwork in the same style.
The book will also feature a foreword by Sequential Crush’s Jacque Nodell, and an introduction from your ever-so-humble editors Hope Nicholson and S.M. Beiko.
The collection will feature the full-length 17 page gothic romance “The Promise” by Sanho Kim, a 1970s comic story that first appeared in Charlton’s Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House, newly restored for the first time. This story is a rare example of both a classic gothic romance that features powerful female heroines, and one that is told in Korean and English.
Along with a PDF ready to read on your tablet or laptop, all funders above $5 will also receive a comiXology download code to read the book on their app!
With this much talent involved from such generous creators, we have a lot more to offer in addition to the book itself!
Prints and commissions! In the form of postcards, mini-prints, bookmarks, bookplates, digital commissions and even full 11x17 giclée archival prints, along with original art when available. We have both new pinups created exclusively for this campaign, and classic 1970s gothic romance prints donated by the estates of the creators.
Two new Bedside Press books not yet available for pre-order anywhere else!
Winnipeg Comics Collection - is a two-fer featuring King of Pies - a collection of comic strips by Ryan Harby (Honey Dill), and Street Style Samurai, an anthology of new comics by Jamie Isfeld. This is a 130 page B&W flipbook.
Window Horses - adapted from the award-winning NFB film by Ann Marie Fleming and starring Sandra Oh, this is a 6x9 265 page graphic novel in full-colour. It follows the adventures of Rosie Ming as she sets out on an epic quest to discover the beauty of Persian poetry and culture and the secret of her long-estranged father.
Plus two retailer levels for the amazing indie shops that are always so generous with their support of Bedside Press’s projects, along with a mini-poster and bookplates for stores that want 10 copies.
As per usual, the funding for this project will be primarily focused on printing costs, shipping costs, and paying the creators! In addition, the creators benefit if the project is overfunded, 25% of net profit will be distributed among the creative team.
Credits
Kickstarter book trailer created by Clare Marshall.
Gothic Tales of Haunted Love logo created by Dylan Todd
Kickstarter graphics by S.M. Beiko
Anthology curation by Hope Nicholson, Nyala Ali, and S.M. Beiko
Kickstarter refinement advice by Annie Stoll
Risks and challenges
The risks and challenges with this project are the same with all publishing projects that Bedside Press has put out through a fulfillment model: funding completion for the core product, dealing with setbacks at the printer, product loss during shipping, and so on. Luckily these are all issues that Bedside Press has experience with mitigating and foreseeing, in addition to Sam Beiko’s eight years of trade publishing experience on the table for troubleshooting and managing.
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