Basketful of Heads
Basketful of Heads is an American comic book limited horror comics series written by Joe Hill, pencilled by Leomacs and Reiko Murakami. It is the first series in his Hill House Comics imprint.[1] It follows June Branch, as she tries to escape a rain-coated figure with a basket and an axe.
Basketful of Heads | |
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Basketful of Heads #1 cover Art by Leomacs and Reiko Murakami | |
Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format | Limited series |
Publication date | October 30, 2019 – May 27, 2020 |
No. of issues | 7 |
Creative team | |
Created by |
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Written by | Joe Hill |
Penciller(s) |
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Inker(s) |
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Letterer(s) | Deron Bennett |
Colorist(s) |
DC Comics announced that Hill would oversee and share the writing for a new horror line, Hill House Comics.[2] Hill started talking about the Hill House line in 2017 with editor Mark Doyle. The line was originally to be titled Vertigo Fall, then Joe Hill's Vertigo Fall, before eventually being named Hill House Comics.[3] Basketful of Heads was announced shortly after by Hill, who stated it would be written by him.
The first issue was released on October, 2019, and sold over 10 million copies.
The series received critical acclaim, Hill's writing, the artwork, and the dark humor was praised.
Plot
When a trip to visit her boyfriend goes horribly wrong, June has to use a cursed viking axe and a basket filled with heads to solve a mystery and save her boyfriend.
Publication History
Hill and Mark Doyle, the final editor at Vertigo were talking about horror comics in general.
Then it hit me. I said to Mark, “Why don’t we try doing that for comic books?” Can we have a studio for comic books that essentially does the same sort of thing that Blumhouse is doing for the screen? And he thought it was a pretty good idea, so we decided to go for it.[4]
DC Comics announced that Vertigo Comics was going to be discontinued. They announced two new imprints, DC Black Label and Hill House Comics. Hill House Comics would be overseen by Joe Hill, who announced the debut series Basketful of Heads. It was written by Hill, and pencilled by Leomacs and Reiko Murakami. The series was described as "Norse mythology and horror" by Hill.[5]
On October, 2019 , it was released by DC Comics, and sold over a million copies. On his interview with Polygon, he commented that
Horror comics sold best. They sold the best in the 50s. The Comics now don't even sell one-tenth of how much Vault of Horror or Tales from the Crypt did sell. Of course, that was before Congress and psychologists joined forces to make comics boring again.[6]
References
- "Hill House Comics". DC Comics.
- Holub, Christian. "Exclusive: Joe Hill is writing and overseeing a new line of DC horror comics". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- Brooke, David. "Joe Hill talks Hill House Comics at DC, horror, comic book craft, and more". Retrieved 2019-07-25.
- https://www.polygon.com/comics/2019/10/29/20937083/dc-comics-joe-hill-basketful-of-heads-horror-comics
- https://www.polygon.com/comics/2019/10/29/20937083/dc-comics-joe-hill-basketful-of-heads-horror-comics
- https://www.polygon.com/comics/2019/10/29/20937083/dc-comics-joe-hill-basketful-of-heads-horror-comics