Nocturnals

Black Planet (6-issue mini; series by Malibu Comics; trade by Oni). [From Oni Press: Doc Horror knows there are sinister forces at work trying to bring the downfall of the human race. They have already ravaged his home planet, and now he has traveled to Earth to try and stop them once and for all. Once here, however, he finds that this world's inhabitants aren't all sweetness and light themselves. Some of them are busy creating freakish mutations out of their fellow man, and others are helping the invaders in their quest for domination. An outcast, Doc Horror is forced to live by the dark of night, and there he finds compatriots who must also shun the light of day. Polychrome, The Gunwitch, Starfish, Firelion, Komodo, and The Raccoon have all their share of knocks from humanity, but they want to save their homeworld anyway, and they don't care how many monsters stand in their way.] ArtBomb review

The Dark Forever (3-issue mini). [From Oni Press: The Nocturnals return to Pacific City to find their home steeped in dread. A dark star has appeared in the night sky, and the walking dead are roaming the streets, looking for victims to recruit to their army of unholy flesh! It makes for a strange homecoming for the heroic Nocturnals, who've been wandering the world on separate quests. As the one-man demolition squad, Firelion, and the troubled and dangerous Starfish roll into town, they begin to free their neighborhood of the creeping death while searching for the evil that is causing corpses to rise. Could it have something to do with the ancient, underground cavern that Doc Horror has been exploring? Does the nefarious secret lie behind the massive door he found buried in the rocks below the surface? It's all-out terror and hard-boiled action, with the precocious Halloween Girl, the deadly Gunwitch, the enigmatic Polychrome, and the devious Raccoon! Cloaked in shadow, the Nocturnals protect us in the dead of night, when no one else would dare. Fully painted by Dan Brereton, the Eisner-nominated writer/artist of Giantkiller and JLA: Seven Caskets.] ArtBomb review

Unhallowed Eve (DHP serial + Troll Bridge). [From Oni Press: Collecting two giant-sized NOCTURNALS adventures in one trade paperback! First up, the long out-of-print WITCHING HOUR serial from DARK HORSE PRESENTS—a full-color adventure starring Halloween Girl. Her trick-or-treating greed leads her to a dilapidated shack and a ghastly witch who isn’t prepared to let her go home. Good thing she’s not prepared for the Gunwtich, either. Second is TROLL BRIDGE, the artist jam extravaganza printed in black, white, and orange—a special Halloween candy treat. Halloween Girl gets spirited away by the naughty devil lantern, and the rest of the Nocturnals have to chase her from dimension to weird dimension to try to bring her home. Featuring art by Ted Naifeh, Jill Thompson, Arthur Adams, Joyce Chin, Adam Warren, Bruce Timm, Jay Stephens, Stephen DeStefano, Stan Sakai, Eric Jones, Kieron Dwyer, and John Heebink, with special cameos by Jingle Belle, Usagi Yojimbo, and Scary Godmother! It’s two-fists of fun, featuring Dan Brereton’s creepiest creations!]

The Gunwitch: Outskirts of Doom (3-issue mini; a Ted Naifah). [From Oni Press: The Gunwitch, silent and deadly bodyguard to the misfit family of monstrous heroes known as the Nocturnals, breaks away in his first solo adventure! When the pistol-packing Gunwitch and his young charge, Evening Horror, find themselves in a small town ravaged by undead outlaws and true Hell's Angels –– motorcycle ridin' vampires –– The Gunwitch takes it upon himself to bring down both groups before any more innocents can be hurt. But as the undead protector embroils himself in the conflict, what once seemed to be an old fashioned turf war is revealed to be something much more sinister. Writer Dan Brereton (Nocturnals, Giantkiller) and artist Ted Naifeh (Gloomcookie) mix the American Spaghetti Western and drive-in horror with a hard-boiled sense of gallows humor. You'll never leave your night-light off again.]

Hardcovers

1 The Black Planet and Other Stories (Olympian Press; Black Planet 1-6 + other stories). [From Olympian Press: Doc Horror knows there are sinister forces at work trying to bring the downfall of the human race. An outcast, Doc Horror is forced to live by the dark of night, and there he finds compatriots who must also shun the light of day. Polychrome, The Gunwitch, Starfish, Firelion, Komodo, and The Raccoon join Doc in his mission to save this planet - and they don't care how many monsters stand in their way! The first of three hardcovers reprinting the entire critically acclaimed Nocturnals storyline, dramatically oversized to show off every ghastly, spectral detail! Each volume contains the addition of new story material- all in preparation for the relaunch of the series on the Nocturnals' 13th anniversary in 2007! Volume 1 contains the original six issue Bravura mini-series Black Planet, the Witching Hour story arc from Dark Horse Presents, an all-new crime noir story of Doc Horror and the Raccoon entitled Clean Hands, and a lengthy afterword by Dan Brereton about the origins of the Nocturnals.]