Dark Horse Books

Eisner Award-Winning Creator Mark Buckingham Adapts New York Times
Bestselling Author Neil Gaiman’s “Likely Stories” for Dark Horse Books

Eisner Award-winning creator Mark Buckingham is adapting four of New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman’s prose short stories for the upcoming graphic novel anthology Likely Stories, to be published as a hardcover original graphic novel by Dark Horse Books later this year. Buckingham (Fables), will adapt and illustrate the stories “Looking for the Girl”, “Foreign Parts”, “Closing Time”, and “Feeders and Eaters.” These dark and imaginative tales feature an odd and subtly linked world of bizarre venereal diseases, a creepy old woman who feasts on raw meat, a man obsessed with a skin model from a magazine, and a story within a story about ghosts. Likely Stories will retail for $17.99 when it goes on sale in comic shops on August 29 and in bookstores on September 11, 2018.

Mark Buckingham and Neil Gaiman

“Having been friends and collaborators for over thirty years, Neil Gaiman and I have worked together in a variety of different ways, from illustrating his full scripts, to our current cowriting of new Miracleman stories. However, I had never adapted any of Neil’s prose stories before, so this was an irresistible challenge,” said Buckingham. “Not all of these stories were new to me. Feeders and Eaters started life as a comic strip Neil and I created for a UK publisher way back in 1990. When Neil revisited it as a prose story a few years later he added a lot of depth and richness, which opened up new narrative possibilities. Ever since then I have been eager to take another shot at it myself. So imagine my delight when Dark Horse approached me to do just that as part of the Likely Stories collection!”

Likely Stories was previously adapted for television, originally airing on Sky TV before airing on Shudder in 2016. For the graphic novel adaptation, Buckingham will be working from the source material—the original prose stories.

“This will be quite a different experience to people’s previous encounters with these tales,” said Buckingham. “I knew I wanted this to read as a cohesive whole, rather than a set of short stories, so I have woven them together, Into a single narrative, linking them all to the Diogenes late night drinking club that plays such an important role in the Closing Time story.”

Likely Stories preview page

Likely Stories is the latest adaptation to join Dark Horse Books’ prestigious Neil Gaiman Library, joining American Gods: Shadows featuring script and layouts from P. Craig Russell and art by Scott Hampton; Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire adapted by Shane Oakley; How to Talk to Girls at Parties adapted by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; Only the End of the World Again featuring script and layouts from P. Craig Russell, art by Troy Nixey and colors by Matt Hollinsworth; and Troll Bridge adapted by Colleen Doran.  Rights were acquired from Gaiman’s literary agent, Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House.

About Neil Gaiman:

Neil Gaiman is the celebrated author of books, graphic novels, short stories, films and tv for readers of all ages.

Some of his most notable titles include the highly lauded 2017 #1 New York Times bestselling Norse Mythology, coming out in paperback March 6, the groundbreaking #1 New York Times Bestselling and Award Winning Sandman comics series; The Graveyard Book (the first book ever to win both the Newbery and Carnegie medals); American Gods, winner of many awards and recently adapted into the 2017 critically acclaimed Starz tv series (Season 2 slated to air in 2019); and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the UK’s National Book Award 2013 Book of the Year.

The film adaptation of his short story How to Talk to Girls at Parties (directed by John Cameron Mitchell) will be in theatres in 2018.

Born in the UK, Gaiman now lives in America.

About Mark Buckingham:

Mark Buckingham has been working in comics for thirty years, building a reputation for design, storytelling and a chameleon like diversity of art styles.

He is known for his work on numerous comics series including significant runs on Hellblazer, Doctor Strange, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, The Titans, and Peter Parker: Spider-man. He has previously drawn for Dark Horse as a guest artist on Eric Powell’sThe Goon.

His most notable work, from 2002 to 2015, has been as the regular artist on Fables, working with its writer and creator Bill Willingham, for which they earned numerous comic industry awards.
Swapping pencils for the keyboard, Buckingham wrote “The Clamour for Glamour” the final story arc of Fairest, the companion title to Fables.

Mark’s previous collaborations with Neil Gaiman include comics series Miracleman, Sandman, and Death, as well as illustrating his World Book Day edition of Odd And The Frost Giants.

Mark recently reunited with Neil Gaiman as they return to work, after a twenty four year wait, on Miracleman.

Born in the UK, Buckingham lives in Spain and the UK.

About Dark Horse:

For more than thirty years, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, the company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent, such as Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Geof Darrow, Brian Wood, Gail Simone, Stan Sakai, and Guillermo del Toro, and comics legends, such as Will Eisner, Milo Manara, Kazuo Koike, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Miller, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties, such as The Mask, Ghost, X, and Barb Wire. Its successful line of comics, manga, and products based on popular properties includes Dragon Age, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Tomb Raider, Halo, The Witcher,Serenity, Game of Thrones, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Today, Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading entertainment publishers.