BOOM! Studios Celebrates 40 Years Of Hellraiser With New Comic Book Series
In addition to the upcoming video game, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, it appears that 2026 is shaping up to be a year of flesh, hunger, and desire.
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First reported by Popverse, BOOM! Studios (Something Is Killing the Children, BRZRKR) have announced that they reacquired the rights to the Hellraiser franchise and will be releasing brand-new stories this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Clive Barker’s disturbing 1986 novella, The Hellbound Heart. That served as the basis for the film that was released the following year.
“I’m delighted to be partnering with BOOM! once again to create comics and graphic novels that will introduce both wild new projects, in addition to creating radical new visions of the kind of dark mythologies I’ve always been known for,” Barker said (via Popverse). “There are a lot of doors waiting to be opened, and worlds of weird fantasy and horror waiting on the other side.”
Despite moving on to different stories, Clive Barker (Nightbreed, Candyman, Lord of Illusions) has been a part of every Hellraiser adaptation in every medium (aside from two of the film’s sequels), and he was in the writer’s chair for most of its history within literature. This includes Hellbound’s direct sequel novel, The Scarlet Gospels, which was published in 2015.
“We had a hell of a run when we first published Hellraiser comics back in 2011,” said BOOM!’s Deputy Publisher, Bryce Carlson (via Fangoria). “That content is long out of print and hard to come by, but we’re reopening the Lament Configuration 15 years later and unleashing hell once again for all the incredibly patient fans out there.”
Nostalgia to some, childhood trauma to others. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser has come a long way since the legendary author introduced horror fans to the dark, sadistic world of the Cenobites. It was followed by nine sequels, plus a highly forgettable remake, and unnecessary cameos by Pinhead (Doug Bradley) on several MTV programs throughout the 90s. But what a lot of people don’t know is that the series has been adapted into comic book form numerous times over the decades.
The first came through Marvel’s imprint Epic Comics, which ran from 1989 to 1994, and included the main story, crossovers, single-issue stories, and a few miniseries events. The franchise went silent after that, but then BOOM! picked up the rights and rebooted it on four separate occasions between 2011 and 2015. After eleven years of silence (save for the two-volume flash in the pan by Seraphim Comics in 2017), they are ready to reopen the gates of Hell once again.
There are still no details yet about the release date or what the book’s plot will be, but BOOM will also be launching a special Direct Reserve Campaign that collects the entire out-of-print run of their aforementioned original Hellraiser series from 2011.
For a taste of what’s to come, below is a scene from Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth where Pinhead (Doug Bradley) has broken free from his pillar prison, ready to show the Boiler Room patrons what it really means to ‘get turnt in da club’:
NEXT: ‘Hellraiser’ (2022) Review – Taste the Pleasure of a Decent Remake
