Exclusive DC Preview: 'Cursed Comics Cavalcade' #1

This week sees the release of Cursed Comics Cavalcade, an anthology one-shot from DC that takes the old idea of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade and takes it in a dark direction.

In Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, DC used to collect up unpublished issues that were created for comics that were (as you might expect) cancelled. The idea was to provide fans with more stories in a low-cost format that would allow the publisher to use up old inventory and test the waters for response to certain properties without the risk of launching a new series or continuing one that was losing money.

Here, it is a little different: taking advantage of the Halloween season, a horror anthology book that blends superheroes and genuine creeps makes sense -- and the format feels a bit like the Swamp Thing book that just hit Walmart stores.

Of course, those are not the only two books DC has on the stands for Halloween. The "Witching Hour" crossover, which takes place between Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark, is doing something very similar.

"Because this is a story that's very much about the big possibilities of magic, there are a lot of scary beats but those scary beats happen in the context of big, DC wonder and mythology," writer James Tynion IV -- who also contributes to the Cursed Comics Cavalcade one-shot -- told ComicBook.com at New York Comic Con this weekend. "It's the kind of horror that you would hear in an old Greek myth, and that's sort of what I wanted to tap into -- the tradition of horror storytelling in epic myths and legends of great heroes. I love horror, and to tell a horror event over October is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I want to make sure that there are really bone-chilling segments to this but that there are also the big superhero moments that really help ground it."

Cursed Comics Cavalcade #1 Gallery

You can see some preview pages in the attached image gallery, and the official solicitation text below.

Horror! Death! Uh...Face-punching! Witness ten all-new stories that promise to be the most terrifying, most shocking and most horrific comic that DC Comics has ever published! (Hyperbole much?) Batman, Wonder Woman, Guy Gardner, Swamp Thing, Zatanna and more of your favorite heroes face unspeakable horrors from the streets of Gotham City to the darkest sectors of the universe.

The issue features work from writers Riley Rossmo, Tim Seeley, Bryan Hill, Becky Cloonan, James Tynion IV, and Gary Dauberman; artists Riccardo Federici, Riley Rossmo, Becky Cloonan, Mark Buckingham; and more.

Cursed Comics Cavalcade will be available in stores and online on Wednesday.