Darkchylde is an

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

character created in 1996 by Randy Queen. It was originally published by

Maximum Press Awesome Comics or Awesome Entertainment (also known as Awesome-Hyperwerks when briefly joined with Hyperwerks Entertainment) was an American comic book studio formed in 1997 by Rob Liefeld following his expulsion from Image Comics, a company he ...

, and later by

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, through

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, a publishing imprint of

Wildstorm Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...

. Subsequent projects would be published by Darkchylde Entertainment, through Wowio. ''Darkchylde'' is the story of Ariel Chylde, a cursed teen who can become the creatures from her many nightmares, and then must save her small town from the forces of darkness she's set free.

Publication history

''Darkchylde'' was launched as a comic book property in 1996. In an interview with Nicholas Yanes from scifipulse.net Queen revealed that Darkchylde would appear in a published comic book after several years of absence. This comic book would be a one-shot

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titled ''The Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom Pain'', released in December 2009. In addition to containing a new story feature Darkchylde, this one-shot also contained preview art for Randy Queen's next comic book title "Starfall".

''Manga Darkchylde''

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

the title was relaunched at

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

as ''Manga Darkchylde'', with Ariel now being a little girl. The term ''manga'' in the title is somewhat misleading, as the new series is clearly not a

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

in the traditional sense and actually bears very little resemblance to

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ese manga in any way. Only using the base elements of the original ''Darkchylde'', Randy Queen is now expanding his "Darkchylde-universe".

Issues

''Darkchylde'' comic books, in order of reading: * ''Darkchylde Diary'' * ''Darkchylde'' #1–5 * ''

Spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawning, the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** ''Spawn: Armageddon' ...

'' #56 (4-page ''Darkchylde'' interlude featuring Flatulance) * ''Darkchylde'' #0 * ''Darkchylde'' ½ * ''Darkchylde: The Legacy'' #1–3 * ''Darkchylde: Redemption'' ½, #1,2 * ''Dreams of the Darkchylde'' #1–6 * ''Darkchylde Last Issue Special'' * '' Painkiller Jane/Darkchylde'' (drawn by J. G. Jones) * ''

Witchblade ''Witchblade'' is an American comic book Ongoing series, series published by Top Cow Productions, an imprint (trade name), imprint of Image Comics, which ran from November 1995 to October 2015. The series was created by Top Cow founder and owne ...

/Darkchylde'' * '' The Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain'' * ''Darkchylde Swimsuit Illustrated'' * ''Darkchylde Summer Swimsuit Spectacular'' * ''Darkchylde Sketchbook'' * ''Manga Darkchylde'' #0, 1–2

Collected editions

Some of the comics have been collected into

trade paperbacks A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboar ...

: * ''Darkchylde: The Descent'' (collects the original miniseries and the ''Spawn'' interlude,

WildStorm Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...

, 1998) * ''Darkchylde, Volume 1: Legacy and Redemption'' (collects ''Darkchylde: Legacy'' #1/2 & 1-3, and ''Darkchylde: Redemption'' #1/2 & 1, 2) (160 pages, January 2011, ) * ''Darkchylde: Dreams of Darkchylde'' (collects ''Dreams of the Darkchylde'' #1-6) (June 2011, )

Adaptations

Novel

''Darkchylde'' was turned into a Young Adult Novel by Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Queen completed the first of a series of long awaited novels titled ''Darkchylde: The Ariel Chylde Saga'' in 2015.

Film

In August 2007 creator Randy Queen revealed to

Newsarama ''Newsarama'' is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. It is owned by Future US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the website ''GamesRadar+'', also owned by Future US. Hi ...

that a film was in the works. In an interview with Nicholas Yanes from scifipulse.net, Randy Queen was asked and responded to a question about a film/television adaptation of Darkchylde: Test footage from the set of ''Darkchylde'' emerged in July 2010 and on October 31,

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

was hired to direct. The project has since seen no further comment from Carpenter or Queen, and is believed to be in

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or shelved by the production company.

Tumblr depictions and subsequent DMCA takedown notices

In August 2014, Randy Queen, owner of the character, filed numerous DMCA Takedown Requests regarding Escher Girls, a Tumblr blog which critiques the anatomical inaccuracies of women featured in comic art. The notices were filed in response to posts critical of Queen's work, specifically a piece of art published on the blog nine times with encouragement for others to correct it with redraws - a piece of art created 18 years ago while the artist was still learning. Queen felt his work was being used in an abusive and misleading manner, and exercised due process with Tumblr in having his copyrighted images removed from the blog. Tumblr erroneously removed the entire post, which included commentary. Subsequently, Queen apologized on his Facebook page regarding the incident and asked Tumblr to restore the content, which they did.

Notes

External links

* {{Image Comics 1996 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1996 Dark Horse Comics characters Dark Horse Comics titles Maximum Press titles Fantasy comics Superhero horror comics WildStorm superheroes