Dahl goes graphic

I recently added forthcoming Dark Horse titles for August and September to our main site; in among them was an especially interesting little literary rarity being given the graphic novel treatment - a story written by a certain RAF Flight Lieutenant, one Roald Dahl. Gremlins, published during World War Two, is a very early story from the writer who has fascinated generations of children and adults with his books and involves Gus, a fighter pilot who spots the titular Gremlins on the wing of his plane.

Long before they became light-sensitive movie monsters Gremlins were a stape of modern folklore, with pilots, especially in the 40s and 50s reporting sightings of these malevolent little creatures pulling apart their aircraft at high altitude (the extremes of speed and altitude on the brain and blood supply are now thought to be a likely cause of these visions). Famously the original Twilight Zone recycled the idea in an episode with William Shatner as a passenger on an airliner who is convinced he can see a creature on the wing damaging the plane, a story which has been parodied countless times since.

Walt Disney bought the rights to Dahl's Gremlins over six decades ago to use as the basis of an animated movie, but the project was never completed. This Dark Horse hardback reproduces the story and art from Disney and the Artists and Writers Guild for the first time in over sixty years.