Checker Book Publishing of Centerville, Ohio has announced that it will publish a graphic novel version of Clive Barker's short story collection, Tapping the Vein.  The full-color 268-page softcover comic collection will include material from the Eclipse Comics Tapping the Vein series, which originally appeared in 1989 and 1990 some five years after Barker's purely prose anthology appeared.  This is the first time that these comic adaptations have appeared in book form.  The stories are illustrated by some of the very best contemporary comic book artists including P. Craig Russell, Klaus Janson, John Bolton, and Scott Hampton.  Checker has already published another anthology of Barker-based comics, Clive Barker's Hellraiser, which collects comic stories that originally appeared in Marvel's Epic Comics line.

 

Checker is one of several companies that are mining comics from the recent past in order to create graphic novel collections that will appeal to both comics fans and to those who shop at bookstores, where graphic novels have made considerable in-roads over the past year.  Because of the top flight artistic talent involved, the Tapping the Vein graphic novel should have considerable appeal in the comic market, while Clive Barker's reputation as a best-selling horror novelist should help in the traditional book market.  Tapping the Vein is listed in the September Previews as well as in FM Internationals Request Line.  It will be available to traditional bookstores via Midpoint Trade Books.