Posted in: Comics, Preview | Tagged: boom, boom studios, R L Stine

First Look at R.L. Stine's "First" Graphic Novel, Just Beyond: The Scare School

Published Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:30:42 -0600

Explosive publisher BOOM! Studios has partnered with Goosebumps author R.L. Stine for a new series of original graphic novels, the first Stine has written for the comic book medium. Well, actually, BOOM! puts it like this: "the first time R.L. Stine has originated new concepts in the comic book medium." Take from that what you will.

For Just Beyond: The Scare School, Stine teams with artists Kelly & Nichole Matthews, and the book will feature a cover by Julian Totino Tedesco, and BOOM! has released a first look at it (which you can see below).

Here's what the book is about:

This middle grade supernatural horror series takes young readers Just Beyond the reality they know…Just Beyond their normal lives…Just Beyond the real world to an always-surprising place of fantasy and fright.

In JUST BEYOND: THE SCARE SCHOOL, the first original graphic novel in the series, something's not quite right as we meet three 12-year-olds in strangely old-fashioned clothing creeping through the halls of Scare Middle School and trying to blend in with the present-day students while evading a menacing cyborg creature, the Drogg. Where did they come from? And why is this scary mechanical monster hunting them down? Thrust into the middle of this terrifying mystery are three modern day students, Josh, Jess, and Marco, who end up fighting for their lives while trying to escape the very nightmare that the three kids in old-fashioned dress were fleeing from, a school of horrors that exists JUST BEYOND their very own.

To send out a press release with an author of Stine's caliber, you can't just send any editor hanging around the office to produce the formulaic editorial quote, so BOOM! broke out Vice President of Editorial and Creative Strategy Bryce Carlson, who is scared of Middle Schools, for this one:

Middle school is terrifying enough as it is but R.L. Stine takes that fear to a whole new level in JUST BEYOND: THE SCARE SCHOOL. I honestly couldn't imagine a better way to kick off a series of middle grade horror graphic novels. This book is every kid's nightmare come to life with chilling art by phenomenal illustrators Kelly and Nichole Matthews and a frightening story that only a modern master like Stine could tell.

You can see why Carlson gets paid the big bucks. Just Beyond: The Scare School hits stores on September 4th. Check out the preview below.