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- Silent Hill Comic -
IDW to Publish Silent Hill Comic
INSIDE IDW'S SILENT HILL: DYING INSIDE
Grotesque monsters, enhanced graphical detail and a complex storyline have been the hallmark
of Konami’s best-selling horror video game series, Silent Hill. The series’ trademark brand of psychological
horror, terrifying narrative, spectacular graphics and terrifying gameplay gets the comic treatment courtesy of IDW Publishing
in February’s Silent Hill: Dying Inside by writer Scott Ciencin.
The five-part limited series features two complete
and interlocking tales of high-octane horror, with the first two issues drawn by 30 Days of Night’s Ben Templesmith
while newcomer artist Aadi Salman keeps the double-barreled action and fear going in issues three through five.
Silent
Hill is the premiere franchise in the horror videogame genre with over four million copies sold in Japan, the U.S. and
Europe. Silent Hill 3 for PlayStation 2 was recently released in August 2003 and is considered to be the best game
in the series.
We ventured into the dark realm of the god-forsaken nightmare town of Silent Hill with IDW’s
Vice-President Kris Oprisko, Konami’s Tetsuya Hiyoshi and the creative team of Ciencin, Templesmith and Salman for what
could be the best horror adventure ever.
"IDW wants to bring to the comic page exactly what the Silent Hill
games have delivered to TV screens: compelling and terrifying storylines, intense action, a pervading sense of dread and foreboding,
and a sense that anything can happen at any time. We hope to deliver a book that will thrill and excite the legion of Silent
Hill fans that already exist, and also expose a whole new group of readers to the horrors that lurk there," Oprisko, who
is also the editor of the miniseries, told Newsarama:
For a property like Silent Hill, the bar is set very
high from the beginning. The games are known for their striking visuals and taut storylines, so the comic had to deliver the
same excellence that gamers are used to. Scott Ciencin, an accomplished comic and prose writer, was selected on the basis
of an excellent story proposal, and immediately dove deep into thoroughly researching the ins and outs of the world. I think
that gamers will appreciate the new monsters and characters he’s created, while still getting plenty of the familiar
in terms of locations and creatures."
For the record, Scott Ciencin is the New York Times best-selling author of more than sixty novels.
In the horror genre, he is the creator of the critically-acclaimed Vampire Odyssey series of original novels and the
writer of several titles in the incredibly popular Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel book lines. He has worked
for DC, Marvel, Wildstorm and CrossGen, most recently writing the CGE/Code Six fantasy-adventure comic book series DemonWars
based on the novels by R.A. Salvatore.
"On the art side, we have Ben Templesmith doing issues #1 & #2 and Aadi
Salman handling issues #3-5," Oprisko continued. "Each artist’s issues comprise a mini-arc of the overarching five-issue
master story. Ben is probably well known to most as the artist of 30 Days of Night and Dark Days. His gloomy, atmospheric,
blood-spattered style was a perfect fit to Silent Hill. Aadi Salman is a new discovery, and will be seen for the first time
by American audiences on this miniseries. We here at IDW Publishing are very excited about this great new find, and I have
no doubt our readers will feel the same once they check out the great work he’s been doing."
According to Tetsuya Hiyoshi, General Manager, Corporate and Video Games Division, North American Business Department
of Konami Corporation, a strong interest and respect toward this Intellectual Property from IDW’s side and the cross
relationship between the publisher and Konami to create a new Intellectual Property and business model in both the comic and
video game markets already realized in the partnership for CVO, sealed the deal between IDW and Konami to create Silent Hill
comics.
Their creativity (such as 30 Days of Night, Wake The Dead, and of course CVO), their deep knowledge
of the Silent Hill Intellectual Property and their quick response, enabling us to conquer the geographic distance between
the USA and Japan," Hiyoshi added.
Writer Scott Ciencin provided a lowdown into the origin of the town and its urban
legends. "Silent Hill is a mist-enshrouded town where something horrible once happened, a haunted place that may appear dead
and deserted at first, but is actually possessed by a malevolent force that can take anyone’s deepest and darkest secrets
and most terrifying fears and make them flesh. It’s the ultimate crucible for psychological horror stories, an environment
that allows great tension and atmospheric chills, an emphasis on rooting interest in the characters, and a chance for shotgun
blasting, fast-paced monster-killing madness! This one really has it all. And both Ben and Aadi have brought Silent Hill to
life brilliantly. If you watch Asian horror films, you’ll discover camera work, cinematography, and editing tricks that
are only now beginning to work their way into American cinema. Konami already employ all these stylistic advances and more
in the Silent Hill games, and Ben and Aadi are now using them in comics. It’s riveting and visually dynamic and
stunning work."
Dying Inside takes place in the seventeen-year period between the first and the third games, much like
Silent Hill 2. "It works supremely well as a stand-alone story introducing readers to this amazing and frightening
environment, while at the same time treating long-time fans to some gruesome favorites from the games and many demons and
threats that are all-new creations," writer Scott Ciencin said. "The underlying mythology from the games is fully at play
in Silent Hill: Dying Inside, but one doesn’t need to have played the games to appreciate the limited series. If you
love horror films like the American or Asian versions of The Ring or the works of Clive Barker and other dark fantasists
or comics like 30 Days of Night and Dark Days, you’ll love this. We’re really telling two stories in these five
issues, and the cast is brand new — which means no one is safe and anything can happen."
The first two issues of the five-part limited series deal with two central characters who go
back to Silent Hill. "And we get to learn a little too much about one of them. Plus, Scott has let me create a few new cool
looking monsters extra to the game, though some of the old nasties are still in there for sure," Ben Templesmith said.
"Troy Abernathy is a psychiatrist who has attempted to turn his back on the healing
arts and live the high life of money, sex, and fame through a series of mammoth selling self-help books, only — he’s
the one who needs help," Ciencin explained further about the characters and the story. "He carries around a truckload of guilt
largely because his wife committed suicide after learning of acts he committed. He’s driving down a very dark road toward
self-damnation, an irony considering he doesn’t believe in anything beyond this world, this life. Troy is given the
chance to redeem himself when he returns to his old practice and takes on the case of Lynn DeAngelis, a former film student
who experienced a horrible trauma in Silent Hill and lived to tell a tale of monsters and a demonic little girl intent on
tearing her soul to shreds (though her footage of the event mysteriously went missing). Believing Silent Hill to be nothing
more than a deserted town where some all too real tragedy befell this traumatized young woman, Troy takes her back to Silent
Hill to confront her nightmares—and quickly finds himself confronting his own!"
"By the end of issue two, we
are introduced to teenage goth Lauryn and her boyfriend Clown (the guy who stole Lynn’s footage). Lauryn is convinced
that there is incredible power just ripe for the taking in Silent Hill and she gathers a group of fellow goths to go on a
dark "treasure hunt" in this reputedly haunted place. But there is much more going on here, because the demon-child who runs
through all five issues is Christabella, her dead younger sister, and it is entirely possible that the force that has made
Silent Hill a nightmare town could fall into Lauryn or even Troy’s hands — and soon darken the skies of the entire
world."
"Boy, it's their biggest mistake," Malaysian artist Aadi Salman said. "More characters means more body counts,
more monsters and more blood," he added.
"To me, Silent Hill
is a very cool horror video game," Salman said. "[When it] first time came out, I never thought Konami would come out with
this kind of game, because at the time, I was really into Metal Gear Solid. And I thought SH is just another
Bio Hazard (Japanese version of Resident Evil) kind of game but I was wrong, it's much more scarier! I think
it's the scariest video game I've ever played. I didn't finished the game and I never played the second and third game."
For
Templesmith, who used to play the first game, "it was the very definition of what a horror game should be. Since then, I've
been kind of too busy drawing two comics a month to play console games all that much, sadly. After this stint though, I'll
be getting into Silent Hill 3 for sure! So expect my productivity to go straight to hell from now on!"
"This
project appealed to me on several levels though," Templesmith said. "One, it was just a great game... that's very well known
and was a great opportunity to contribute to something that I loved, and two, I got to draw some rather interesting things
which were a little fresher to me. This stuff is still really dark, but I get to draw way more than just vampires."
Silent
Hill: Dying Inside #1, 32 pages with a cover by Ashley Wood priced at $3.99, welcomes visitors to its town in February.
Here are some of the Silent Hill comic book covers. To view the full
size image, click on the comic you would like to view.
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