| Darkchylde | |
|---|---|
 Ariel Chylde pictured on the cover of Darkchylde issue #1 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Maximum Press Homage Comics (Wildstorm/Image Comics) Darkchylde Entertainment |
| First appearance | Glory/Angela: Angels in Hell #1 (April 1996) |
| Created by | Randy Queen |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Ariel Chylde |
Darkchylde is an American comic book character created in 1996 by Randy Queen. It was originally published by Maximum Press, and later by Image Comics, through Homage Comics, a publishing imprint of Wildstorm. 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 crossover 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
In 2005 the title was relaunched at Dark Horse Comics 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 in the traditional sense and actually bears very little resemblance to Japanese 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 #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/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:
- Darkchylde: The Descent (collects the original miniseries and the Spawn interlude, WildStorm/Homage Comics, 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, ISBN 978-1-60706-352-0)
- Darkchylde: Dreams of Darkchylde (collects Dreams of the Darkchylde #1-6) (June 2011, ISBN 978-1-60706-388-9)
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 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:
Yanes: For years now there have been rumors of Darkchylde being turned into an animated series, miniseries for a cable network and movie. Are you able to comment on Darkchylde's potential future on in television and film? Any actresses you'd love to play Ariel? Queen: A movie makes so much sense it's ridiculous, and all I can say is that we are working on it. I know that's a frustrating answer for fans, but it's a frustrating process. It's probably best for me not to comment on actresses, so we'll just all have to wait and see.
Test footage from the set of Darkchylde emerged in July 2010 and on October 31, John Carpenter was hired to direct. The project has since seen no further comment from Carpenter or Queen, and is believed to be in development hell 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
- "Darkchylde Entertainment". Wowio.com. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- "Comics Interview: Randy Queen Discusses Darkchylde/Darkness Crossover". Scifipulse.net. October 28, 2009.
- Nicholas Yanes, "Randy Queen Signs With Andrea Brown Literary Agency To Turn Darkchylde Comics Into Young Adult Novels". Scifipulse.net. October 28, 2009.
- "Why Randy Queen's Darkchylde : The Ariel Chylde Saga Is The Next Big YA Novel Franchise". SciFiPulse.net. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
- "Randy Queen Talks About Starfall & His Comic Book Influences". Scifipulse.net. February 24, 2009.
- "Exclusive DARKCHYLDE Weta Workshop Test Footage Revealed". Newsarama. July 6, 2010.
- Turek, Ryan (October 31, 2010). "John Carpenter Bringing Darkchylde to the Screen". Shock Till You Drop. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on November 2, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
- Masnick, Mike (August 4, 2014). "Copyright As Censorship: Comic Artist Uses DMCA To Censor Critical Blogs". Techdirt.
- Geuss, Megan (August 6, 2014). "Artist uses DMCA to remove criticism of his impossibly shaped female characters". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on August 7, 2014.
- ^ Geuss, Megan (2014-08-06). "DMCA mea culpa: Randy Queen apologizes for response to criticism [Updated]". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
External links
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