Late Night with the Devil's David Dastmalchian heads up a starry writing team for a new series based on Kolchak, the paranormal investigator who inspired The X-Files

Carl Kolchak and the Wolfman. — (Image credit: Monstrous Books)

Ace reporter Carl Kolchak was investigating all things paranormal long before FBI agents Mulder and Scully ever opened their first X-File... The character, played on screen by Darren McGavin, first appeared in TV movie The Night Stalker, which was later followed by a sequel and a series, where he encountered everything from zombies and aliens to Jack the Ripper. Now Newsarama can exclusively reveal that Kolchak is back, in a new three-issue series from Monstrous Books, created by some of the biggest names in horror comics.

Each issue of Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters will be a self-contained story penned by a different writer and artist. The first, Kolchak Meets the Werewolf and Count Crowley, is written by actor and writer David Dastmalchian and sees the reporter encounter both a werewolf and Dastmalchian's own monster hunter, Count Crowley. It will be drawn by Lukas Ketner and colored by Zac Atkinson, with covers from Ketner and Matt Wagner.

"One of the biggest inspirations for my character, Jerri Bartman aka Count Crowley is Kolchak," said Dastmalchian in a statement. "I love nontraditional heroes who are thrust into harrowing and thrilling circumstances because of fate. I always hoped there would be a world in which these two monster-hunting journalists could cross paths and I'm over the full moon that it's happening here on the pages of a comic drawn by none other than Lukas Ketner. Prepare, monster kids! The werewolf is loose in Chicago and Kolchak's going to need some help if his hat isn't going to be shredded to pieces."

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The cover for the Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters collection featuring the reporter and a host of monsters. — David Acosta's cover for Kolchak Meets the Classic Monsters. (Image credit: Monstrous Books)

The second issue, Kolchak Meets Dracula, will be written by Killadelphia's Rodney Barnes, another long time Kolchak fan, and drawn by Alex Lins, with a cover from Colton Worley. Barnes said of the issue, "It's an honor to once again enter the terrifying world of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Never feels like work!"

The third issue, Kolchak Meets Frankenstein, comes from 30 Days of Night co-creator Steve Niles and artist George Quadros, with a cover by Russ Braun. "I am thrilled to be working with Monstrous Books on the new Kolchak: The Night Stalker comic line," said Niles. "With writers as great as David Dastmachian and Rodney Barnes also involved, this will be a very special release. I grew up on Kolchak and I have Frankenstein on the brain. Getting the chance to write both has been an amazing experience."

Kolchak Meets the Werewolf and Count Crowley will be published by Monstrous Books as three individual issues as well as a deluxe hardcover collected edition with the above exclusive cover from Dave Acosta. Sign up to the Kickstarter campaign here to get notifications about the new series and find out about the various pledge tiers, which will also include the chance to get your hands on the first-ever officially licensed Kolchak trading cards and a challenge coin.

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Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.