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For the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Rocky Horror Show, Dark Horse Comics will be publishing new comic books based on the Rocky Horror Picture Show film from 1975 based on the stage play musical from 1973 by Richard O’Brien. This is just the kind of project that Dark Horse Comics may choose to announce at next week’s New York Comic-Con.
The Rocky Horror Show musical spoof and tribute to science fiction and horror B movies from the thirties to the fifties, name-dropping as many as it could, while trying to turn some of the queer and kink subtexts of those films into text. It tells the story of a newly engaged couple whose car breaks down, and they seek help in a nearby mansion, home to the alien transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, who is in the midst of unveiling his new Frankenstein-style creation called Rocky.
The original London production of the show premièred at the Royal Court in 1973, and closed in 1980, while also transferring to Los Angeles and Broadway for nine months and nine weeks respectively. The play was adapted into a 1975 film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, reprising many of the original stage cast, While the film was much less successful, like the play it soon gained a huge cult following and the film is reputed to have saved many independent cinemas by constantly showing it at midnight showings for years, and packing cinemas out. Still out in limited release in 2022, some 47 years after its premiere, it is the longest-running cinematic release in film history.
Previously, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was adapted and illustrated by Kevin VanHook, and published as a three-issue mini-series by Caliber Comics in 1990, and collected in a trade paperback, but it has been out of print for decades. The collection also included extra pages containing song lyrics, profiles, and an interview with Richard O’Brien. What this version will include, maybe we will learn next weekend?