I knew this had an adaptation, but I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me it ran so long.

My Youngest son has been on a David Cronenberg kick: he'd just watched Videodrome, although now I think I need to ask him if he recognized video tapes. Or Debbie Harry. I keep telling him he'll like eXistenz, but he had also just watched Nightbreed, which features Cronenberg as serial killer Dr. Philip K. Decker. In fact, the serial killer angle might have been played up in that movie's ad campaign: marketing maybe tried to push it as a slasher, which it wasn't, really. Back in 1990, I remember some ads in DC's higher-end titles for the film, with detailed portraits of some of the monstrous Night Breed; but Marvel/Epic would get an adaptation of the film. Then, like Star Wars before it, that series went on to original stories, starting here: from 1990, Clive Barker's Night Breed #5, "The Blasphemers - Prelude: Scattering Seeds of Damnation" Written by Dan Chichester, pencils by Jackson "Butch" Guice, painted colors by Alfred Ramirez.

Picking up where the movie ended, after the destruction of the Nightbreed's refuge Midian, several of the 'Breed were re-entering the world: a world that hated and feared them as monsters, although sometimes not without reason. Six of them rob a nearby gas station, but leave the attendant to round up a small posse to go after them. One, Aello, stays behind to slow down pursuit, by seducing one of the pursuers. That leaves their leader, Mulciber, free to argue with the bland-looking Oral: Oral was struggling to abide by the commandments of their god Baphomet, which maybe involved not killing and eating people. Mulciber argues, it was natural...and tasty. (Aello kills hers, by flying him up and dropping him: she had large angel wings, unusual eyes and eyebrows, and a spectacular rack. Her victim probably only noticed one of those things...) Mulciber gives Oral some rocks; setting up a great scare on the next page! I don't want to spoil it more than that.

Meanwhile, another Nightbreed girl was travelling with a piece of Baphomet, who blows a farmer's mind with a quick recap of their history. And the Nightbreed's possible savior, Aaron 'Cabal' Boone, and his crew take down a drug dealer; to shake him down for one of their own, that didn't go to Midian but had remained in the 'natural' world...

I had seen the movie again fairly recently, and while Cronenberg quite sells his role, it still wasn't really a slasher movie. It's maybe more about finding the people that are like yourself, even if you sometimes even find them disturbing. There's also the notion, can you deny what you really are, even if society doesn't approve? Also, I got seven issues of this over the weekend; and I wouldn't have been surprised if you told me it only ran seven issues: nope! It ran for 25, although that synopsis of the last issue makes it seem like the Nightbreed would find their new Midian, probably the one place you would expect if you've read a fair amount of X-Men comics.