Something is killing the children #1
The Dark Dragon Books edition of Something is Killing the Children #1 (2024) brings the Dutch-language market its first collected introduction to Erica Slaughter, the monster hunter whose debut in the original BOOM! Studios issue (September 4, 2019) marked one of the most significant horror launches in modern American comics. Writer James Tynion IV and Italian artist Werther Dell'Edera introduced a premise — supernatural creatures visible only to children, hunted by a lone black-masked operative of the clandestine Order of St. George — that proved so resonant the publisher upgraded it from a planned five-issue limited series to an ongoing before the first issue even reached shops. The series subsequently seeded an entire shared universe (the 'Slaughterverse') including the spinoff House of Slaughter and multiple one-shot specials, earned Eisner Award recognition, and attracted adaptation interest from multiple Hollywood parties, cementing its place as BOOM! Studios' defining creator-owned franchise of the 2020s.
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Tynion had carried the germ of the concept since college, where he wrote a short story titled 'Something Is Killing the Children' that he returned to and reshaped over the years before pitching it to BOOM! Studios. He originally envisioned it as a series of standalone one-shots following a roving monster hunter — an approach influenced by self-contained horror anthologies — before it evolved into a serialised ongoing. BOOM! announced it in June 2019 as a five-issue limited series, but the title's pre-release momentum was strong enough that the publisher converted it to an ongoing monthly before issue #1 shipped on September 4, 2019. Dark Dragon Books, the Dutch publisher, subsequently licensed and released Dutch-language collected editions of the series beginning in 2024, making the material accessible to Benelux readers in hardcover and softcover formats.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Original BOOM! Studios issue #1 published September 4, 2019; written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Werther Dell'Edera, with colors by Miquel Muerto and lettering by AndWorld Design, edited by Eric Harburn.
- Dark Dragon Books #1 (2024) is the Dutch-language collected edition of the series, published in both hardcover (HC) and softcover (SC) formats, making it the title's first official release for the Dutch-language market.
- Issue #1 marks the first appearance of Erica Slaughter — a 'black mask' operative of the Order of St. George gifted with the ability to see monsters into adulthood — and her signature companion, the stuffed octopus toy known as Octo.
- The series was announced as a five-issue limited series in June 2019 but was upgraded to an ongoing monthly by BOOM! Studios before issue #1 reached comic shops, reflecting exceptional pre-release demand.
- SIKTC #1 opens 'The Angel of Archer's Peak' arc and the broader 'Archer's Peak Saga' (issues #1–15), set in a small Wisconsin town where children are being killed by creatures only other children — and Erica — can perceive.
- The series spawned the 'Slaughterverse' franchise, including the spinoff House of Slaughter (launched October 2021) and multiple Books of Slaughter one-shots, with BOOM! Studios describing it as their highest-selling creator-owned title.
- Something is Killing the Children was nominated for Best New Series at the 2020 Eisner Awards, and Tynion subsequently won the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 2021, 2022, and 2023 across his body of work including this series.
- A Netflix television adaptation was announced in 2021 (with horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan initially attached), later developed by Dark and 1899 showrunners Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese; rights subsequently moved to Blumhouse Productions, which is developing both a live-action feature film and an adult animated series.
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