Digital studio Madefire is getting into the scary, Halloween spirit with its announcement earlier today that adapt Clive Barker’s first series of horror stories, Books of Blood, into the Madefire Motion Books format. Barker, one of the most acclaimed and influential fantasy and horror fiction writers in recent history, will be celebrating the series’ 30th anniversary by bringing the stories to a new and exciting visual medium.
For further details on Clive Barker’s collaboration with Madefire, please be sure to read the full press release below.
Clive Barker’s Classic Horror Stories “Books of Blood Volume 1” Coming to Madefire Motion Books
First-ever collaboration to bring Clive Barker’s historical volumes to a new medium of visual storytelling
SAN FRANCISCO – October 28, 2014 – Clive Barker, one of the most acclaimed and influential fantasy and horror fiction writers in history, announced today the collaboration with Madefire to adapt Barker’s first series of horror stories, “Books of Blood” – bringing it to a new medium of visual storytelling – the Madefire Motion Books format.
This is the 30th anniversary of the short story collection “Books of Blood Volume 1” – Clive Barker’s first published work, which made him an overnight literary sensation in 1984. This is an all-new visual adaptation by artist Sam Shearon, adapted by Mark Miller and Ben Meares, and created specifically for Madefire’s Motion Books format.
Although most of Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood” stories have previously been adapted for comic books, TV and film, the creative team behind this project believes that the new Motion Books version will be the most faithful adaptation of the “Books of Blood” stories ever seen.
“What we have done with the ‘Books of Blood’ is, I assure you, nothing short of astonishing,” said Clive Barker. “Prepare yourselves for an experience the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
Motion Books are an immersive audio-visual reading format that is creating a new medium for visual storytelling by combining art, text and sound. Motion Books stories serve as a “living storyboard” that draws readers in while opening up new levels of creative expression for authors and visual artists.
“Clive Barker is one of the true masters of modern horror. We’re thrilled to help bring more of his exceptional vision to the Madefire Motion Book format,” said Liam Sharp, CCO and Co-Founder of Madefire. “Clive’s stories are so nuanced, visual and literate, and the living aspects of Motion Books afford them new and terrifyingly visceral possibilities. We’re extremely excited to work with Seraphim, and the exceptional artist Sam Shearon, to adapt this seminal series. Sam brings a near life-like cinematic sensibility and horrific detail to the project that should delight fans!”
Clive Barker is an accomplished filmmaker and visual artist who has a longtime interest in comic books, making his work ideally well suited for adaptation to Motion Books. The “Books of Blood” stories were adapted for Motion Books format in partnership with Seraphim, Clive Barker’s production company. Clive Barker is directly supervising the adaptations, art and build of each Motion Book to ensure that the adaptation and reading experience is as faithful as possible to the mood and intention of the original stories.
The first Clive Barker “Books of Blood” Motion Book is now available via Madefire and DeviantART, listed as “Books of Blood Issue 1.” The first half of the first issue is free, and the rest of the story can be downloaded for 99 cents. Each subsequent issue will be priced at $1.99.
Subsequent stories from “Books of Blood, Volume 1” will be published as part of a 12-part series of Motion Books. Barker’s creative team at Seraphim plans to create Motion Books versions of every story from all six volumes of the “Books of Blood,” presented in their original order, along with bonus Motion Books adaptations of other more obscure Clive Barker stories.
Clive Barker is a longtime comic book fan, visual artist and filmmaker, and he stated that he is intrigued to see his first major series of horror stories adapted to the highly visually interactive and emotionally impactful Madefire Motion Books format.
About Madefire
Founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Liam Sharp and Eugene Walden, Madefire is a media and technology company. Madefire has built the Motion Books publishing platform that provides artists, writers and publishers tools for creating a new reading format called Motion Books. Madefire is backed by Toni Schneider at True Ventures, who is the former CEO of Automattic (makers of WordPress), as well as Bill Woodward (Anthem Ventures, former Chairman of Macromedia).
The Advisory Board also includes industry leaders Mike McCue, CEO and Founder of Flipboard; angel investor Sina Tamaddon, former Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Inc.; Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, the bestselling graphic novel of all time; and Bill Sienkiewicz, widely recognized as one of the greatest innovators of sequential art. For more information go to madefire.com.
About Seraphim
Formed in 1990 and based in Los Angeles, California, Seraphim is Clive Barker’s production company. For more than twenty years, Seraphim has brought Clive’s work to global audiences as he explores his imagination through multiple media including film, television, novels, comics, poetry, theatre, photography and painting. The creative extent of Clive’s fevered imagination has been shepherded by Seraphim’s insights and management.
Alongside its role as the public face of Clive Barker’s output, Seraphim has also nurtured several talents in the next generation of filmmakers and artists, generating unique opportunities and early responsibility to garner vital experience in Hollywood.
