Twilight Zone literature is an umbrella term for the many books and comic books which concern or adapt The Twilight Zone television series.
Novels
Numerous novelizations were published based upon episodes of Twilight Zone, as were several volumes of original short stories published under the Twilight Zone brand and edited by Rod Serling himself. An example is Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary, though it was edited by Serling's widow Carol Serling.
Comics
Gold Key Comics published a long-running Twilight Zone comic that featured the likeness of Serling introducing both original stories and occasional adaptations of episodes. The comic outlived the television series by nearly 20 years and Serling by nearly a decade. A later revival of Twilight Zone comics was published by Now Comics, spinning off of the 1980s revival of the show.
In 2008, The Savannah College of Art & Design and publisher Walker & Company collaborated to produce a series of graphic novel adaptations of episodes from the series that were written by Rod Serling.
Comics publisher Dynamite Entertainment ran a multi-issue series, written by J. Michael Straczynski and with art by Guiu Vilanova, beginning in December 2013.
Guides
In 1982, Marc Scott Zicree published an episode-by-episode guide of the original series, The Twilight Zone Companion (published by Bantam Books). Later editions were minimally updated to include a brief new chapter on the 1985 revival series, but did not correct the numerous factual errors in the original text.
The 2008 volume The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr., covers production information for each episode of the original series in great detail. At 800 pages, it is much longer and more detailed than Zicree's guide, and makes a point of identifying and correcting Zicree's misstatements and errors.
Magazines
Beginning in 1981 and with T. E. D. Klein as editor, The Twilight Zone Magazine (also known as Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine) featured horror fiction and to some extent other forms of fantasy and some borderline science fiction. The TZ Magazine reviewed and previewed new movies while publishing articles about the original and revival Twilight Zone television series, among other cultural oddities. The Twilight Zone Magazine was initially successful; by 1983 it was selling 125,000 issues a month, outselling magazines like Analog. Under Klein's editorship, the magazine published several noted writers, including Stephen King, Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison and Pamela Sargent. In late 1985, Michael Blaine succeeded Klein as editor. From March 1986 until its last issue of June 1989 the editor was Tappan King, who also edited its "twisted sister" publication, Night Cry. It was the most reliable market for much of the best short horror in that period. and appealed to audiences for the likes of Fangoria and Starlog as well as for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Whispers. Like Omni Magazine, which it also somewhat resembled, it was published by a company better-known for "skin" magazines, Gallery's Montcalm Publishing. The all-fiction digest-sized companion, Night Cry, makes a cameo in The Simpsons 300th episode, "Barting Over". On occasion, the magazine and digest reprinted often-anthologized short stories, introducing a new generation of horror aficionados to classic short stories by veteran writers such as "The Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson, and The Bookshop by Nelson Bond.
See also
- Science fiction magazine
- Fantasy fiction magazine
- Horror fiction magazine
- Online magazine
- Magazine
References
