Dylan Dog

Dylan Dog is an Italian horror comics series created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Sergio Bonelli Editore since 1986. The series features the eponymous character, a paranormal investigator who takes on cases involving supernatural elements such as ghosts, demons, vampires, undeads, werewolves and other creatures, but also horrifying sociopathic criminals and serial killers. It subverts the traditional horror genre with a vein of surrealism and an anti-bourgeois rhetoric. Dylan is supported mainly by his sidekick Groucho (a Groucho Marx lookalike) who adds humour to Dylan's sombre temperament. The series is primarily set in London where the protagonist lives, though he occasionally travels elsewhere. Dark Horse Comics has published the English version of Dylan Dog in the United States in 1999, 2002 and 2009; a new edition was published by Epicenter Comics as of 2017. Sergio Bonelli Editore also released a limited English variant edition in 2018. The series has sold over 60 million copies worldwide, and is the second best-selling comic book in Italy after the Tex series, another publication by Sergio Bonelli Editore, with over 120,000 copies sold each month. The film Cemetery Man (original title: Dellamorte Dellamore, 1994) starring Rupert Everett, was loosely based on the comics, but its main reference was Tiziano Sclavi's novel Dellamorte Dellamore. A direct American film adaptation, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, starring Brandon Routh, was instead released in 2011, although it was significantly different from the source material. As of 2019, a television series based on the comics was also in development.