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42-474: Coraline ( / ˈ k ɒr əl aɪ n / ) is a 2002 British dark fantasy horror children's novella by author Neil Gaiman . Gaiman started writing Coraline in 1990, and it was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and HarperCollins . It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella , the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novel , and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers . The Guardian ranked Coraline #82 in its list of 100 Best Books of

84-534: A "dark fairy tale" fantasy film. Guillermo del Toro 's fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth (2006) has been described as a "sort of a dark spin on Alice in Wonderland ". The 2013 fantasy action role-playing game Dragon's Crown contains many elements of dark fantasy, such as werewolves, vampires, zombies, homonculi, and human-monster hybrids. Modern games from Japanese game development and publishing company FromSoftware are lauded as exceptional representations of

126-495: A chance to stay in the Other World forever, if Coraline will allow buttons to be sewn into her eyes. Coraline is horrified and returns back through the door to go home. Upon her return to her apartment, Coraline finds her real parents are missing. They do not return the next day, and the black cat wakes her and takes her to a mirror in her hallway, through which she can see her trapped parents. They signal to her by writing "Help Us" on

168-426: A dark, often brooding, tone. As a result, dark fantasy cannot be solidly connected to a defining set of tropes . The term itself may refer collectively to tales that are either horror-based or fantasy-based. Some writers also use "dark fantasy" (or " Gothic fantasy ") as an alternative description to "horror", because they feel the latter term is too lurid or vivid. Charles L. Grant is often cited as having coined

210-423: A few fonts based on Klein's hand lettering. Klein bought his first Macintosh computer in late 1994 and started learning how to make fonts himself. Since 1995, Klein has created a library of over 100 of his own fonts. The first book that Klein fully computer lettered was Image Comics' Deathblow #20. Klein began creating logos for DC when he started there in 1977. Most of his logos were for DC until he became

252-421: A freelancer, Klein worked for long periods on a number of comics titles, including the entire runs of Suicide Squad (1987–1992), Sandman (1989–1996), The Spectre (1992–1998), The Dreaming (1996–2001), and The Invisibles (1997–2000) for DC/Vertigo; and Deathblow (1994–1996) for Image Comics ). He also has long stints on DC's Batman (1990–1992 and 1996–1999); The Demon (1990–1994); Shade,

294-670: A full-time freelancer in 1987, when he began creating logos for other companies as well. Some of the notable logos he created during the period 1977–1995 include the Batman logo used for the Batman: Year One storyline, The New Teen Titans (including character logos for team members Nightwing , Starfire , Raven , Cyborg , the Changeling , and Jericho ), Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld , Camelot 3000 , Doctor Strange , The Amazing Spider-Man , and Magneto . From 1995 to

336-593: A loud, booming voice.)" As comics critic Alan Donald notes in this discussion at Silver Bullet Comic Books , "Klein's work on Sandman was not simply distinctive but revolutionary, and showed a trend that should have been followed. The letterer’s art would have been forced to the fore and one could have seen ou(r) beautiful synergistic art form become further enriched by this new trend." To read about Klein's technique one need look no further than The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics , published by Watson-Guptill Publications . In this guide, Klein gives

378-547: A lucky adder stone . They then explain that it is "good for bad things". Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door when she is home by herself and finds the brick wall behind the door gone. In its place is a long passageway, which leads to a flat identical to her own, inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father, who are replicas of her real parents. They have button eyes and exaggerated features. In this “Other World”, Coraline finds everything to be better than her reality: her Other Parents are attentive, her toy box

420-488: A mouse circus. The flat beside Coraline's, which lies behind a big brown door, remains empty. During a rainy day she discovers the locked door in the living room, which has been bricked up. As she goes to visit her neighbors, Mr. Bobo relates to her a message from the mice: Don't go through the door. At tea with Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, Miss Spink senses danger in Coraline’s future after reading her tea leaves and gives her

462-472: A serial killer would simply be horror. Stableford suggests that the type of horror conveyed by fantasy stories such as William Beckford 's Vathek and Edgar Allan Poe 's The Masque of the Red Death "is more aesthetic than visceral or existential", and that such stories should be considered "dark fantasies" rather than the "supernaturalized thrillers" of conventional horror fiction. Karl Edward Wagner

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504-505: A thorough review of how he mentally approaches a page and then goes about doing the actual lettering, either by hand (pen and ink), or by use of the computer ( Adobe Illustrator ). Klein saw the growing prevalence of computerized lettering in the early 1990s and quickly realized it was the wave of the future. He had met Comicraft owners Richard Starkings and John Gaushell at the 1993 San Diego Comic-Con , and in 1994, he asked them to help him get started with computer lettering by creating

546-417: A writer), keeping him very busy. Books he worked on during this period included Alan Moore 's Swamp Thing , Batman: Year One , and Detective Comics ; as well as his own scripts for Omega Men . As a freelancer, Klein also performed production work on such works as Moore and Dave Gibbons ' Watchmen , Frank Miller 's Ronin , and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . In the 1990s, despite being

588-705: Is an ally to Coraline, and gets punished by the Other Mother when he helps Coraline escape the Other World. At the end of the film, Coraline reaches out to help Wybie tell his grandmother what is behind the little door. The sister of Wybie's grandmother was one of the ghost children lost to the Beldam. A theatrical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt and book by David Greenspan , premiered on 6 May 2009, produced by MCC Theater and True Love Productions Off-Broadway at The Lucille Lortel Theatre. Nine-year-old Coraline

630-491: Is filled with animate toys that can move and fly, and the Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible forever perform a cabaret show in their flat. She even finds the feral Black Cat that wanders around the house in the real world can talk, however she learns he is not of the Other World; he only travels from one world to another and warns Coraline of the imminent danger, but Coraline pays him no heed. The Other Mother offers Coraline

672-642: Is in Coraline's world, attempting to steal the key which opens the door that connects the two worlds. Coraline goes to an old well in the woods by her house, luring the Other Mother’s hand there with the key by pretending to have a picnic with her dolls. By doing so, she casts both down the bottomless well. Coraline returns home, victorious, and prepares to go about the ordinary life she has come to accept and love. A graphic novel adaptation by P. Craig Russell , lettered by Todd Klein and colored by Lovern Kindzierski ,

714-402: Is in contrast to the traditional horror model, which focuses more on the victims and survivors. In a more general sense, dark fantasy is occasionally used as a synonym for supernatural horror , to distinguish horror stories that contain elements of the supernatural from those that do not. For example, a story about a werewolf or vampire could be described as dark fantasy, while a story about

756-473: Is locked behind a mirror as punishment. In the darkness, she meets three ghost children, each from a different era, who had let the " Beldam " (the Other Mother) sew buttons in their eyes. They tell her how she eventually stopped loving them and cast their spirits aside. The ghost children implore Coraline to avoid their fate, and to help find their souls so that they can leave the Other World and pass on. After

798-422: Is most known for his work on Neil Gaiman 's Sandman , where he developed very distinctive dialogue balloons and lettering for various characters, especially Dream and his siblings. Klein discussed the process by which he came up with these distinctive styles on his website: "Each of them needed some sort of special lettering style, . . .to show that they are all equals in their iconic power. Destiny 's speech

840-476: Is often credited for creating the term "dark fantasy" when used in a more fantasy-based context. Wagner used it to describe his fiction about the Gothic warrior Kane . Since then, "dark fantasy" has sometimes been applied to sword and sorcery and high fantasy fiction that features anti-heroic or morally ambiguous protagonists. Another good example under this definition of dark fantasy is Michael Moorcock 's saga of

882-425: Is sometimes used for "darker" fiction written by authors best known for other styles of fantasy; Raymond Feist 's Faerie Tale and Charles de Lint 's novels written as Samuel M. Key would fit here. Roald Dahl 's novel The Witches (and its film adaptations) is described as dark fantasy. Dahl's poetic reworking of " Cinderella " (which features in his poetry collection Revolting Rhymes ) sees him upend

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924-917: The Leeds Playhouse on 11 April 2025, before embarking on a tour to the HOME (Manchester) , the Birmingham Repertory Theatre , and the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. A 2009 video game adaptation, based on the film, was published and developed by D3 Publisher of America. The game was released on 27 January 2009 for the PlayStation 2 , Nintendo DS and Wii platforms and contains features such as playing as Coraline, interacting with other characters, and playing minigames. The game received mostly negative reviews, and little success. Coraline inspired

966-528: The albino swordsman Elric . The fantasy work of H. P. Lovecraft , Clark Ashton Smith and their emulators have been specified as "dark fantasy", since the imaginary worlds they depicted contain many horror elements. Dark fantasy is occasionally used to describe fantasy works by authors whom the public primarily associates with the horror genre. Examples of these are Stephen King 's The Dark Tower series, Peter Straub 's Shadowland and Clive Barker 's Weaveworld . Alternatively, dark fantasy

1008-486: The "Coralisa" segment of The Simpsons episode " Treehouse of Horror XXVIII ", which aired on 22 October 2017. Neil Gaiman provided the voice of the Simpsons' cat, Snowball V . Dark fantasy A strict definition for dark fantasy is difficult to pin down. Gertrude Barrows Bennett has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy". Both Charles L. Grant and Karl Edward Wagner are credited with having coined

1050-399: The 21st Century. It was adapted as a 2009 stop-motion animated film , directed by Henry Selick under the same name. Coraline Jones and her parents move into an old house that has been divided into flats. The other tenants include Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two elderly women retired from the stage, and Mr. Bobo (commonly referred as the "Crazy Old Man Upstairs"), who claims to be training

1092-915: The Changing Man (1990–1994); and Batman: Shadow of the Bat (1992–1994); as well as Marvel's Captain America (1998–2002) and Earth X (1999–2000). In the 2000s, Klein lettered all the Alan Moore America's Best Comics titles, including Promethea , Tom Strong , and Top 10 . He also lettered the entire runs of Marvel's Universe X (2000–2001); DC/Vertigo's Fables (2002–2015), Books of Magick: Life During Wartime (2005–2006), Justice (2005–2007), Jack of Fables (2006–2011), and Simon Dark (2007–2009). Klein has also spent long periods on DC's Detective Comics (2000–2003); Wonder Woman (2003–2006) and Vertigo's Testament (2006–2008). Klein

1134-477: The Other Father into a pumpkin ), it still manages to hold relatively strong to the original plot of the book. In the film, Coraline is depicted as having short blue hair and freckles. In the movie, there was an added new character named Wyborn " Wybie " Lovat , a boy about Coraline's age who frequently annoyed Coraline at first, but over time, they grow on each other. In the Other World, his copy cannot speak but

1176-470: The Other Mother releases Coraline from the mirror, Coraline proposes a game in which she must find the ghost children’s souls and her parents, which lay hidden throughout the Other World. If Coraline wins, she, her parents and the ghost children may go free. If not, Coraline will let the Other Mother sew the buttons into her eyes. Coraline goes through the Other World, and overcomes all the Other Mother’s obstacles, using her wits and Miss Spink’s stone to locate

1218-823: The dark fantasy genre, notably the Dark Souls series along with Bloodborne and later Elden Ring . Todd Klein Todd Klein (born January 28, 1951) is an American comic book letterer , logo designer , and occasional writer, primarily for DC Comics . Todd Klein broke into comics in the summer of 1977, hired by DC Comics as a staff production worker. This job entailed pasting together text pages (such as letter columns ), putting logos, display lettering, and type on covers, and doing art and lettering corrections on comics pages. Other staffers included colorists Bob LeRose and Anthony Tollin , writer Bob Rozakis , inker Steve Mitchell , and letterer John Workman . Over

1260-410: The fall of 1977, and by late 1977 was entrusted with an entire issue: Firestorm #1. In the 1980s, Klein mainly worked for DC, where in addition to lettering many of their titles, he also designed logos and title headers for various letter pages. As DC emerged from a late 1970s/early 1980s slump, new opportunities opened up for freelancers. Klein got more work as a letterer (and also a fair amount as

1302-401: The ghost children’s souls. At the close of the game, the ghost children warn her even if Coraline wins, the Other Mother will not let them go. Having deduced her parents are imprisoned in the snow globe on the mantle, Coraline tricks the Other Mother by saying her parents are behind the door in the drawing room. As the Other Mother opens the door, Coraline throws the cat at the Other Mother, grabs

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1344-452: The glass, from which Coraline deduces the Other Mother has kidnapped them. Though frightened of returning, Coraline goes back to the Other World to confront the Other Mother and rescue her parents. In the garden, Coraline is prompted by the Cat to challenge the Other Mother, as “her kind of thing loves games and challenges”. The Other Mother tries to convince Coraline to stay, but Coraline refuses, and

1386-438: The happy tale. Berserk , a manga and anime franchise by Kentaro Miura that debuted in 1989, is frequently noted as an example of the genre due to its depictions of extreme violence, moral ambiguity, apocalyptic storylines and anti-hero protagonists. Attack on Titan is a dark fantasy for its intense violence and the dystopian world it takes place in. Ridley Scott 's film Legend (1985) has been described as

1428-600: The main writer for The Omega Men from May 1985 to May 1986 (issue #s 26–38), Klein also penned a number of entries about the Omega Men and the Green Lantern Corps for Who's Who in the DC Universe , as well as its '87 update. In addition, from 1978 to 1988, Klein wrote a number of (mostly) short pieces for other DC titles: Many of DC's lettercol headers were designed or redesigned in the 1980s by Klein.: In

1470-401: The next months and years, Klein tried his hand at all those things, but found lettering suited him best. Workman helped Klein get started with the basic tools and techniques, and Klein studied the work of Gaspar Saladino , Workman, Ben Oda , and John Costanza ; as well as Marvel Comics letterers Tom Orzechowski , Jim Novak , and Joe Rosen . Klein landed his first freelance lettering job in

1512-606: The present, most of Klein's logos have been done on the computer (although many began as hand-drawn sketches that were scanned and traced in Adobe Illustrator). Notable logos from this period include Challengers of the Unknown , Silver Surfer , Legionnaires , Iron Man , the Legion of Super-Heroes , The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck , Albion , Witchblade , Terra Obscura , and Tom Strong . In addition to being

1554-412: The snow globe, and escapes to the real world with the key. In doing so, she forces the door shut on the Other Mother's hand, severing it. Back in her home, Coraline finds her parents safe and with no memory of the events. That night, Coraline has a dream in which she meets the three children before they move on to the afterlife. They warn her that her task is still not done: the Other Mother's severed hand

1596-653: The term "dark fantasy". Grant defined his brand of dark fantasy as "a type of horror story in which humanity is threatened by forces beyond human understanding". He often used dark fantasy as an alternative to horror , as horror was increasingly associated with more visceral works. Dark fantasy is sometimes also used to describe stories told from a monster 's point of view, or that present a more sympathetic view of supernatural beings usually associated with horror. Anne Rice 's The Vampire Chronicles , Chelsea Quinn Yarbro 's Saint-Germain , and Neil Gaiman 's The Sandman are early examples of this style of dark fantasy. This

1638-728: The term "dark fantasy"—although both authors were describing different styles of fiction. Brian Stableford argues "dark fantasy" can be usefully defined as subgenre of stories that attempt to "incorporate elements of horror fiction" into the standard formulae of fantasy stories. Stableford also suggests that supernatural horror set primarily in the real world is a form of " contemporary fantasy ", whereas supernatural horror set partly or wholly in " secondary worlds " should be described as "dark fantasy". Additionally, other authors, critics, and publishers have adopted dark fantasy to describe various other works. However, these stories rarely share universal similarities beyond supernatural occurrences and

1680-526: Was played by an adult, Jayne Houdyshell , and the Other Mother was played by David Greenspan. Another theatrical adaptation, a stage opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage based on the novella, made its world premiere at the Barbican Centre in London on 27 March 2018. On 22 May 2024, it was announced that a new musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Louis Barabbas and book by Zinnie Harris , would premiere at

1722-412: Was published in 2008. With the help of the animation studio Laika, LLC , director Henry Selick released a stop motion film adaptation in 2009 that received much critical acclaim, and moderate box office success. At the 82nd Academy Awards , the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature but lost to Pixar 's Up . Although the 2009 film has several differences (one example is the Beldam turning

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1764-419: Was simply italic (really just slanted) [...] Neil had a specific idea about Delirium 's style, that it represent a sort of mad variety, getting louder and softer, like something going in and out of focus. This was fun to do in small amounts, but tedious in large ones. Despair just had a rough balloon edge to denote a ragged, rough voice. ( Destruction , when we finally met him, had an extra bold border to denote

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