25 years after the movie came out,The Nightmare Before Christmasis finally getting a sequel. It just isn’t happening on the big screen. Next year, publisher Tokyopop is going to publish the first ever follow-up toTim Burton’s classic animated featurein the form of a comic book, which will follow Jack Skellington’s loveable ghost dog Zero.
The news comes courtesy ofThe Hollywood Reporterwho announce a spring 2018 release date. The new comic book, titledNightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey, is going to be released first as single-issues that will ship to comic book shops and book retailers. It will then later be collected into full-color trade paperback editions, as well as black and white “pocket-sized” manga editions, which is a little more in line with what Tokyopop is known for. So you’ll have to decide if you want to be patient and wait for the collected edition or buy it issue-to-issue. Or, if you’re a majorNightmare Before Christmasfan, maybe you go for both when it comes to this long-awaitedNightmare Before Christmas 2, even if it is just a comic book?
Even though it isn’t another movie, this is a very big deal.The Nightmare Before Christmasis an absolute classic and has maintained atremendously large followingin the years since its initial release in 1993. The movie made more than $75 million worldwide, which isn’t a bad take considering what movies were making at the time at the box office, but the movie took on a life of its own once it was released on home video. To this day, there is still tons of merchandise available for the world that Tim Burton helped create, even though he didn’t directThe Nightmare Before Christmas. It was actuallyHenry Selickwho helmed the cult classic. For a movie that clocks in at just 76 minutes, its legacy is pretty impressive.
There aren’t a lot of details available yet forNightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey, but it is said to follow the dog as he gets lost in Christmas Town. The book is going to be written by DJ Milky with art from Studio DICE, which works on theStar Wars Battlefrontvideo games and also which produced artwork for the manga adaptation of Disney’sBeauty and the Beast. Per THR’s report, this is going to mark the first of many expanding collaborations between Tokyopop and Disney. Tokyopop also did an adaptation of the originalNightmare Before Christmasmovie.
We may still have to wait quite a while to get our hands on this long-awaitedNightmare Before Christmasfollow-up, but there are surely plenty of fans who are going to be excited just to know that it’s happening at all. Will this maybe lead to a proper sequel in the form of a movie fromTim Burton? Probably not, but ifNightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journeysells really well, it would be impossible to rule it out.
