Image source: Press release, email correspondence, Dark Horse’s X/Twitter account — via Anime News Network
Dark Horse Manga announced atAnime NYC on Friday that it will release two graphic novels in Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaka Amano's Vampire Hunter D franchise. The company will release the Vampire Hunter D: Fortress of Blood comic on December 16 and will release the English translation of Vampire Hunter D: Rose Princess, Saiko Takaki's manga adaptation of the ninth novel "TheRose Princess," in March 2027. The company also revealed that it will releaseGou Tanabe's manga adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (CharlesWard no Kikai na Jiken) horror novella in spring 2027.
Writer Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, Ultimate Wolverine) and artist Filipe Andrade (The Many Deaths of LailaStarr, Rare Flavours) will create the Vampire Hunter D: Fortress of Blood comic series. Jordie Bellaire (Six of Us, Assassin's Apprentice) is the colorist and Frank Cvetkovic (Kingdom of Earth, Batman: Dark Patterns) the letterer. Andrade is drawing the main cover art and Riccardo Federici (The Last God), and original Vampire Hunter D cover artist, illustrator, and designer Yoshitaka Amano are drawing variant covers. Subsequent issues will include cover art from Emma Rios, Dan Quintana, and Eliza Ivanova.
The comic book series is listed as a four-issue series. The first issue will retail for US$4.99.
Dark Horse Manga describes its story:
A vampire lord has marshalled his forces and is marching on human settlements, aiming to leave no survivors! The old fortressstands in his path to the next city, and within it is a family of outcasts who must buy enough time for humans to flee from the bloodbath. Wandering that same path is the indomitable hunter, the terrifyingly beautiful half-human, half-vampire known as D.
Dark Horse shared a quote from Kikuchi:
Kevin Leahy is translating the manga into English.
Dark Horse Manga describes its story:
The village of Sacri is a fertile oasis on the otherwise barren frontier. But Sacri's prosperity comesat a steep price! The ruling noble, an immortal vampire princess, feasts on the villagersat her whim. When a young man attempts to save his lover from being bitten, the princess sends her four savage knights to punish the petulant villagers. Standing in their way is none other than the beautiful and dangerous Vampire Hunter D! With the help of a rebelliousyoung woman named Elena, D undertakes a quest to end the princess's deadly rule. But first, the two of them will risk their lives in an epic duel with her knights.
Takaki launched the manga adaptation of the overall novel series in 2007. Digital Manga Publishing released seven volumes of the manga digitally and in print. Kadokawa later releasedthe eighth and final compiled book volume of the manga in English digitally and in print.
Unified Pictures announced in April it is adapting new volumes of the VampireHunter D novels into a 20-issue comic book series by Brandon Easton and Ryan Benjamin. The company stated in April the comic series would debut in summer 2026.
Kikuchi launched the original novel series in January 1983. Asahi Sonorama began publishing thenovels in 2005. The 57th volume of the novel series shipped on January 7. Graphic Audio published audiobook adaptations of the novels in 2021. Dark Horse Comics is releasing the novels in English, and released the first three novels in an omnibus volume in October 2021.
Kikuchi's novels inspired the Vampire Hunter D original video anime (OVA) in1985 and the Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust film in 2000. Sentai Filmworks most recently released the OVA on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in 2015, and Discotek Media most recently released Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in 2015. Iconic Events Releasing and Anime Expo's AX Cinema Nights program hosted the 40th anniversary screenings of the OAV in April 2025. HIDIVE and Shudder began streaming the OVA in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand in May 2025.
Dark Horse describes the story:
Zack Davisson is adapting the work with lettering by SteveDutro.
The semimonthly manga series is part of a series of adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's works by Tanabe. Dark Horse Comics published his manga of H.P. Lovecraft's The Hound and Other Stories in August 2017, which includes "The Hound," "The Temple," and "The Nameless City." DarkHorse Comics began releasing Tanabe's At The Mountains Of Madness manga in June 2019. Theseries was nominated for Best Comic by the 46th Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2019.
Dark Horse has also released a single omnibus volume of Tanabe's TheShadow Over Innsmouth manga, and has also released Tanabe's The Call of Cthulhu manga, thelatter of which won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel award at the Bram StokerAwards in June 2025. Dark Horse more recently released Tanabe's The Colour Out of Space last July, and released The Shadow Out of Time on December 16. Dark Horse will release The Dunwich Horror manga on September 29.
Tanabe also released manga based on Lovecraft's The Haunter of the Dark and The Outsider.
Tanabe launched the Short Stories about Dreamlands manga based on H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories in November 2023, and ended the series in April 2024. Tanabe launched the Lovecraft no Genei (The Lovecraft's Phantom) manga in Comic Beam in June 2024, and ended it in December 2024.
Updated: Added information on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
ANN's coverage of Anime NYC 2026 is sponsored by Yen Press. Whether it's light novels, manga, or manhwa, Yen Press has everything you might want to add to your reading shelves! Visit Booth #1701 or YenPress. com for more information!
this article has been modified since it was originally posted;
see change history