Tales from the Darkside Books in Order
Part ofJoe Hill Books in OrderBrowse Joe Hill’s Tales from the Darkside in order, collecting the comic issues and script volume with story summaries, series background, and guidance on how to read them together.
Last updated: December 18, 2025
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Publication Order
5 books
Tales from the Darkside
by Joe Hill
2017
Collecting the four-issue comic adaptation of Hill’s unproduced TV reboot, this edition of Tales from the Darkside turns those scripts into vivid, unsettling visuals. Each chapter twists a different corner of everyday life into something bent and malign.
Tales From The Darkside #4
by Joe Hill
2016
The final issue ties the standalone tales together, revealing how each brush with the Darkside fits into a larger pattern. What looked like separate hauntings turns out to be part of a single, slowly unfolding invasion.
Tales From The Darkside #3
by Joe Hill
2016
In the third installment, technology itself becomes the doorway, as a grieving parent experiments with a device that can rewrite painful memories. The more he tampers with the past, the more the Darkside leaks into the present.
Tales From The Darkside #2
by Joe Hill
2016
Issue two shifts to a new nightmare, following a young woman whose chronic insomnia and strange sleep studies blur the line between waking life and a more sinister realm. The Darkside seems less like a place and more like an infection.
Tales From The Darkside #1
by Joe Hill
2016
The first issue of the Tales from the Darkside comic introduces Hill’s updated vision of the classic anthology: a lifeguard plagued by time-warping blackouts discovers that the universe may be resetting around the worst moment of his life.
Series background & context
Hill’s take on Tales from the Darkside started life as a pitch for a TV reboot of the 1980s horror anthology and ended up living on the page instead. The core idea was to keep the pleasures of a weekly one‑and‑done scare, but thread a larger mystery underneath—a puzzle box that would only reveal itself if you watched how the episodes connected.
In the comic adaptation, each issue focuses on a different character blindsided by something uncanny. A lifeguard suffering strange blackouts discovers that time may be twisting around the worst moment of his life. An insomniac student signs up for an experimental sleep program that blurs the line between dreams and the waking world. A grieving parent uses cutting‑edge tech to edit painful memories, only to find that changing the past invites something unwelcome into the present.
On the surface, these are self‑contained horror stories in the tradition of The Twilight Zone and the original Tales from the Darkside: ordinary people, one bad choice, and a series of escalating consequences that end with a sting in the tail. Hill and artist Gabriel Rodríguez push the weirdness without losing sight of the characters, giving even the most out‑there twist some emotional weight.
Underneath, though, the issues keep glancing off the same invisible structure. Certain images, phrases, and background details recur. The “Darkside” itself starts to feel less like a simple place of punishment and more like a force trying to leak into everyday reality. By the final chapter, you understand that all these separate hauntings are facets of one bigger story about a universe that’s begun to come apart at the seams.
A separate script collection lets you read Hill’s original teleplays, complete with scene directions and bits that never made it to the comics page. Together, the scripts and the graphic series give a full picture of what his version of Tales from the Darkside might have looked like on television: fast, unsettling, and always hinting that the world outside the frame is stranger than you think.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts