John Carpenter is bringing a fresh nightmare to Long Beach this week, and it arrives in two forms: a graphic novel and a heavy-metal album called Cathedral. The project will make its Midsummer Scream appearance as Southern California’s Halloween season gets a decidedly Carpenter-shaped opening act.
The 78-year-old filmmaker, screenwriter and composer will attend Midsummer Scream from Friday through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center, where the convention is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The Press-Telegram reported the event’s Carpenter-heavy lineup and the details of Cathedral.
A Downtown Los Angeles Murder Opens The Door
Cathedral centers on an abandoned church in downtown Los Angeles, where a gruesome killing sets off an investigation involving Lt. Christine Marks and detectives Paul Hernandez and Steve Mayfield. The story began with a nightmare Carpenter experienced in 2024, according to Storm King Comics, the publisher behind Carpenter’s first original graphic novel.
Carpenter developed the project with Sandy King Carpenter and Sean Sobczak, while Federico De Luca and Luis Guaragna illustrated the book. Sian Mandrake provided the colors and Marshall Dillon handled the lettering, giving the tale a full comics-production team behind its haunted-cathedral premise.
The Graphic Novel Gets A Metal Soundtrack
The book arrives Tuesday through Storm King, while the accompanying album drops Friday through Sacred Bones Records. Carpenter has described the album as his first heavy-metal record, with his son Cody Carpenter contributing synths and longtime collaborator Daniel Davies supplying much of the guitar-driven attack.
Each track is designed to align with a chapter of the graphic novel, turning the project into something closer to a movie Carpenter can play inside a reader’s head. The track list includes “Elevator,” “Desolation in the Underworld” and “Lord of the Underground,” along with other brooding pieces built around the abandoned-cathedral story.
John Carpenter’s Long Beach Schedule
Carpenter and Sandy King Carpenter will host a Cathedral listening-party event Friday evening, with VIP access scheduled from 7 to 8 p.m. The first 50 attendees who purchase the album-and-graphic-novel bundle at the Storm King booth will receive VIP credentials, with each credential including a plus-one, according to the Press-Telegram.
Saturday brings a signing opportunity for copies of the album and graphic novel, while Sunday’s programming will include Sandy King Carpenter’s “Crafting Fear: The Invisible Architects of Horror” panel. She is scheduled to appear alongside Jim Branscome, Jeremy Cohen and Samuel Jones for a discussion of the creative machinery behind horror.
The broader convention runs Friday through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center, with vendors, panels, celebrity signings, haunted walk-throughs and the Hall of Shadows filling the weekend. Midsummer Scream lists Friday hours from 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., giving local horror fans several chances to walk into Carpenter’s newest nightmare before heading back into daylight.
