Collects Darkchylde #1-5 and a 3-page story from Spawn #56. Does not include covers.
*The world of Ariel Chylde is one of endless nightmare, perpetual darkness, dense forests, and the horrible, bloodthirsty creatures that inhabit them. Creatures of her nightmares. Beasts we invented in our minds for whatever reason, beasts that lurk in the dark corners of our soul who come out to remind us of what we fear the most when we lie asleep seeking shelter. Are they omniscient, otherworldly demons, existing since the dawn of time; using that time of night when our bodies are at rest and our minds seemingly shut down and vulnerable to make their presence known? Or an even scarier notion is that perhaps our minds aren't shut down and vulnerable at all when we sleep. Perhaps that "dark side" that we are conscious and aware of and keep suppressed when we're awake during the day is "let out of it's cage" when we're sleeping, and our mind, struggling to comprehend and make sense of it all, molds it into a form we can recognize. A form we can fear. A form we can acknowledge... and run from. The monster. The Beast. But perhaps the monster is us, and we are the monster. Perhaps the beast has always been there, haunting new tenants as they become available, or perhaps they are of our own making; both grown and nourished in the dark, wet garden of our own fears and deep seated anxieties. Whatever the case, we all have our own demons -- everyone is haunted by something, and this, I suspect is why many of you have responded to the plight of Ariel Chylde. And perhaps Ariel has learned that the demons can't exist without us, and we can't exist without them. We need them there to remind us why we fear the night, and we need them there to keep us running toward the light. Ariel is still running, as I suspect, as are we all. I hope you enjoy her story, presented here in it's entirety for the first time. *Source: Inside Book