Unified Pictures announced at WonderCon on March 28 that it is adapting new volumes of Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaka Amano’s Vampire Hunter D novels into a 20-issue comic book series that will ship in summer 2026. Writer Brandon Easton (Iyanu, Transformers: War for Cybertron – Siege) and artist Ryan Benjamin (Batman, Iron Man, Captain America) will create the series in partnership with Kikuchi. Unified Pictures has not yet revealed which novel volumes it will adapt into the comics. The company released preview images of the first three issues of the comic adaptation.
Image courtesy of Unified Pictures
© Unified Pictures
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Kikuchi launched the original novel series in January 1983. Asahi Sonorama began publishing the novels 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.
Saiko Takaki launched a manga adaptation in 2007. Digital Manga Publishing released seven volumes of the manga digitally and in print. Kadokawa later released the eighth and final compiled book volume of the manga in English digitally and in print. Takaki launched a manga adaptation of the ninth novel “The Rose Princess” in July 2024.
Kikuchi’s novels inspired the Vampire Hunter D original video anime (OVA) in 1985 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.
Source: Email correspondence
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
