By MICHAEL GINGOLD

There’s more illustrated monster mayhem coming from the veteran director/producer and Drive-In-Sanity Films.

The latter company gave RUE MORGUE a sneak peek at the cover and pages for the second issue of BRIAN YUZNA PRESENTS TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND, a planned four-issue serialized comics series inspired by Hemisphere Pictures’ cult-fave B-movies (see our previous coverage here). Written by Dave Sehring and Mark Cerulli, with artwork by Stephen Sistilli and coloring/lettering by Dexter Weeks, the latest issue will be 44 full-color pages. The synopsis: “TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND is set in the South Seas on a mysterious, primitive island filled with mythical monsters and radioactive mutants. There, a soldier of fortune and an ex-war buddy team up for a top-secret mission to find and exterminate the murderous war criminal, Dr. Akira Lorca, whose mad experiments with evolution and jungle plant serum, derived from a man-eating tree, creates a hideous, head-hunting, body-swapping beast that terrorizes the island population by feasting on and appropriating their blood and flesh.

“The comic book reimagining incorporates key characters and creatures from the original films,” the PR continues, “and introduces new heroes and heroines as well as a mythical menagerie of monsters, mutants and cryptids from the Pacific and Southeast Asia, including prehistoric cannibals, zombie warriors, Fiji Mermaids, Manananggal Aswang and more.”

A tiki-style mug of the Fiji Mermaid is also being produced, and a Kickstarter campaign to finance that and the comic will be launched in October. Yuzna and Drive-In-Sanity are also planning a feature-film adaptation of TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND. If you’re in the San Diego area and want to pick up a copy of the comic’s first issue this weekend, along with a Beast of Blood tiki mug, stop by the Paradise Hell booth at the Tiki Oasis marketplace at San Diego’s Town and Country Resort (500 Hotel Cir N) today through Sunday.