Steve Niles, the maestro of modern horror comics, will team with artist Kieron Dwyer to create a modern zombie saga entitled Remains, which IDW will publish as a five-part miniseries in the spring of 2004.  With the comics-to-film trend increasing exponentially over the past year, Niles is the very definition of a 'hot writer.'  His first effort for IDW, 30 Days of Night, has been optioned by Columbia Pictures (see '30 Days Of Night Optioned'), while Criminal Macabre, a series Niles writes for Dark Horse Comics, was recently picked up by MGM (see 'MGM Picks Up Dark Horse Comics Series').  IDW recently began publishing Dark Days, Niles' sequel to 30 Days of Night, and has another Niles horror series, Wake the Dead, ready for fall publication (see 'New Steve Niles Horror Series: Wake the Dead').