As Dark Horse Comics readers know, finding new worlds is EASY.
Here at the Dark Horse Editorial Corral, I've been visiting plenty of new worlds. Our Star Wars editorial team has been launching expeditions to brand new worlds practically every day. Diana Schutz is organizing summer field trips to the violent, unpredictable worlds of Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons' Martha Washington Dies and Matt Wagner's Grendel. Shawna Gore's working with Steve Niles and the legendary Bernie Wrightson to bring City of Others' weird world of talking severed heads and microchip-controlled zombie hordes to life. See? Strange, new worlds are easy to find!
Discovering strange, new, post-apocalyptic worlds is especially enjoyable to me. I've been working with an amazing team to bring Hiroki Endo's Eden manga series to English-language readers--in all of its post-pandemic, character-driven, gory glory! Editor-Savant Dave Land is the midwife for two post-apocalyptic comic book series, Apocalypse Nerd and Fear Agent. In Fear Agent: The Last Goodbye, Earth is invaded by several different alien species at the same time and pretty much obliterated. As you know, dear reader, once Earth is invaded by aliens, overcome by deadly viruses, nuked, and/or filled with zombies, it also becomes an entirely new world . . . a world with its own tricky rules of survival, new dangers, and--if you're lucky--new heroes.
Which brings us to the world of Zero Killer, debuting this July. You should plan a visit there, even after you hear about its dangers. You'll be safe in the hands of the best tour guides possible when you set off with writer Arvid Nelson, artist Matt Camp, and Eisner Award winning colorist Dave Stewart.
Arvid Nelson, the mind behind Dark Horse's Rex Mundi series, has created another exciting world--an alternate history Earth in which nuclear attacks in the early 1970s wiped out over 90 percent of the human race. Thirty-something years later, New York City is ravaged, ransacked, and under about one hundred feet of foul water. After decades of scavenging, fighting, and barely getting by, New York survivors have fallen into gang rule and an entirely new society has formed, based on feudal relationships between desperate survivors and the physically and politically superior gang leaders. These remnants of humanity scratch out their violent lives in ragtag groups living in crumbling skyscrapers.
This is Zero's world, and he's an enigma. Zero is a skilled bounty hunter, an independent operator also known as a "trashman," who moves through the city with ease. Tracking down renegade gang members and "strays" in exchange for food and gear, Zero works for anyone and pledges allegiance to none. He certainly isn't beyond an altruistic turn or two, but he's powered by his own agenda and dreams. Oddly enough, Zero Killer is as much about grindhouse action and post-apocalyptic nightmares as it is about following your dreams--but you'll get all that when you read the series.
In addition to Matt Camp's detailed, brilliant line art, Dave Stewart takes a unique approach to the colors in Zero Killer, giving the series a distinctive, irradiated look that will certainly keep you mesmerized and eager to see more. You can meet Zero and read a preview of Zero Killer at darkhorse.com, and an extensive guide to Zero's world is posted at zerokiller.com. This July, treat yourself to a trip to a new world that promises visual and intellectual thrills. Discover the world of Zero Killer.
--Philip Simon