The Hexiles #2
(W) Cullen Bunn (A/CA) Joe Bocardo (C) Manolu Martinez (L) El Torres
The children of Jamison Kreel want nothing to do with each other, nor do they want anything to do with the bargains their father struck on their behalf. What they want, though, means nothing, because the forces of Hell are intent on collecting that which is owed to them.
The Hexiles #1
(W) Cullen Bunn (A/CA) Joe Bocardo (CB) Tyler Crook
(C) Manoli Martinez (L) El Torres
From Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, The Sixth Gun, Night Walkers) and Joe Bocardo (Night Walkers) comes a new tale of Hellish familial horror. Jamison Kreel is dead. Six of his children from six mothers are attending the funeral of a father they never met. Each of the children possesses a different infernal power. These powers, though, come at a terrible price…a price Jamison Kreel has placed upon the heads of his offspring. And the demonic debtors have come to collect.
Jamison Kreel is dead. Six of his children from six mothers are attending the funeral of a father they never met. Each of the children possesses a different infernal power. These powers, though, come at a terrible price…a price Jamison Kreel has placed upon the heads of his offspring. And the demonic debtors have come to collect. The Hexiles #1 kicks off an intriguing new horror series perfect for Halloween season.
Written by Cullen Bunn, The Hexiles #1 is an interesting debut that builds out a horror mystery that feels familiar but totally new and different at the same time. A group of strangers are brought together at a funeral for their father, none of them knew him, or each other. They also have a secret, they have powers that come from some demonic deal. It’s kind of The Runways, mixed with X-Men, and throw in some horror. The combo is interesting and teases enough to want to come back and find out more.
Bunn starts the mystery off with a group of individuals brought together for a funeral. It’s a concept used many times before, even with strangers with some unknown connection. But from there, things ramp up quickly as they’re attacked by demonic forces, forcing them to reveal and use their powers to survive.
It’s demonic action and visuals delivered by Joe Bocardo with color by Manoli Martinez, and lettering by El Torres. The art is interesting with a style that feels like horror by also a tinge of mystery, and also a dreamlike aspect that makes the eventually battle feel all the more chaotic. The demons are things of nightmares, disturbing enough to catch reader’s eyes but also not quite enough to distract. The page layouts, especially the introduction of powers, are interesting and eye catching as well. The comic’s style visually works really well hitting the beats and the rather off-kilter, chaotic, unfolding mystery that is the first issue.
The Hexiles #1 is a solid debut that delivers a bit of action and a bit of horror resulting in a mix that feels both familiar and new. It shows off a lot of potential and will be interesting to see where it goes as hell comes for the characters for payback.
Story: Cullen Bunn Art: Joe Bocardo
Color: Manoli Martinez Letterer: El Torres
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy
Mad Cave Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
The Hexiles #1
(W) Cullen Bunn (A/CA) Joe Bocardo (CB) Tyler Crook
(C) Manoli Martinez (L) El Torres
From Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, The Sixth Gun, Night Walkers) and Joe Bocardo (Night Walkers) comes a new tale of Hellish familial horror. Jamison Kreel is dead. Six of his children from six mothers are attending the funeral of a father they never met. Each of the children possesses a different infernal power. These powers, though, come at a terrible price…a price Jamison Kreel has placed upon the heads of his offspring. And the demonic debtors have come to collect.
Last year, Outland Entertainment announced Cullen Bunn’s horror imprint, Outer Shadows. Through Outer Shadows, three prose projects (Swords in the Shadows, Raze, and Crooked Hills) have been published. While more terrifying prose projects are in the works, Outer Shadows will also be pushing into the comic book publishing arena with an aggressive, exciting, and horrifying initiative.
There are dozens of comic books, trade paperbacks, and original graphic novels planned for the Outer Shadows imprint. First up, a dark fantasy/horror series titled The Faraway, written by Bunn and illustrated by Vitalii Kalchenko.
In the release, Bunn described the new series:
The Faraway offers a clear premise. If you’re my age, you loved the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, where a group of kids get swept into a magical land. What happens, though, if those kids get trapped in a realm of fantasy and magic… that has been completely consumed by evil? In The Faraway, a group of unlucky gamers finds themselves surrounded by a world of horrifying monsters and murderous cutthroats. And, while the book is gorgeously illustrated, the situation will not be pretty.
The Kickstarter campaign for The Faraway will launch on March 7, 2024. The pre-launch campaign page is live now.
Several other comics are currently in production for Outer Shadows, with a variety of styles and horror subgenres being tackled. In addition to The Faraway, a new erotic horror thriller titled Bumping Uglies (illustrated by Ann Marie Cochran) will be serialized under the imprint. This story follows a pair of police detectives on a descent into a sex-fueled nightmare as they investigate a new mind-altering drug with supernatural origins.
The Faraway and Bumping Uglies will be a series, but Outer Shadows will also be releasing one-shot horror tales titled Nightmare Fuel Presents. These stories will be self-contained tales of pulse-pounding terror.
Nightmare Fuel Presents one-shots will include Death Duel with Chainsaw Witches (illustrated by Diogo Carvalho) which follows a group of heavy metal bandmates out to destroy the demons they helped summon. Long Pig and Azrael (illustrated by Emmanuel Casallos) follows a lonely hitchhiker and the demonic entity that is always following him. The Window (illustrated by Luay Garwan) features a down-on-their-luck family that moves into a new house… and discovers a passage to an alien world.
Bunn and Joe Bocardo’s apocalyptic vampire epic Nightwalkers, which was previously published in single issues, will join the line-up. It will be released in a collected edition and the series will be continuing through Outer Shadows.
And Bunn promises even more.
“We have several other comics and graphic novels in the works. Terrifying giant monster stories? You bet! Stories about infernally-possessed knickknacks? Of course! There are so many stories in the works, and I’m excited to make Outer Shadows a home for horror and dark fantasy comics.”
Outer Shadows publications will be released first as crowdfunding campaigns with Kickstarter. These campaigns will have options for every budget and reading preference. They will have low funding thresholds and, in many cases, shortened campaign durations. The crowdfunding campaigns will offer readers the chance to help in the creation of these comics and score some product offerings only available during the campaigns. After the campaigns are funded and delivered, comics in the line will also be distributed to the direct market.
Upcoming non-comics offerings from Outer Shadows include I’ll Kill You Last, an anthology of horror tales inspired by 80s action movies; Goblinville, a dark fantasy novella series; and The Complete Short Fiction of Cullen Bunn, a three-volume collection of Bunn’s prose short stories.
Scout Comics & Entertainment has partnered with Second Act Entertainment to develop two Scout comics into film and television projects. Scout and Second Act will produce.
In The Greylock, by Eli Shockey and Atagun Ilhan, magic is a commodity. Potions are sold at corner stores, Orcs and Dwarves earn a living in cubicles not battlefields… but there are those who resist the Houses of Magi’s laws. Branded a criminal and forced to live as a wand for hire, there is a spellslinger they call… The Greylock.
In West Moon Chronicle, by Frank Jun Kim and Joe Bocardo, the elusive creatures of mud and blood known as the dokkaebi live just off of Route 4 in east Texas, in the ancient pine forest known as the Tanglechase. Joon-Ho, a Korean immigrant with a shadowy past, and his estranged grandson Jae-Sun are the only people in the nearby town of Vane who know the true nature of the dokkaebi. Together, they must figure out what’s causing the creatures to turn hostile. Perhaps it has something to do with the interdimensional portal at the heart of the Tanglechase, for it is from here that the past comes knocking, demanding a reckoning from both men.
Vanity—a gothic tragedy in nine acts—is based on the life of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560–1614), listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. According to legend, she was convinced that drinking and bathing in the blood of young virgin girls would preserve her youth and beauty. However, the historical documents tell us a slightly different yet far more mysterious and sinister story.
Vanity is written by Jurii Kirnev, with art by Natalia Tsarevnikova, colors by Anna Gushchina, an lettering by Joel Rodriguez and Eltorres. It features covers by Joe Bocardo, Abagail Larson and Joseph Schmalke, and an introduction by Mark Rein-Hagen creator of Vampire: The Masquerade.
Category Zero Conflict #2
(W) Adem Kiamil (A/CA) Ton Lima
Phillip Patterson gets even closer to unravelling the truth about STRIX. Twenty years later, his son Jake has set in motion a series of events that can’t be undone as he helps One Percenters escape from Omega. Meanwhile, Neve has disturbing visions of the future!
Red Winter Fallout #2
(W) Michael Gordon (A/CA) Alberto Massaggia
Joseph Winter has been saved from the jaws of death by a mysterious Russian woman named Darya Petukhof. Here’s the thing, though – he has no idea who she is, nor why she cares if his head is still attached to his shoulders. Either way, he’s now on the run with her, trying to stay one step ahead of Vasily Andropov’s Chistyye Krovi gang, who are out for blood. Meanwhile, Detective Max Voronin continues to investigate the Oil Refinery massacre, and finds himself in contact with another mysterious woman-this one claiming to be an American podcaster researching Kapotnya’s gangs for her show.
The Recount #1 – Comics & Coffee Combo
(W) Jonathan Hedrick (A) Gabriel Ibarra Nunez (CA) Joe Bocardo
A limited edition #1 with a new cover and a 6 cup coffee sampler pack included! After the assassination of the U.S. President, the conspirators turn their sights on all who helped him get into power. By this, they mean to kill everyone who helped him ascend to the presidency – including the ordinary citizens who elected him – essentially plunging the entire country into civil war. Meanwhile, the vice president, one of the few survivors of the executive branch, struggles to prevent the nation from descending into chaos.
Stabbity Bunny – Presswork Printer Plate Pack
(W) Richard Rivera (A/CA) Dwayne Biddix
Own a piece of comic history, these are the tools that helped make one of your favorite Scout Comics! Presswork printer plates are 12 mm aluminum pages that are used to print comics and trade paperbacks via offset printing. There are 4 color variations per printer plate; Black, Yellow, Magenta (Pink) and Cyan (Blue). These printer plates are from the Stabbity Bunny Vol 2 TPB. A COA is included with a hologram sticker giving the title, print run and date printed. Random plates may be signed by a creator or two! Allocations may apply.
Mr. Easta #1 – 2nd Printing
(W/A/CA) Kit Wallis
2nd printing! The gloriously demented mind of Kit Wallis brings the galactic adventures of the third best assassin in the universe to Scout Comics! Incredible, kinetically charged artwork blasts the blood, mayhem and quirky humor directly through your brain like a high-caliber bullet. In this issue, it’s Elvis night at an interstellar backwater bar, but with all due respect to the King, that doesn’t stop Mr. Easta. With the help of Frank, his teleportation parasite, who can also transform into any handheld weapon imaginable, it’s business as usual.
Stanley the Snowman #1 – 2nd Printing
(W) Austin Janowsky (A/CA) Juan Pablo Montenegro Marcial
Scoot! Imprint: 2nd printing! Cool down from the summer heat with an uplifting “Christmas in July” special! Jenny Rose is a bit of a loner. She’s not into dolls, the latest cell phones or coolest games. She loves spending time with her family and learning about their traditions from her grandfather. He passes onto her a secret ritual that only one family member in a generation can do, bringing Stanley the Snowman to life! Stanley is a magical snowman, the embodiment of the holiday spirit and their family history. After months of preparation, the night finally arrives… but things don’t go exactly as planned!
The West Moon Chronicle #2
(W) Frank Jun Kim (A/CA) Joe Bocardo
Maddie Green, presumed deceased after going missing eighteen years ago, returns one fateful October night, having aged only seven months! She’s been roaming the Sky Wyld-a fey realm where time runs slower-looking for her kidnapped infant girl. Now back in our world, she asks Jae-Sun Rhee to help rescue their daughter and earn a second chance at fatherhood… if he can only confront his own culpability that led to their separation all those years ago.
Road Trip To Hell #2
(W) Nicole D’Andria (A) Monika Maccagni (CA) Joaquin Pereyra
After finding out that his father, Satan, has died, Francis has been named the new king of Hell. The catch? Everyone from Hell has escaped and is trying to kill him in order to seize his title! As a ploy to get to him, a force of Nazis has overrun Angel of Mercy hospital intending to hold his sister hostage. Assisted by his new heavenly protector, Joan of Arc, Francis must go toe-to-toe with the likes of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Josef Mengele to save his sister!
The elusive creatures of mud and blood known as the dokkaebi live just off of Route 4 in east Texas, in the ancient pine forest known as the Tanglechase. Joon-Ho, a Korean immigrant with a shadowy past, and his estranged grandson Jae-Sun, a disillusioned small-time thug, are the only people in the nearby town of Vane who know the true nature of the dokkaebi. Together, they must figure out what’s causing the creatures to turn hostile. Perhaps it has something to do with the interdimensional portal at the heart of the Tanglechase, for it is from here that the past comes knocking, demanding a reckoning from both men.
The West Moon Chronicle is by writer Frank Jun Kim, artist Joe Bocardo, colorist Manoli Martinez, letterer El Torres, and editor Andrea Lorenzo Molinari.
