Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, has funded an enhanced comics app for the highly anticipated new comic book series Surgeon X.  The app will launch on September 28, 2016, with Image Comics’ publication of the first issue by debut comic book writer and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Sara Kenney, master artist John Watkiss, colorist James Devlin, letterer Jared K. Fletcher, and editor Karen Berger, the founder of Vertigo Comics.

First time comic writer Sara Kenney secured funding for both the app and the comic itself with a Society Award from Wellcome, which supported extensive dialogue with scientists, medics, biomedical ethicists and sociologists. Surgeon X is a medical thriller set in London in the year 2036, which asks: What if we lived in a world of antibiotic resistance and rationing, where the superbugs have won? In the series, Rosa Scott, a brilliant and obsessive surgeon takes things into her own hands and becomes Surgeon X, a vigilante doctor who uses experimental surgery and black market drugs to treat patients.

A new enhanced comic app will be available each month to accompany the content of each issue and timed to the same release, and will include:

• Animated scientific shorts narrated by Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement in Science at University of Birmingham;
• Historical footage detailing the medical science of antibiotics;
• Futuristic animations of political campaigns, commercials & news reports from London 2036;
• Documentary interviews with the creative team and the scientists, surgeons, historians, ethicists and philosophers who helped inform the series;
• Original music and sound design;
• The entire comic, both in color and in stylish black and white

The Surgeon X Enhanced Comic App was created by Sara Kenney Writer/ Producer/ Director; Michael Mensah-Bonsu, Designer and Developer of Vuniiun Ltd., Simon Armstrong, Animation Director of Ticktockrobot; Oliver Kenney, Composer/Music Consultant; Marnie Chesterton freelancer for BBC, Producer of audio documentaries as well as Karen Berger and producer Duncan Copp.

The app is available September 28 in the App Store and Google Play Store for $3.99 U.S./£2.99 U.K..