Oni Press is going over-the-top for its launch of Dark Regards #1. The blackest of metal comic features a 1:50 Human Blood variant cover by multi-hyphenate writer-comedian-actor-musician Dave Hill that features ACTUAL BLOOD of Hill, series editor Karl Bollers, and Oni President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. 

Two decades ago, Dave Hill and his first band set out to rock their high school auditorium in a fury of heavy metal hellfire. They failed miserably. Years later, Dave has made a new life for himself as a rising star in the New York comedy scene—a career where getting laughed at on stage is the entire point and not just a tragic consequence. But when Dave’s metal ambitions are reawakened by the über self-serious “satanic” genre of Norwegian black metal, Dave creates a ridiculously hyperbolic alter ego and a band to match that, together, reignite the spark of his forgotten rock ’n’ roll fantasy. But when Dave’s internet-fueled rumors of Witch Taint—a metal band “so extreme that you must remove all sharp objects from the immediate area” when their music is played—spreads all the way to Europe, his story will spiral dangerously out of control as Norway’s most extreme black metal butchers come to reap their revenge . . . and put everything and everyone Dave holds dear in the crosshairs (of their axes, which, truth be told, don’t actually have crosshairs, but, hey, it’s a metaphor).

Dark Regards #1 features art by Artyom Topilin and main covers by Topilin and Andrew Krahnke, and variants by Scott Sugiuchi, Brian Level, and Hill. Dark Regards #1 is on sale May 14.

Check out the exclusive video of Dave and Oni Publisher Hunter Gorinson draining their veins for the blood used in the making of the cover and don’t miss Dark Regards #1 this May!