Connect with us

Comics

‘High Strangeness’ – SpectreVision Heads into the World of Comics With a New Publishing Imprint

Published

on

Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning comic book publisher, has revealed a forthcoming comics collaboration with SpectreVision – the production company behind acclaimed feature films including Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Adam Egypt Mortimer ‘s Daniel Isn’t Real, and many more – devoted to exploring the uncanny and unusual realms of High Strangeness with a new “pop-up” publishing imprint debuting in 2025.

Influenced by real, documented cases of paranormal phenomena dating back to the mid-20th century, High Strangeness will surveil the liminal spaces where reality, hallucination, science and mythology give way to cosmic wonder and existential terror, bending perception far beyond the bounds of traditional science fiction and horror.

“Accounts from experiencers of the paranormal suggest a vast, interconnected narrative unfolding at the farthest reaches of human experience – from UFOs, to cryptid sightings, to patterns of synchronicities that point to an invisible architecture underlying our reality,” said Daniel Noah, Co-Founder of SpectreVision. “As an experiencer myself, I know firsthand that the world of high strangeness can have profound implications. We’re galvanized to explore this remarkable space with our partners at Oni.”

Comics feel uniquely suited to explore this wide-ranging spectrum of paranormal phenomena, utilizing the limitless possibilities of the medium to give shape to the often gaussian accounts of what cannot be explained through traditional means,” said Elijah Wood, Co-Founder of SpectreVision. 

“Over the past decade, so many members of the Oni team and greater comics community have been inspired and influenced by SpectreVision’s extraordinary body of work. Together, we share a mutual fascination with the extremities of human understanding – where aliens, poltergeists, demons, fairies, and other entities all seem to extend like fingers from a hidden hand,” said Hunter Gorinson, President & Publisher of Oni Press. “Through the uniquely powerful lens of comic storytelling, we intend to tell an array of stories exploring these multiple manifestations, but rooted in the same common understanding: Reality is thin around the edges . . . and if we press hard enough in exactly the right places, it just might shatter.”

Joining the project as a Creative Consultant is podcaster, Jim Perry, who will advise the team based on his extensive knowledge of anomalous phenomena. Producer and host of the critically acclaimed audio documentary podcast, Euphomet, Perry’s thoughtful, humanistic approach to paranormal experience has earned him high status as a journalist and broadcaster. 

SpectreVision founders Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah will join Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson and Editor-in-Chief Sierra Hahn to share more details on High Strangeness at this weekend’s L.A. Comic Con with an exclusive panel presentation on Sunday, December 3rd at NOON PT in Room 304. For more details, visit ComicConLA.com.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Comics

‘The Toxic Avenger’ Returns with Cover Artwork for First Issue of New Comic Book Series [Exclusive]

Published

on

With a remake on the way and a new 4K restoration of the original classic now streaming, it’s a good time to be a fan of Troma’s The Toxic Avenger. Additionally, Matt Bors — the founder of The Nib and a political cartoonist who has twice been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist —and acclaimed artist Fred Harper (Snelson) are collaborating on an all-new 5-issue comic book series starring the satirical superhero of the Troma Films cult classic films!

TOXIC AVENGER #1 will land in stores on October 9, 2024.

While you wait, you can exclusively check out the issue #1 cover art from Fred Harper below, along with a set of emojis designed by Harper for the extremely online teens of Tromaville.

“The Toxic Avenger delivers what Troma fans want,” said AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “The series has violent action, gross mutations, bursting pustules, eye-popping visuals, and trenchant humor.” 

“If there was ever a superhuman hero for these toxic, miserable times, Toxie is the one!” said Lloyd Kaufman. “Only AHOY Comics and Bors & Harper could pull this off…er…mop this up! Toxie and the Troma Team can’t wait ‘til you read -no, experience – the art and stories that the Toxic Avenger Comic Book will explode in your brain, your soul, and your heart. Above all, remember – Toxie loves you and so do I.”

This series will combine elements of the original films with the Toxic Crusaders cartoon and characters in familiar ways, updated to tell a story of environmental devastation, corporate control, and social media mutation,” said Bors.The Toxic Avenger is first and foremost an environmental satire, one about a small town and its unremarkable people trapped and transformed by circumstances they don’t control. The story Fred Harper and I are telling is about people frustrated by authorities telling them not to worry about their life, that things are fine, even as their dog mutates in front of their eyes. And at its core it is about a powerless boy, Melvin, who finds out he can be incredibly strong, hideously mutated, well-admired, and incredibly heroic… but still ultimately powerless over human behavior.”

In The Toxic Avengerteenager Melvin Junko helps run his parent’s junkyard in Tromaville, a small town in New Jersey where nothing much ever happens — until an ill-timed train derailment of toxic waste transforms Melvin into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength: the Toxic Avenger!

Under a media blackout imposed by Biohazard Solutions (BS) and their PR-spewing Chairwoman Lindsay Flick, Melvin emerges as a hero fighting against BS and the mutated threats that keep popping up around Tromaville.

Eventually Melvin uncovers a vast conspiracy more far-reaching than he could have ever imagined — but he knows if everyone is simply made aware of the crisis, they’ll act to stop it. Right?

Continue Reading