ONI 2024: Beware CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 – Inside Zac Thompson & Daniel Irizarri’s New Sci-Fi/Horror Collision Coming in February! — ONI PRESS

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PORTLAND, OR (November 16, 2023) – Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of graphic fiction for all ages, is proud to reveal the first look inside CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 – a near-future descent into a terrifying digital world where each new level has killer consequences! Plunging deep into the uncanny borderlands between science fiction and horror, the next adrenaline-pumping ONI 2024 release arrives on shelves February 7 from acclaimed creators Zac Thompson (Hunt for the Skinwalker) and Daniel Irizarri (XINO, Judge Dredd)!

The 21st century sucks hard, but it's made somewhat tolerable by the latest and greatest media innovations. Enter the Dreamwave: the first gaming console played entirely while you sleep. The obsession of millions around the globe, it's also the one point of solace for four friends known as the “Cemetery Kids,” who spend their nights roaming the endless maps of the most brutal horror game ever created as they seek to dethrone the “King of Sleep"—the Dreamwave's biggest, baddest, and most mysterious boss.

Which was fun . . . until one of them doesn't wake up and finds their consciousness locked inside a horror game that is anything but imaginary. Now, the three remaining Cemetery Kids must navigate a forbidden landscape to rescue their friend—and pray that the secret lurking at its center doesn't follow them home.

“Zac stuffed this script to the gills with action as well as deep emotions and I'm hoping that when people see the pages, they'll feel those hits and slashes and cutting words that I felt from the script when I read it,” said artist Daniel Irizarri. “I think people aren't ready for some of the stuff we get up to within these pages, I haven't had a chance to let loose with big fantasy action in a long time and I'm letting all my deep-seeded shonen manga influences loose on the page, from Bleach to Berserk as well as the slice-of-life real world moments.”

“Daniel's pages are really stunning and completely elevate both worlds that the story straddles,” said writer Zac Thompson. “The strong action-horror elements of the game world are emphasized by heavy black gutters and these really wonderful digital details. While the "real world" is more clean and balanced with stark white gutters and more rigid paneling. It gives the book a distinct visual flavour! But beyond that, Daniel's character work and storytelling is just out of this world. There's big, bombastic action balanced with strong emotional acting and it all looks effortless. I can't wait for people to see the whole issue!”

Featuring a truly stunning line-up of covers from some of the industry’s most subversively minded talents – including Daniel Irizarri (Judge Dredd), Dustin Weaver (Paklis, S.H.I.E.L.D.), James Stokoe (Orc Stain), and Vlad Legostaev (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) – CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 is the next must-read series to launch under the ONI 2024 banner – a slate of five propulsive new monthly comic series from a wide-ranging cast of award-winning creators and fast-rising stars that fully embrace the potential of the comics medium to invert, collide, and reinvent the foundational genres of horror, science fiction, crime, fantasy, and beyond:

INVASIVE #1 by Cullen Bunn & Jesús Hervás in December
JILL AND THE KILLERS #1 by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs & Roberta Ingranata in January
CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 by Zac Thompson & Daniel Irizarri in February
NIGHT PEOPLE #1 by Barry Gifford, Chris Condon, Brian Level, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Artyom Topilin & more in March
AKỌGUN, BRUTALIZER OF GODS #1 by Murewa Ayodele & Dotun Akande in April

Press play on CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 in comic shops everywhere on February 7, 2024!

CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 (of 4)

WRITTEN BY ZAC THOMPSON

ART BY DANIEL IRIZARRI

COVER A DANIEL IRIZARRI

COVER B DUSTIN WEAVER

COVER C JAMES STOKOE

COVER D VLAD LEGOSTAEV

FULL ART VARIANT (1:20) JAMES STOKOE

FULL ART VARIANT (1:30) DUSTIN WEAVER

ON SALE FEBRUARY 7, 2024 | $4.99 | 32 pgs | FC

IOD: 12/21/23