Dark Horse has announced plans to publish a graphic novel by S. Craig Zahler, the director of the movies Bone Tomahawk and Dragged Across Concrete, as well as the creator of the graphic novel Forbidden Surgeries Of The Hideous Dr. Divinus.
He’s also a novelist and the drummer for the metal band Charnel Valley, and he’s working to bring one of his novels, Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child, to the screen with the help of The Jim Henson Company. So he has a lot going on creatively, but he still found time to write and draw Organisms from an Ancient Cosmos, his new graphic novel.
“My first artistic interest was illustration, and after writing eight novels, recording nine albums, and directing three movies, it was a pleasure to draw once more. In this graphic novel, which is my second, I explore morally complex characters, intimate human drama, large-scale world building, and speculative science,” Zahler said. “I began working on the piece at the very beginning of lockdown and finished more than a year later when I received my first vaccine. Creating ‘Organisms from an Ancient Cosmos’ was an incredibly gratifying experience, and I’m thrilled to have it published by Dark Horse Comics, whose books I’ve read since the eighties.”
Here’s the description from Dark Horse: An alien spacecraft the size of a city materializes over the Pacific Ocean and the nations of the world jointly engage this enigmatic and incommunicative visitor with force. This battle results in large-scale destruction on both sides, but does not answer any of the questions that will haunt humanity: What are these utterly inhuman creatures? Where did they come from? Why did they choose to visit our planet? And . . . most importantly. . . are more forces on the way? For the bereaved billionaire Carlton Land, renowned biologist Aimee O’Donnell, and the brilliant, but blunt USAAF Chief Scientist Kenneth Yamazaki, these questions must be answered in order to safeguard the future of the human race.
The new graphic novel is scheduled to arrive in stores Oct. 18.