A project that was almost writer Ed Brisson’s first published comics project will finally see the light of day, as BOOM! Studios has announced The Displaced, which is about a city that has vanished without a trace and that no one can remember.
Brisson is joined by artist Luca Casalanguida, colorist Dee Cunniffe and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on the project, which kicks off in February.
“The Displaced was almost my very first published work. About a year before Comeback was picked up by Shadowline/Image, I had pitched The Displaced and had interest from a publisher. However, after months of back-and-forth notes, the book ended up veering away from the book that I wanted to do, so we amicably parted ways. It was a tough call to make, but ultimately, the right one. This book is too dear to me, I didn’t want to lose that,” Brisson said in his email newsletter. “The concept sat in a digital drawer for years. I’d periodically take it out, blow off the dust, and work on it. Yet it always felt like there was a piece missing. At some point during 2022, that piece finally fell into place and I set out to pitch it again — the first time since that 2011 experience.”
Brisson has worked with BOOM! in the past, on titles like Cluster and The Last Contract, and The Displaced marks his return to the publisher for the first time in about seven years.
The city in question, Oshawa, is where Brisson grew up. Here’s the premise from the press release:
The city of Oshawa, Ontario and its 170,000 residents have vanished without a trace.
No one remembers it even existed.
As the survivors of the incident start to become forgotten as well, they must seek each other out if they hope to have any chance of surviving in a world where no one believes they ever existed at all.
“’d moved more than 4,000 km (approx 2,500 miles) away from Oshawa as a teenager but usually managed to make it back to visit once every couple of years,” Brisson said. “Every time I visited, there were fewer and fewer places and people that I recognized. The city, like every city, was constantly in a state of change and, as a result, I felt increasingly like a stranger during these visits. Each time I crossed into the city, it felt like I was looking for something that was no longer there. I felt disconnected from the place that I had called home for most of my life.”
Here’s the first issue’s variant cover by Andrea Sorrentino:
“I’m very excited to be working with Ed here!” Casalanguida said. “I loved being part of this choral story of people fighting for their memories in a world that is forgetting them.”
Take a look at some of Casalanguida’s interior work on the first issue:
Look for it in stores on Feb. 14.