Horror master Cullen Bunn will team with Night Walkers artist Joe Bocardo on The Hexiles, a new series about six children who find out their true lineage just in time for their father’s demonic debtors to come calling.
Mad Cave Studios will publish The Hexiles beginning in October.
“The Hexiles is a dark tale about destiny, cursed inheritances and people bound by blood… lots of blood,” said Bocardo. “A horror story that found refuge in a cave of madmen, where they love comics and work with true professionalism, and created by Cullen, a diabolical mind capable of turning the worst nightmares into words and convincing you to stay and live in them. As an artist, I couldn’t ask for a better team.”
Here’s how Mad Cave Studios describes the series:
Jamison Kreel is dead. Six of his children from six mothers are attending the funeral of a father they never met. Each of the children possesses a different infernal power. These powers, though, come at a terrible price…a price Jamison Kreel has placed upon the heads of his offspring. And the demonic debtors have come to collect.
Bunn said while writing it, he didn’t realize how dark it was until he saw Bocardo’s artwork.
“I didn’t really notice it during the writing process,” Bunn said. “I mean, I did, but this tale of the ultimate dysfunctional family with the ultimate infernal heritage wouldn’t allow me to slow down. In the aftermath, though, while looking through Joe’s gorgeous (and gorgeously sinister) pages, I realized that this is a dark story. Real horror, real dread, drips off these pages. But this is also a story of hope, of standing up for yourself, of rallying against whatever destiny others have cooked up for you. This is a story of raging against the dying of the light. Only, the light isn’t dying. It’s flaring up. And it’s hellfire!”
Take a look at a few pages from the first issue:
And Bunn’s collaborator on Harrow County did a variant cover for the first issue:
The first issue will (naturally) come out the day before Halloween on Oct. 30.