Zack Kaplan and John Pearson, who previously collaborated on the Vault Comics series Mindset, reunite for The Smart Division, a five-issue modern sci-fi detective series arriving in August from Dark Horse Comics. The series is lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and designed by Tom Muller.
The story is built around a mysterious, predictive AI program that has begun helping people commit the perfect murder. When the technology surfaces, a mismatched pair of investigators must establish the Bureau’s first AI crimes division to hunt down the killer and the app enabling them.
“The Smart Division takes everything you loved about our first series Mindset — the playing with form, the thoughtful commentary on technology, and the tense character drama — and raises the bar, with more danger and dread,” Kaplan said. “Artificial intelligence is the hot topic of our time, but we’re exploring it like you’ve never seen — what happens when it helps us commit the perfect crimes.”
Pearson added that the book aims to ask difficult questions about technology’s consequences.
“Like the work myself and Zack have done before together, The Smart Division aims to raise a lot of questions about technology and humanity,” said Pearson. “If we continue to exploit increasingly advanced Artificial Intelligence, what are the consequences that we will have to face? The contrast of the digital and the traditional is a huge driving force for the artwork in the series, exploring the creative process through painted pages to contrast with the technological abundance the characters face.”
The main cover for The Smart Division #1 is by Pearson, with variant covers by Jesse Lonergan, Jacob Phillips and Matt Taylor. It arrives Aug. 5.
The Smart Division is one of three new series coming from Kaplan and Dark Horse this year. Only the Savage Are Left, a post-apocalyptic action series with artist Stefano Raffaele, arrives June 3, while Kill All Immortals III, the concluding chapter of his Viking action trilogy with artist Francesco Manna, will follow later in the year.