It doesn’t take much of an argument to suggest that The Walking Dead was the most successful horror comic book series of the new millennium.
You could even broaden that statement and say it was the most successful of all time.
What other award-winning monthly comic book series lasted for the better part of two decades and nearly two hundred issues and was spun off into multiple television series programs, novels, video games, pinball machine games, role-playing games and collectible toys? Not to mention limited edition cabernet sauvignon red wine, dead appendage lampshades and other do-dad miscellany? (This writer may even own some of those latter “what in the world? examples).
Oh, none. That’s how many.
The Walking Dead is singular. And its world-wide adoption into the pop culture zeitgeist has as much to do with the series artist as its famous writer/creator, Robert Kirkman.
And now, that artist, Charlie Adlared, has triumphantly returned to the comic book medium with a new horror miniseries, provocatively titled, Of The Earth.
Of The Earth #1
Written by: Chris Condon and Andrew Ehrich
Illustrated by: Charlie Adlard
Published by: Image Comics
Back at his The Walking Dead publishing home of Image Comics, Charlie Adlard is joined by Of The Earth writers, fan-favourite Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, News From The Fallout, The Enfield Gang Massacre) and industry newbie Andrew Ehrich, for a series that uses the shifting sands of family and familial relationships as the ground that true horror emanates and stands upon.
Of The Earth is a six-issue miniseries that tells the story of Tabitha Black, on the run across the dusty roads of Texas, leaving behind a sordid, violent past for the sanctity of her hometown, Solitude, and a return to the peaceful upbringing she once had with her Gramma.
Fine and dandy.
Except that Of The Earth is a horror story with an ecological bent. And as much as Tabitha portrays the strong and independently feral woman, her dark and threatening past promises to search her out. Home, for Tabby, isn’t what it once was.
And Gramma.
Gramma is not what she once was, either.
Of The Earth promises to take readers on a wild wide through dust and blood and extraordinary terror, in a tale billed as a nasty commingling of the classic films Blood Simple and The Thing. That’s a special kind of resonance that we can all cheer for.
Celebrate horror – and the return to comics of Charlie Adlard – and make the run to your local comic book shop for the first monthly issue of the news series, Of The Earth.
For an even greater feel for what the story offers, you can catch a sneak peek from Of The Earth in the comic book trailer YouTube Short directly below.
