As far as horror graphic novels go, it doesn't get much weirder than 2017's Plastic. That story follows a deranged serial killer who travels the country with a blow-up sex doll as his only companion. Now the creators of Plastic are reuniting to not only rerelease Plastic in an expanded hardcover edition, but also kick off Narco, an entirely new story set within the Plastic universe.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for an exclusive first look at Narco, and then read on for more details about this suspenseful new horror series:
Like Plastic, Narco is written by Doug Wagner, drawn by Daniel Hillyard and colored by Dave Stewart. This new book is part of a larger effort to expand on the horror universe established in the original Plastic. The Image Comics miniseries Vinyl is also set within this universe.
Whereas Plastic is a demented story with a serial killer as its main protagonist, Narco pivots to a more Hitchcockian brand of suspenseful horror. The main character, Marcus, witnesses a grisly murder and sets out to find the killer. The catch is that he suffers from a bad case of narcolepsy, and stress and violence only make him more prone to falling asleep at inopportune times.
"When Daniel and I first started these twisted, serial killer yarns, we had no plans for an actual universe," Wagner tells IGN. "It was supposed to be a one and done. But readers kept clamoring for more, so we dug deep into the dark spots of our souls (which seem to have a comedic slant for some reason) and created Vinyl. With some perspective help from a few friends, we were told we’d created a universe and that we should keep playing there until we ran out of ideas. Oh, you poor fools."
Wagner continues, "Daniel and I have just scratched the surface for depraved, frenzied, love stories filled with the most unlikely of heroes. We’ve already planned out the next two years of material. It’s funny. When given permission to dive deep into this Plastic-verse of ours, we just can’t seem to stop coming up with more and more ridiculously twisted and exciting ideas. I honestly get giddy every time I think about it, and Narco is the next stop down this road."
"I never would have thought that a serial killer in love with a blow-up sex doll would lead Doug and I into creating our own weird serial-killer universe, but here we are," says Hillyard. "From horror-comedy love to surreal bloody friendships and now a dark suspense thriller with NARCO… There’s less bombast and gore, but we’ve made up for it with warping twisted environments and obsessive shadows. The protagonist of NARCO (Marcus) is very much trapped in a world that can become chaotic in a second, and we tried to depict that in the storytelling and visual style."
Narco is being offered exclusively through Kickstarter as a two-book bundle. The set also includes a new printing of Plastic that includes a new short story starring the serial killer Edwyn.
In other comic book news, DC is teasing a major Wonder Woman crossover for 2022 dubbed Trial of the Amazons, and Marvel is launching a new volume of She-Hulk helmed by Runaways writer Rainbow Rowell.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.