Warning: contains a preview of The Passageway!
This summer, The Bone Orchard Mythos from Image Comics, a shared-horror universe, kicks off with The Passageway. This original graphic novel, written by Jeff Lemire with art by Andrea Sorrentino, is the opening salvo in the duo’s Bone Orchard Mythos, which will play out over the coming years in a series of graphic novels and miniseries, all published by Image Comics. The book goes on sale in print and digital comic outlets on June 15 and bookstores on June 21. Lemire promises "horror stories that take readers to places they never could have imagined."
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino first came together on Green Arrow, during DC’s New 52 era, giving the character a darker edge than he'd had in many years. The run proved popular with fans and critics, and in 2018 the duo delivered Gideon Falls, an award-winning, mind-bending horror comic. Lemire and Sorrentino’s follow-up series, Primordial, debuted in 2021, duplicating Gideon Falls’ success with critics and fans. Now, Lemire and Sorrentino are preparing for The Bone Orchard Mythos, their most ambitious project yet. The shared horror-universe debuts on Free Comic Book Day this year with The Bone Orchard Mythos Prelude, and a month later kicks off in a grand fashion with The Passageway, an original graphic novel.
A press release from Image Comics provides more information on the book, as well as a look at advance art, shared below. The story opens when a geologist named John - dispatched to a remote lighthouse to investigate mysterious happenings - finds a pit in the ground, one that seemingly never ends. As he tries to unravel the mystery of what lurks in the pit, he finds himself increasingly drawn to it. In the press release, Lemire called The Passageway his and Sorrentino’s “most complete collaboration” to date, promising readers the book will tell a “complete, dark and mysterious” story, but also set the tone for the rest of the Bone Orchard Mythos. Likewise, Sorrentino was excited for the collaboration, saying he and Lemire had crafted a “complex mythology” for the Bone Orchard Mythos. Sorrentino went on to say he could not “wait for all this world-building to slowly unfold” in the months and years to come. Enjoy a preview of The Passageway below:
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino are one of the best writer/artist combos working in comics today. Their collaborations are truly epic—the duo breathed new life into Green Arrow, capitalizing on the success of Arrow by pivoting Oliver Queen in a darker direction that still honored the character. The duo's follow-ups, Gideon Falls and Primordial, are masterpieces of horror and science fiction. Lemire and Sorrentino’s ambitions have always been huge, and now with the Bone Orchard Mythos, they have set their sights higher than ever, creating an entire universe that will unfold before readers' eyes. The Passageway refers to the pit John finds at the beginning of the book, but the title also signifies this is readers' entry point into the Bone Orchard Mythos.
Horror has a long history in comics, and was a thriving genre before the censorship of the Comics Code Authority banned key elements, leading to the supremacy of superhero narratives. With The Passageway, Image Comics may just be presiding over a new renaissance for popular horror comics, especially with such a tried and tested team at the helm.
The creative team of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino have created definitive works across a variety of genres, and now their most ambitious creation to date, The Bone Orchard Mythos premieres this June with the release of The Passageway, from Image Comics.
Source: Image Comics