The upcoming Vault Comics horror series Human Remains is about monsters that hunt people through their strong emotions. Whether it be love or hate, if the characters in this comic feel strongly enough, the monsters will find them. The series also features a high-profile creative team, which Vault Comics is quickly becoming known for.
The co-creators for Human Remains are Peter Milligan and Sally Cantirino. Milligan, the writer for the series, is placed alongside the talented likes of Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison as one of DC’s Vertigo imprint founders. His expansive credits include Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, and X-Force/X-Statix. Cantirino, the artist for the series, has been making a name for herself as well, having previously worked on I Walk With Monsters and The Final Girls.
According to GamesRadar+, Human Remains can be described as A Quiet Place except it substitutes emotions for sounds. Earth is under an invasion by monsters that feed on strong emotions, which puts lead couple Dax and Bisa in peril because of their powerful love for one another. The two must survive in a world where too much emotion can literally be the death of them. Milligan explained that the series was less inspired by the pandemic and moreso inspired by the precautions that needed to be taken in light of the lockdown. After talking about seeing people keeping their distance from one another, he said: "I was struck by how strange this all was. And I thought about all the things that had recently been so natural that we now could not do. All the touching, socializing, kissing, close-up talking. All that everyday human stuff." He ended with the haunting words, "It seemed the virus was stripping us of some of the essential qualities of what it was to be human.... A thought struck me, how much can you strip away from what it is to be human…before you stop being human?"
The covers seen above for the first issue include the main cover by series artist Cantirino and a variant cover by Josh Hixson. Hixson previously worked on the Vault Comics miniseries The Plot. It will be interesting to see how Human Remains compares to the number of other horror titles Vault Comics will be publishing this year. There have been plenty of intriguing concepts announced in the works, including Deadbox, which features a haunted DVD rental machine and promises issues with a variety of art styles to match the stories.
Human Remains will be tackling the story of monsters in what seems to be a refreshing take, and it certainly has a promising creative team to back up the premise. The first issue will be available in comic book stores on September 22, 2021. Milligan also has another horror series being released, the AfterShock comic God of Tremors, which will be out this August.
Source: GamesRadar+