This April, writer Joe Harris (“Great Pacific,” “The X-Files”) and artist Sebastián Piriz will guide a group of disaster tourists through the Fukushima Exclusion Zone and set them at odds with ghostly samurai. That’s the premise of AfterShock’s new series “Disaster Inc.,” a supernatural tale of exploitative tourism.
“I’ve [been] interested in the concept of underground tourism for a while,” said Harris, in a press release announcing the project. “It probably started with stories of people bungeeing off the Brooklyn Bridge at night, or massive raves deep inside the New York City subway tunnels, or the guys who climbed the World Trade Center Freedom Tower before it opened to the public and filmed their BASE jump from the very top.”
“But disaster tourism is an even more problematic kind of thrill-seeking,” continued Harris. “It’s exploitation of tragedy by people with the means to tour the ruins of Chernobyl, or post-Katrina New Orleans, or a recently abandoned ISIS camp and (usually) return safely.”
These particular disaster tourists’ safety is in doubt, as they’ll contend with not just the fallout of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant’s 2011 meltdown, but also some of Japan’s most loyal undead defenders.
“Much of the area around Fukushima will never be habitable by humans again while, at the same time, nature has strangely reclaimed it. Abandoned villages sit overgrown with vegetation. Rusted cars lie abandoned on forgotten roads. Packs of animals run free without people around, oblivious to the radiation they spread,” said Harris. “But that’s not all that’s in the soil and the water. The bones of generations of some of the fiercest fighters the world has ever known are down there too. And what I’m most excited about is the supernatural twist on things as these ghost warriors return and resume their bloody calling.”
For the full rundown on “Disaster Inc.”‘s first issue (which releases April 1), as well as preview pages from the same, read on.
Disaster Inc. #1 / $4.99 / 32 pages / Color / On sale 04.01.20
Writer: Joe Harris
Artist & Colorist: Sebastian Piriz
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Cover: Andy Clarke w/ Jose Villarrubia
Incentive Cover: Cully Hamner
In 2011, the worst earthquake in Japan’s history breached the coastal Fukushima Daiichi power plant, causing three of its four nuclear reactors to melt down. Forced evacuations followed as the event released enough radioactive material into the air, ground and water to force officials to set up an “Exclusion Zone”, effectively sealing off the land for what may well be the rest of human history.
But that’s only if you don’t have the right connections and the desire to experience catastrophe, failure and misery as it really is! Enter DISASTER INC., an underground tourism outfit intent on helping people of means, secrets and agendas explore the dark corners and off-map attractions typical tour groups won’t go to (and various laws don’t allow). Only Fukushima, known for its famed warrior class and their protection of the land and people dating back to ancient times, is full of deadly surprises and old ghosts.
Writer Joe Harris (“Great Pacific,” “Rockstars,” “The X-Files”) and artist Sebastián Piriz begin a disaster tour checking out the worst places on earth while digging up more trouble than they can probably handle. Then, in a world on fire and rife with calamity, catastrophe, war and unrest… you’re going to need the right guides to see it for yourself!
