AfterShock Comics have announced “Out of Body,” a paranormal mystery series from writer Peter Milligan (“Shade the Changing Man,” “X-Statix”), artist Inaki Miranda (“Wonder Woman,” “We Live”) and colorist Eva De La Cruz (“Fairest,” “Batgirl”). The book follows Dan Collins, a man who wakes up paralyzed and on the edge of death in hospital.
Through the power of astral projection, he begins to discover the circumstances of his misfortune, and the other metaphysical actors involved in this cloak-and-dagger conflict. Rattling around the astral plane alongside Dan will be the predatory and soul-hunting August Fryne; a demon resembling Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray; and a sympathetic mystic who Dan may just have feelings for.
“A man wakes to find he’s been attacked and left for dead and is now in a kind of permanent vegetative state, kept alive only by machines. He can’t move or communicate — but somehow he has to find out who wanted him dead before they turn his life support off,” said Milligan. “This story is in some ways like a classic murder mystery. Except that there hasn’t quite been a murder and it’s the victim himself who’s doing the detecting. I read all those early classic detective novels, Chandler, Hammett etc. The ones I liked always focused on the psychology; more why done it than who done it. I’ve tried to inject some of that classic detective quality into ‘Out of Body,’ albeit with a big near death-sized twist.”
On collaborating with Miranda, Milligan said “it’s also always exciting to have a new collaboration with a new artist see the light of day. This is a highly-wrought and highly-emotional kind of story. A very human story. But it also has moments of psychedelic delirium, moments of sheer weirdness. I’m happy to report that the artist on ‘Out of Body’ – Inaki Miranda – successfully and beautifully manages both.”
“Out of Body” #1 retails for US$4.99 on June 2, 2021 with a main cover by Miranda, and a variant by “The Walking Dead” artist Charlie Adlard. Check below for the cover art and a five-page preview, albeit without the lettering of Sal Cipriano.
