Since 1994, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has dipped in and out of making comics. Beyond teaming with Gabriel Bá on The Umbrella Academy, he started DC’s Young Animal imprint, teamed with acclaimed artists such as Nick Derington and Becky Cloonan, and co-created Peni Parker for Marvel. After a three-year absence from comics, Way has a new comic dropping in July from publisher Dark Horse.
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Co-written with Shaun Simon (his collaborator on The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys) and drawn by Judge Dredd’s Chris Weston, Paranoid Gardens is described as “Derek meets Doctor Who in six psychotic episodes.” The book focuses on a care center worker named Loo, who decides to rise through the ranks of her (possibly sentient) hospital, but not without some roadblocks: along with corrupt staff and theme park cults, she’ll have to face “her own personal demons and trauma to meet this challenge and discover what secrets the gardens hold.”
“I’m excited to be back with my incredibly handsome and talented brother-from-another-basement Shaun Simon,” said Way, “and honored the masterful Chris Weston joined us to create a visually powerful and emotionally tangible physical object that is this comic. I’m now more complete getting to share something we’ve wanted to for a very long time, and working with this fantastic group of individuals in the process.”
Image: Dark Horse Comics
In his own statement, Weston said he, Simon, and Way have created “a wild and psychedelic tale that combines Kafkaesque nightmares with sweet Silver Age reveries. […] You’ll find a curious care-home peopled with aliens, ghosts and caped heroes recovering from psychotic episodes. The very ground it’s built on is febrile and fertile; and lusted after by the minions of Mammon. It’s the perfect remedy for all those stricken with super-hero fatigue and needing a fix of something a bit more mind-bending and unpredictable.”
Paranoid Gardens’ six-issue run will start on July 17.
