Image’s new horror imprint Ninth Circle has revealed Blood Train, a one-shot by writer Adam Glass, artist Bernard Chang, and letterer Dave Sharpe. Releasing next year, the comic follows a group of friends traveling on the Siberian Express, when one of them is infected and turned into a monster by a bioweapon.

Blood Train Lunar solicit
Blood Train Lunar solicit

28 Days Later meets The Ruins in this high-stakes standalone horror story. After backpacking through Asia, a group of friends climb aboard the Siberian Express to start their journey home. Little do they know, they’ve bought a one-way ticket to hell, as one of them has been infected with a bioweapon that will turn them into a monster who will slaughter everyone on the train. And the bioweapon will start World War Three if it reaches its destination in Europe. Now, these friends must make a difficult choice: kill someone they love to save the world or die trying.

Glass describes the comic as being inspired by his fears for his children. “Many of the experiences I cherished as a young adult have become increasingly challenging for Gen Z,” he says. “When our college-aged kids excitedly announced their plans to backpack through Europe by train just as the war in Ukraine was unfolding, I was filled with concern. As I dwelled on the potential risks, the recent lockdown due to COVID-19, and my growing unease, the idea for Blood Train took shape.”

He continues, “From the moment I conceived the story, I knew I wanted to collaborate with one of my favorite artists, Bernard Chang. Bernard, a remarkable artist and a passionate world traveler, immediately embraced the project. We poured our hearts into this creation together and hope you will find it as thrilling as we did in bringing it to life.”

Chang adds, “Working on Blood Train has been a blood-curling experience! While ‘story’ always sits at the ultimate hierarchy of the process, ‘collaboration’ is the lasting experience that I’ll cherish at the end of the day. Adam Glass has been like a brotha to me, since our over a two-year run on Teen Titans for DC Comics. I hope that our love and passion for storytelling are reflected on the pages, and the readers are left wanting more.”

Blood Train will be released on January 29, with a main cover by Chang and a variant by Michael Gaydos, and retail at 48 pages for $7.99. Ninth Circle’s first one-shot, Garth Ennis and Mike Perkins‘s Hollywood satire Freddie the Fix, will be released in the meantime on December 11; you can also check out an interior preview below beforehand.

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