Trapped as we are in the heat of summer, some of you may already be longing for the coming spooky season. We have an announcement for those desperate souls: Oni Press is publishing the first issue of a new four-part miniseries, The Autumn Kingdom, on September 4, 2024. The series is the first collaboration between writer Cullen Bunn (Harrow County) and artist Christopher Mitten (Wasteland).
Oni Press provided a synopsis, which reads:
Bestselling author Andrew Kier found the perfect place to finish his latest dark-fantasy novel—an idyllic, remote cabin on the edge of a lush Swedish forest. His young daughters, Sommer and Winter, gleefully explore…until they happen upon a strange clearing of ancient statues: goblins, dwarves, elves, and a warrior queen mysteriously missing her swordhand and weapon. When something sinister follows the girls home and viciously snatches their parents in the night, the sisters’ only hope may be that ancient relic, lost in the forest underbrush, waiting for a new champion to take it up…
Mitten says that he and Bunn have wanted to do a book together “almost as long as we’ve both been making comics…” As for Bunn, he claims that “the words ‘The Autumn Kingdom’ have been written in one of my oldest journals for decades.” Senior Editor Bess Pallares also professes excitement for the series, describing it as “a dark fairy tale born straight from the moss-grown hollows of an ancient Scandinavian forest.”
The first issue of The Autumn Kingdom features covers by Christopher Mitten, Alison Sampson (Hit-Girl), and Malachi Ward (Black Hammer: The End). There will also be variant covers by Daniel Vega (THE CODEX NOIRMATIC) and Vanesa R. Del Rey (Redlands). The creative team includes colorist Francesco Segala (Power Rangers: The Return) and letterer Taylor Esposito (Space Ghost).
Oni Press also provided us with some neat interior art, featuring a dynamic battle with a fire-headed creature that looks rather like a Balrog. There is also an evil transforming sword, which is always good in my book.
