New York Times Bestselling author Daniel Kraus is giving comic fans a new take on the superhero genre this winter with Athanasia from Vault Comics. Kraus is joined by fan-favorite artist Dani, colorist Brad Simpson, letterer Jim Campbell, and Tim Daniel handling design.
Watchmen meets Unbreakable in the darkly disturbing supernatural tale where the heroic dead bleed power into the ground … only to be unearthed by a down-on-her-luck young woman to unforeseen consequences. Some secrets are best left buried.
From Vault:
Get ready for the most disturbing superhero story ever told. Forrest Molson is going nowhere. One year out of high school—and one year into sobriety—she’s working with her father as assistant groundskeeper at Athanasia Cemetery, the final resting place of fallen members of the Dynamic Guild, Venture City’s resident superheroes. At her lowest point, Forrest discovers Athanasia’s darkest secret. At night, the cemetery soil bleeds a substance created from the ooze of rotting superheroes. This ooze becomes Forrest’s new drug—and she’s intent on using the unpredictable powers it bestows to be judge, jury, and executioner of Venture City’s evil citizens. But, as she loses her mind to her new addiction, she inches closer to becoming the most evil of all. ATHANASIA is a superhero story seen through the darkest lens.
An early, unlettered preview can be viewed below:
“[The idea] first came to me when I was approached by one of the Big Two to do a superhero comic for an established character. It was an odd invite because I’m not a superhero guy. At all. I can’t stress that enough. My pitch was accepted, but it ended up falling apart for business reasons. That ended up being hugely fortuitous because it got me thinking: What would I do if left to my own devices to write a superhero story?” said Kraus.
“Within about ten minutes of thinking about it, my brain went ‘superhero cemetery,'” continued Kraus. “What would happen to the soil if you buried superheroes close together? Very quickly, the answer led me down a story path toward addiction and the lengths we go to excuse our behaviors. Even if you haven’t experienced the former, you surely understand the latter.
“This book is about family issues, battling with addiction, and struggling for inner balance,” said Dani. “Also, Daniel and I share the same approach to the superhero genre and its darker layers, so this was a project I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of.
“The relationships Daniel created in this book are so delicate and fragile. As an artist, showcasing this through my linework was important, so I took the creative choice of renewing my normal style of heavy blocks of ink and replacing it with textured pen scratches. This doubled the workload, considering the length of the book, but it was totally worth it. Pairing that with Brad Simpson’s excellent color choices, and we ended up with a visual I’ll always be proud of.”
Athanasia will be published as a 256-page deluxe graphic novel and can be found in comic stores everywhere this October 2025 from Vault Comics.
