If you are a direct market weekly comics sicko like me, chances are you’ve already clocked News From the Fallout, a new series from writer Chris Condon, artist Jeffrey Alan Love, letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and designer Michael Tivey. It’s a conspiracy comic with killer artwork, and a premise that promises twists. Well, my sources tell me that the very first twist has arrived — a full month before the book even launches.
On Wednesday, News From the Fallout’s masterminds apparently launched a cryptic new website. I’m told it’s the work of Condon and, perhaps more prominently, Tivey, and it’s going to be a place where readers can find both information about the series — release dates, cover art, creator bios, etc. — as well as supplemental story material.
The words my super secret source used, specifically, were “it’s an in-universe viral engine.” Or rather, it’s a place where readers can interact with the design to learn more about the story. For example, they can highlight sections of pages and find hidden messages. They can then follow those messages to other portions of the site that are hiding even more secret audio messages. Perhaps most excitingly, my source was evasive when asked if there might be full hidden pages. Wild.
Following a little guidance from my source, I was able to access the site, and it’s somewhat designed to look just a bit like your standard, wonky government website. This makes sense, of course, when you consider the book’s premise.
The book — set to launch with the first of six issues arriving on June 25 — is a 1960s-set sci-fi horror conspiracy comic that involves a governmental nuclear bomb test that unleashes a contaminate into the atmosphere. The protagonist is a man named Otis Fallows, who is a private in the U.S. army and the lone survivor of said test. And it’s all depicted in chilling, grayscale artwork, which I should add seems to match the aesthetic of the supplementary website.
The site is live now, and the first issue (of six total) is due out on June 25. You can read The Beat’s advanced review of News From the Fallout #1 here. Good luck out there.
