EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS!
Andrea and I wanted to take some time to exclusively talk about our upcoming shared universe of horror, The Bone Orchard Mythos. We cannot be more excited to share this new world with you all.
What exactly is The Bone Orchard Mythos?
It’s the name of our line of horror Original Graphic Novels. It will act as both a Series, and Limited Series that will be released (one or two books a year) starting by 2022 and onwards, all set in the same brand-new universe. They share the same world’s timeline and the same mythology, but they’re all, by any means, self-contained stories.
The line will begin its run with a Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) issue, The Bone Orchard - Prelude, that you will be able to find for free in comic shops in May, and will continue with the OGN, The Passageway in June, then the 5-issues limited series Ten Thousand Black Feathers in September, and Tenement in 2023, with more titles to be announced in future.
The OGNs are a fun idea mixed with single issues. But, how interconnected will the stories be to each other?
Every story will be readable and enjoyable by itself. Each story will have a dedicated cast, a beginning, and an end, all self-contained in the OGN or series you’re reading.
You don’t need to read one to understand another, and you don’t even need to read them in publication order.
You can jump in with Tenement, then read The Passageway or vice versa, and it won’t influence your reading experience at all.
What will link the stories will be a shared timeline and shared horror mythology that will grow with each new book.
There will be some hints of the FCBD issue to The Passageway and some of The Passageway in Ten Thousand Black Feathers. We will find interesting ways to connect the books and build a larger mythology for dedicated readers. They will all give you different details of what’s behind this whole shared universe, its rules, and its major players. And some characters may appear in multiple stories. But we will still strive to have each story be enjoyed as a self-contained tale.
To sum it up, you will be able to enjoy the self-contained single stories by reading them alone, but you will have an idea of the bigger, overhanging, worldbuilding by reading them all.
Is there a main story in which you build up the characters and universe, and then there are many spin-offs with other creative teams?
No. This is not like The Black Hammer Universe. There’s no “main” story and no spin-offs. Instead, every book is a single entity that is at the same time a perfectly self-contained horror tale. Having said that, as more and more books are released, dedicated readers will be able to piece together a larger mythology and universe.
Will the series all converge into some big crossover event?
That is not our plan or our goal. This comes from the idea that we strongly want all the stories to be like independent books, and you won’t need to read anything else to understand the story you’ve got in your hands.
We want to be open to anything creatively, so who knows how we may feel two, three, or four years down the road. But as of now, we are not planning for this all to converge into one singular story or crossover event. We imagine some books or series will delve a bit deeper into the mythology than others, but we don’t plan for a crossover among the books for now.
What will I find in the Free Comic Book Day issue named ‘The Bone Orchard Mythos: Prologue?’
The FCBD issue will feature an exclusive short, self-contained story named The Shadow Eater belonging to the Bone Orchard Mythos universe. It will be your first taste of the horror that awaits you in the books that will come.
How are you guys tackling horror in this one compared to, say, Gideon Falls?
We’d say that, while Gideon Falls eventually moved into some sci-fi territory (even while keeping horror at its core), the Bone Orchard Mythos titles will definitely retain a very recognizable horror identity.
What will be interesting is for us to explore what “a horror story” means to us and explore it in very different ways with these other stories.
We want these books to be character-driven, intelligent, and emotional. And still scary as hell.
Will all the stories be written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino, or are other creators joining you along the line?
All the announced books will be by both of us and are already in an advanced production state.
Dave Stewart will be coloring, Steve Wands lettering, and Greg Lockard editing. There will be no other creators involved.
Is this connected to Gideon Falls?
It’s not. It’s a new universe that will kick off in 2022 with the Free Comic Book Day free issue. We love Gideon Falls, but that is its own thing and totally separate from this new world.
How do I keep myself posted with the announces and releases of The Bone Orchard titles?
Actually, in plenty of ways:
By regularly checking on the Image.com website or their social channels or checking the Diamond Preview magazine monthly.
You can also follow both of our socials to get some exclusive previews on what’s coming next!
We hope these questions shed some light on exciting things to come and in the meantime please enjoy some preview pages below. -Jeff & Andrea
