Shortly before the release of his debut issue on Batman last summer, Tom King awoke in the emergency room. The former CIA officer and comic writer behind such modern classics as The Sheriff of Babylon, The Vision and The Omega Men anticipated a heart attack that would send him to an early grave. Fortunately, the diagnosis revealed a severe panic attack. Though King didnt pass into the great beyond, he returned to a reality that didnt quite feel the same. Id flirted with the edge of death and came back from it, and I woke up and the whole world seemed different. I dont mean this in a political way, but the world as it is todaywhats happening every single daydoesnt seem to make any sense. And that can be as simple as the Super Bowl didnt make sense. Or it can be as crazy as people are breaking laws in our country that shouldnt ever be broken, King explains on the phone.
His illustrating partner on Sheriff, Mitch Gerads, chimes in: The Cubs won the World Series.
The pair is discussing their upcoming series, Mister Miracle, about a cosmic Jesus Christ analogue whos also an escape artist, and how in this moment, its very, very hard not to feel trapped in a never-ending loop of the bizarre, anxious and absurd. But if their previous collaboration is any indication, the project wont offer any escapism. King and Gerads excel at creating incredibly likable characters who attempt to untangle doomed causesa legacy perfect for this new book.
Mister Miracle was created by comic trailblazer Jack Kirby in the early 70s after his fallout with Marvel over creator rights. The yellow, red and green superhero fronted a line of comics loosely identified as The Fourth World, a kaleidoscope-colored remix of the Bible with Wagnerian battles and sci-fi bombast. In the mythos, Miracle (born Scott Free) was imprisoned on an industrial hellscape planet called Apokolips before escaping to his family on the paradise of New Genesis. King describes the sagawhich ran through comics including the New Gods and The Forever Peoplelike dipping your head into madness.
And though Mister Miracle could escape any terror orphanage, death trap or elaborate constraint, Free perpetually felt trapped in his childhood nightmare. The character fits perfectly in Kings oeuvre of tragic irony, including the tortured space radicals of The Omega Men and the imploding dreams of The Visionall portraits of gods with destructive vulnerabilities. Its also a new, bright canvas for Gerads, whose work has mostly addressed military and street-level intrigue, further adding empathy to the almighty. The artist channels an intoxicating array of visuals for the project, mimicking distortion lines on antique tube TVs and tactile watercolor backdrops.
Lettered with dire detail by Clayton Cowles and edited by Jamie Rich, the first chapter of this 12-issue series launches in August. (Spoiler Alert: its excellent.) Publisher DC offered Paste a first look at the comic as well as chance to discuss this ambitious new series with King and Gerads.
