New Series Announcement: INDOCTRINATION

Earlier today, Bleeding Cool broke the news that I have a new creator-owned series in the works, titled INDOCTRINATION. I'm writing, Matt Battaglia is on art (you may know Matt as the colorist on Roche Limit) and Jim Campbell, as always, is on letters.

Now, you're going to be hearing A LOT about Indoctrination in the coming weeks and months. So, since you and Indoctrination are meeting for the first time, I figure we'll keep this casual for the moment. 

That said, here's what's going on in Indoctrination: Two rogue FBI agents search for a serial killer who is murdering the relatives of high-ranking government officials. They suspect this bloody spree is the work of an international terrorist they've dealt with in the past--a terrorist whose motivation is to lead the U.S. deeper into war with the Middle East and, in time, bring about the end of the world. As the storm brews, the agents enlist the help of an incarcerated man who has deep ties to the terrorist--and may have been indoctrinated by him--and is the only one who can track him down. Mix True Detective with Hannibal and add a dash of Homeland, and you have the political, no-holds-barred, apocalyptic horror series that is Indoctrination. 

Heavy stuff, for sure, but anyone who reads my work knows that I like my storytelling to have a little extra meat on its bones. Existentialism with Roche Limit; an indictment of war and private military in Burning Fields, and so on. That said, what's Indoctrination all about? I can't give too much away, but I can say that what drove me to write this book is the radicalization of the U.S. Look, we're all indoctrinated into something, buying into the mores and standards of our family, our political parties, our communities, etc. Unless you're living in the woods, alone, you're part of something, and you've bought into a set of shared values. And that's okay. I'm right there with the rest of the world. But when indoctrination gets radical--things when things go terribly, terribly bad. 

Radical ideologies are becoming more and more common in our world, and the U.S. is certainly not immune. We've seen homegrown terrorists, which is the most obvious example of radicalization. When someone commits violent acts driven by racism--that's radicalism driving radical action (and, I'd argue, terrorist action). We've seen politicians rely on ideologies and bizarre campaign promises that go well beyond the scope of anything we've seen before; we've seen them rely on racism as a means to drive their base. And we've seen a growing number of Americans on the political scene who are hungry for someone to give a voice to their anger and put it into radical practice--through anti-government and racist agendas--and leaders who are more than willing to make angry people even angrier. This practice leads to dangerous places--we've seen it already and, I fear, we're going to see much more of it until something changes. 

To put it as simple as can be: Indoctrination is about radical thought put into radical action. Matt and I take this idea and we push it to the extreme to show just how deadly this can be. 

That said, we want to see you, all of you, come along for this journey with us. We promise you something smart, something bold, something different. If you're tired of the same old type of comic, or if you're tired of it taking you eight minutes to read something you paid four bucks for, then come with us. Every issue is going to be dense, packed with extras, and if we've done our job right, it'll leave you with something to think about. That's our promise--put our feet to the fire and make us keep it. 

Here's your first look at the series. Before I go, I want to share the best two ways to keep tabs on all things Indoctrination:

1. Visit our website, sign up for email updates: http://www.indoctrinationcomic.com/

2. Like us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indoctrinationcomic/

Again, you'll be able to find it in June from Z2 Comics.