Beginning this summer, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher Oni Press will publish DWELLINGS, a bi-monthly limited series from the pop-addled brain of Emmy Award-winning animator and Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Jay Stephens (TUTENSTEIN, JETCAT CLUBHOUSE). Re-formatting Stephens’ acclaimed self-published series – which has drawn praise from a litany of high-profile talents, like Jeff Lemire, Stephen R. Bissette, Phil Hester, and more – into three prestige-format chapters, Oni’s new release of DWELLINGS marks the award-winning Canadian cartoonist’s return to the publisher that played an early, pivotal role in shaping his career with series like JETCAT CLUBHOUSE, LAND OF NOD, ODDVILLE, and ATOMIC CITY TALES – all of which numbered among some of Oni’s earliest and most acclaimed breakout hits alongside series like CLERKS and ONI DOUBLE FEATURE.
Each of DWELLINGS’ three oversized, prestige format issues will be 72 blood curdling pages long and will include two complete tales. Welcome to Elwich – an oasis of small town perfection, where the schools overflow with cheery-eyed children, lovingly adorned homes line the historic boulevards… and only the crows can see the deep, festering rot that lurks beneath the pristine surface. Murder. Demonology. Possession. Obsession. Elwich has them all on offer—and behind every dwelling awaits a horrifying new story to be told.
“As a young collector in the days before the internet, before our town even dreamt of a comic shop, I remember walking the train tracks on weekends, hunting back issues at garage sales and flea markets, picking up whatever I could find,” said cartoonist Jay Stephens. “Though considered uncool, I was magnetically attracted to the irresistibly adorable Harvey comics… Casper, Spooky, Wendy and Hot Stuff in particular… and always kept an eye out for that one issue where they finally revealed who murdered Casper the friendly Ghost. If the definition of nostalgia is to ‘return home in pain,’ DWELLINGS is the most nostalgic work I’ve ever produced. And my re-imagining of that darker Harvey Comics backstory has festered and intertwined with my personal fears into something truly frightening.”
DWELLINGS debuts on August 9th with a 72-page, first issue with all-new, never-before-seen standard and “bloody” edition covers by Jay Stephens himself, alongside brand-new variant covers by Joe Palmer (TIME BEFORE TIME), Jenna Cha (BLACK STARS ABOVE), and Brian Level (BATMAN VS. BIGBY! A WOLF IN GOTHAM).
“It’s a sincere pleasure to welcome Jay Stephens back to Oni with one of the scariest, funniest, most twisted comics series of the decade,” said Oni Press President & Publisher, Hunter Gorinson. “Like SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN force fed through a woodchipper with a stack of old Harvey Comics and a half-empty bottle of absinthe, DWELLINGS is a nightmarish combination of pathological violence, nerve-fraying intensity, and day-glo suburban charm – all from the pen of a master cartoonist who has been building toward this series for the better part of two decades. Even if you’ve read tens of thousands of comics, I can guarantee this: You have never seen anything like DWELLINGS before..and aren’t like to again anytime soon.”
DWELLINGS #1 will feature two creepy stories – “They Know” and “Second Tongue.” One Press will unleash DWELLINGS diabolical debut issue on unsuspecting comic shops everywhere on August 9, 2023.
