One year after the surprise finale of The Walking Dead, artist Charlie Adlard is ready to debut a new comic about humans fighting to survive against an overwhelming threat. But instead of zombies, Adlard’s latest project revolves around a futuristic civilization battling an all-too-familiar viral threat.
Dubbed Planet DIVOC-91, this new satirical web comic is published by Web Toons and is a joint effort between Adlard and a number of other UK comics creators, including Friendo writer Alex Paknadel, UK Comics Laureate Hannah Berry, Surgeon X writer Sara Kenney, colorist and designer James Devlin and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Divided into nine chapters (each handled by a different creative team), the series is set in a future where humanity is threatened by a global pandemic and all young adults aged 16-25 have been transported to a terraformed alien world to ensure their survival.
If the title alone doesn’t make it obvious, the series is directly inspired by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Planet DIVOC-91 is even funded by several scientific organizations in the UK, with the goal of crafting a “thought experiment” designed to raise awareness of COVID-19 and the dangers posed by the pandemic. According to the official press release, the series is “produced by Dr Bella Starling, Director of Vocal at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Sara Kenney’s Wowbagger Productions, in association with the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. The project also has support from Royal Society of Chemistry; STFC; NIHR; Wellcome Trust; Sarah Iqbal and her team at DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance; Anita Shervington at Blast Fest and Nabeel Petersen from Interfer (South Africa).”
Plenty of other artists and creators will be chipping in on this ambitious series. Cover artists include Elsa Charretier (November), Marco Finnegan (Lizard in a Zoot Suit), Leslie Hung (Snotgirl), Warwick Johnson-Cadwell (Mr. Higgins Comes Home), Matt Kindt (Bang!), Alitha Martinez (Omni) and David Rubín (Ether). The series will even include musical contributions from producers like Grandmixxer, LCY and Juice Aleem.
With Adlard and Kenney overseeing the first chapter of Planet DIVOC-19, IGN was able to chat with both creators via email to learn more about the new series and its sibling protagonists, Sanda and Champo Oung. Check out the slideshow gallery below for an exclusive look inside issue #1, and then read on to see what Adlard and Kenney had to say.
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The Walking Dead is an impressive accomplishment, especially considering Adlard drew all but the first six of the series’ 193 issues. Unsurprisingly, Adlard wasn’t exactly itching to jump into another long-form project after drawing The Walking Dead monthly (and occasionally even twice-monthly) for many years. As he explained, Planet DIVOC-91 is part of an ongoing effort to experiment and explore smaller-scale stories after spending so much time steeped in one universe.
“After I drew my last TWD page in April 2019, I still had to finish off my French book Vampire State Building and Robbie Morrison and I were already talking about a new project together which could start as soon as I finished everything else,” said Adlard. “So I was still busy, but, the main thing was – everything was just less intense. And that’s how I’d mainly want to keep it, to be honest. After 16 years of 22 pages plus a cover [and sometimes MORE than that], I just can’t see myself returning to that level of working again – so expect one off books and mini-series from me from now on – which’ll include Heretic, the new book from Robbie and I.”
Adlard also revealed it was Kenney who brought him on board Planet DIVOC-19, saying “I knew I wanted to be involved with such an exciting way of creating something that would benefit the people that needed help the most.”
He continued, “I’ve got to admit that I was somewhat cautious that I was the ‘right’ person for a job that would include main characters in their early twenties and a story that was part conceived by young adults. I’m a 53 year old white male, for god’s sake, so I really concentrated on getting the two main leads right and to give the impression I new what the ‘youth’ were about…! The aliens and the setting were more in my comfort zone… they were relatively easy.”
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But despite those reservations, Adlard realized the hook with Planet DIVOC-91 isn’t so different from that of The Walking Dead. It’s ultimately a larger-than-life story of survival anchored around the characters more than the plot itself.
Adlard said, “Having said that, it WAS the human characters I enjoyed creating and drawing more – it’s always been that way, and that included my time with TWD. I hope I made a good fist of convincing readers that these characters were not some sort of idealised version of what an old bloke thinks young people look like nowadays, and they look fairly ‘current’ and of the ‘now.'”
Kenney shed more light on how Planet DIVOC-91 came to be, saying “Yes this is a direct response to the pandemic, but with a bit of serendipity thrown in. I was working with Dr. Bella Starling, Director of Vocal at Manchester University NHS Trust on projects about infectious diseases and participatory arts, when Coronavirus hit. For many of us in science engagement and beyond, I think the pandemic triggered a deep feeling that we needed to do something to help. This started as a small webcomic idea but since March, has quickly built momentum as we’ve reached out to scientists, social scientists, artists and musicians who have all been inspired to get involved.”
Kenney continued, “The story is a metaphor for what we’re experiencing now – so as we follow Sanda and Champo our protagonists – there are feelings of confusion, loss, paranoia etc. Charlie Adlard captures this well with a gamut of killer facial expressions! Humanity in this series is fractured and physically distanced to the extreme. But like the metallic blob in Terminator whether they reform as a strong and powerful presence or boil down into an ever-bubbling wreck remains to be seen…”
The first chapter of Planet DIVOC-91 will debut for free on WebToons on Wednesday July 15.
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In related news, Adlard and Robert Kirkman recently made a surprise return to the Walking Dead universe with the one-shot special Negan Lives. Kirkman and artist Chris Samnee also recently debuted their new martial arts fantasy series Fire Power. Fire Power will be a major focus at the upcoming Skybound Xpo virtual event.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com The Walking Dead Artist Reveals Coronavirus-Inspired Comic