EXCLUSIVE: Take A Look Inside Vertigo’s New Post-Apocalyptic Comic, HIGH LEVEL

Disclosure: Rob Sheridan is a friend to the BMD family. And the animals.

A while back, former Nine Inch Nails art director (and sometimes Trying Times podcast guest) Rob Sheridan revealed his latest project: a new Vertigo comic series by the name of High Level. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure shot through with a wicked sense of humor and flashes of gnarly violence, the first issue of Sheridan's series turned out to be everything I was hoping for, and then some. This book rules.

As such, I asked Sheridan and Vertigo if we could run some exclusive coverage for the title here on the site - from where I'm standing, High Level's a comic the Birth.Movies.Death. readership will be very into - and, luckily, they agreed. We're gonna have some fun, exclusive High Level-related content for you over the next few weeks, but today I'm thrilled to be sharing a look at five pages from High Level #1.

We'll check those out here in just a second, but first: here's an official synopsis from Vertigo:

"Hundreds of years after the world ended and human society was rebuilt from scratch, a self-interested smuggler is forced to traverse a new continent of danger and mystery to deliver a child messiah to High Level, a mythical city at the top of the world from which no one has ever returned."

Aaaand here's what it looks like:

Pretty cool, right? The writing here's solid, and the artwork (from Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Barnaby Bagenda) pops right off the page. High Level's got something of a Borderlands/Fury Road feel, and - as was the case with those properties - it's refreshing to see a post-apocalyptic tale that isn't told via drab colors and utterly hopeless characters. There's a real zip to the whole thing, one I found very enjoyable (there's a mutant gang leader-type with a buzzsaw hand and a robot-spider body; you cannot get more in my wheelhouse than that), and I'm eager to see where future issues take the story. 

Anyhoo, here's a look at the cover for issue #1, which you can pre-order via Vertigo here.

In the weeks ahead, we'll be bringing you a new interview with Sheridan about his latest creative endeavor, and just prior to the book's Feb. 20th arrival in stores, we'll be rolling out a very special Photoshop contest that Rob himself has agreed to judge. Get hyped and stay tuned, gang! We're excited about this one.