AHOY Comics’ Next Winning Wave of Titles Includes Absolutely The Wrong Earth by Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle, Kindergarten Gulag by Mark Russell and Mauricet and Corduroy Road by Eric Palicki and Chris Peterson

AHOY Unveils Its Next Wave Of Titles

Since 2018, Syracuse-based indie publisher AHOY Comics has made its reputation on witty satires, acclaimed creators, and a commitment to bold and risk-taking storytelling. Now the funnybook publisher is announcing its next thrilling wave of titles for 2027: ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG EARTH, the latest installment of writer Tom Peyer (Hourman) and award-winning artist Jamal Igle (creator of Molly Danger and artist of Dudley Datson and the Forever Machine)’s acclaimed multiverse-hopping superhero satire; KINDERGARTEN GULAG, a disturbing meditation on the innocent things that can hurt us most from the creative team behind Thanksgiving, writer Mark Russell (X-Factor, Second Coming) and artist Mauricet (Howl); and CORDUROY ROAD, a brutal mix of mystery and paranormal action in the tradition of Hack/Slash and Something Is Killing the Children from writer Eric Palicki (Black’s Myth, Atlantis Wasn’t Built for Tourists) and artist Chris Peterson (Grindhouse). Also hitting stores in 2027 will be DRAGONPROOF, a graphic novel written by Palicki and illustrated by acclaimed artist Giulia Lalli (Eight Limbs) about a directionless twentysomething who unexpectedly finds herself the champion of an endangered population of dragons—funding soon via Kickstarter.…

ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG EARTH #1 (of 1)

WRITTEN BY TOM PEYER

ART AND COVER BY JAMAL IGLE

ON SALE APRIL 7, 2027

Indie comics publisher AHOY Comics’s first-ever title—THE WRONG EARTH by writer Tom Peyer (Hourman) and award-winning artist Jamal Igle (creator of Molly Danger and artist of Dudley Datson and the Forever Machine)—blew the multiverse concept wide open with two parallel heroes inhabiting different worlds: Earth-Alpha’s bright and campy Dragonflyman and Earth-Omega’s dark and gritty Dragonfly. The fan-favorite satire kicked off a series of acclaimed titles featuring Dragonfly, Dragonflyman, and their kid sidekick(s) Stinger, including DRAGONFLY VS. DRAGONFLYMAN, THE WRONG EARTH: NIGHT & DAY, THE WRONG EARTH one-shots, THE WRONG EARTH: WE COULD BE HEROES, and THE WRONG EARTH: DEAD RINGERS. Now prepare to meet the final version of your favorite superhero on the wrongest earth in Peyer and Igle’s latest can’t-miss collaboration: ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG EARTH, a hilarious and action-packed oversized 40-page one-shot which rappels into stores near you on April 7.

“My love for costumed crime-fighters with kid partners is . . . well, absolute,” said writer and co-creator Tom Peyer. “I’m happiest reading them, watching them, writing them, and seeing what new thing Jamal does with them. If you declare war on crime and you don’t bring a child into it, I can’t take you seriously.”

“Almost 10 years ago, while walking my dog past a local pie shop, I bumped into my friend and former Firestorm collaborator Stuart Moore,” said artist and co-creator Jamal Igle. “Stuart said that he’d spoken to Tom Peyer about me for an idea he had for a new comic book and would I talk to him. Little did I know it would launch one of the best things I’ve ever been involved with. Working with Tom on The Wrong Earth has been an absolute pleasure. He gave me a new ‘Megaverse’ to play in where no idea was too wacky, no design too absurd, where he trusted me to give him more than he asked for because I wanted to do justice to his brilliant stories. Now with ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG EARTH, I feel like it’s almost a natural culmination of our series.”

“Yes, there are jokes. And monstrous gadgets. Wild weapons. Epic stakes. And always, always, gritted teeth. Because this wrong earth is serious! Except for the jokes,” said AHOY Publisher Hart Seely.

KINDERGARTEN GULAG #1 (of 1)

WRITTEN BY MARK RUSSELL

ART AND COVER BY MAURICET

ON SALE JANUARY 27, 2027

This January, writer Mark Russell (X-Factor, Second Coming) and artist Mauricet (Howl) – the team behind indie publisher AHOY Comics’s innovative one-shot Thanksgiving, which IGN called “hilarious but disturbingly relevant” – will reunite for a brand-new chilling tale in KINDERGARTEN GULAG, a disturbing meditation on the innocent things that can hurt us most. The darkly funny one-shot follows Igby, a man who wakes up to find himself the sole inmate in a prison run by five very young, very creepy children arguing about whether or not to kill him. KINDERGARTEN GULAG will land in stores on January 27, 2027.

“Igby is a pilot who wakes up one day stranded on an island run by five year-olds,” said writer Mark Russell. “Finding himself imprisoned and with a broken leg, he knows that escaping child captors is easier said than done. And yet, he fears that that’s what he must do if he’s going to survive.”

“Disturbing, creepy, unsettling and uncanny are the first adjectives that come to me when I think of the book that I just drew,” said artist Mauricet. “That said, Mark won me over the moment he revealed the title of his story to me. What could KINDERGARTEN GULAG possibly be about?! Well, I wasn’t disappointed. The content lived up to my expectations – believe me.”

“KINDERGARTEN GULAG is the realest of weird comics and the weirdest of the real,” said AHOY Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “It’s disturbing, due to its premise, and appealing, thanks to the humanity shared by Mark’s approach and Mauricet’s magnetic art style. You’ll be glad you’ve read it – and nearly as glad there won’t be an issue #2 to wrestle with in your head.”

CORDUROY ROAD #1 (OF 4)

WRITTEN BY ERIC PALICKI

ART BY CHRIS PETERSON

COVER BY ERICA HENDERSON

ON SALE JANUARY 6, 2027

Something strange is happening in Chicago, starting with the gruesome murders of the Suydam family. Enter Paul Corduroy, a P.I. and monster killer who handles cases the police can’t—and who’s about to learn a few shocking things about himself, too. Writer Eric Palicki, creator of Atlantis Wasn’t Built for Tourists and Black’s Myth, and artist Chris Peterson (Grindhouse) presents a brutal mix of mystery and paranormal action in the tradition of Hack/Slash and Something Is Killing the Children. DRAGONPROOF is funding soon on Kickstarter.

“What happens when a private detective obsessed with uncovering the truth suddenly finds himself responsible for keeping one hell of a secret?” said writer Eric Palicki. “Five years ago, Paul Corduroy walked into a Chicago basement and emerged changed. His arm was maimed, for one thing, and he found himself in possession of a sword capable of killing the demons Paul now understood to haunt the city’s underbelly. Paul’s new day job finds him exterminating monsters before the everyday citizens of Chicago get wise to their existence, but all he wants is to get back to solving mysteries. When a new case falls in his lap, Paul will risk everything—his career, his city, his eternal soul—to be what he was meant to be: a detective.”

DRAGONPROOF (OGN)

WRITTEN BY ERIC PALICKI

ART BY GIULIA LALLI

COLORS BY GAB CONTRERAS

ON SALE EARLY 2027

Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest on an ill-fate camping trip, Ashleigh Cole stumbles upon a dying dragon in the woods, its hide peppered with bullet wounds and tattooed with U.S. military markings. Ash returns to her mundane life, convinced her experience in the woods was all just a hallucination—until she begins to display some oddly dragonlike characteristics herself. Compelled by voices in her mind, Ash undertakes a mission to rescue other captive dragons and help the mythical creatures escape—but the shadowy government organization determined to turn them into weapons of mass destruction has other plans. Funny, heartfelt, and action-packed, DRAGONPROOF will appeal to adult readers who grew up on Buffy and Gargoyles and capture the imagination of post-YA readers of The Fourth Wing, ACOTAR, and more.

“Like so much of my other work, DRAGONPROOF is, at its heart, about outsiders finding their people and their purpose,” said writer Eric Palicki. “I tend to wear my influences on my sleeve, and this book is also a love letter to some of the stories that made me the writer I am today. Having partners in Giulia and Gab who were on the same wavelength was pure magic.”

“When Eric proposed this project to me I was very excited and comfortable, since fantasy has been my ‘war horse’ for many years and I always loved drawing dragons,” said artist Guilia Lalli. “But this time I was more intrigued by the story because it’s actually very different and unique than many other fantasy-based stories. It reminded me very much of Dragonheart, a movie very dear to me from my childhood, with its focus on the social and political side of the events alongside the fantasy elements—not to mention the importance of the bond between dragons and goodhearted humans.”

“Eric is such a natural storyteller. When he came to me with the pitch for DRAGONPROOF, I was all in,” said Senior Editor Sarah Litt. “And Giulia’s art combined with Gabs’s colors…just an absolute stunner of a book from start to finish.”

For more updates on AHOY Comics, visit them on X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.

About AHOY Comics

AHOY Comics debuted in the fall of 2018 with the bold promise for readers to expect more from its line of comic book magazines, featuring comic book stories, poetry, prose fiction, and cartoons. Brainchild of publisher Hart Seely, editor-in-chief Tom Peyer, CCO Frank Cammuso, and Ops guy Stuart Moore, the Syracuse-based indie publisher has made its reputation on witty satires, acclaimed creators, and commitment to bold and risk-taking storytelling — with critically acclaimed titles such as THE TOXIC AVENGER by Matt Bors and Fred Harper, SECOND COMING by Mark Russell and Richard Pace, BABS by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, HOWL by Alisa Kwitney and Mauricet, THE WRONG EARTH by Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle, JUSTICE WARRIORS by Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson, the quirky monster anthology PROJECT: CRYPTID, and many more.

About the creators of ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG EARTH

Tom Peyer was a long-running writer on DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, an original editor at their Vertigo imprint, and the proud writer of their worst-selling, award-losing series Hourman. He has since written enough major characters to fill one of those hyper-populated super-hero posters where you don’t know who to look at first. Today he happily writes and edits AHOY Comics from his stately manor in suburban Syracuse, NY.

A recipient of the 2011 Inkpot Award for outstanding achievement in Comic Art, industry veteran Jamal Igle is the writer/artist/creator of Molly Danger for Action Lab Entertainment; the co-creator of Venture with writer Jay Faerber; the artist of the series Black from Black Mask Studios; and the penciler of AHOY Comics’ THE WRONG EARTH. Jamal’s detailed pencils have graced books as varied as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the all-ages action miniseries Race Against Time, and mainstream hits such as G.I.Joe, Iron Man, Spider- Man and Green Lantern.

Lee Loughridge is a colour artist who has created award-winning work for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image Comics throughout a career spanning more than a quarter century.

About the creators of KINDERGARTEN GULAG

Mark Russell is an author, comic book writer, and cartoonist living and toiling in Portland, Oregon. The works he is known for include God Is Disappointed in You, a modern re-telling of the Bible, The Flintstones, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles (Winner of the 2019 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Comic), Not All Robots (Winner of the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Humor Comic), and Superman: Space Age, which tells the story of Superman and his loved ones, living against the backdrop of Cold War America. As far as he knows, all his books are still in print.

Mauricet is a Belgian comic book artist. He has been drawing since he could hold a pencil in his right hand. His career started 36 years ago in Belgium and France working for some of the big publishers in Europe. For the American market, he has worked on such titles as Tellos, The Crossovers, Harley Quinn, The Gang of Harleys, Dastardly & Muttley, Future Quest, Star Wars adventures, Swine and Creepshow.

More recently he has been steadily collaborating with AHOY Comics drawing stories for Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror and Project: Cryptid as well as the miniseries G.I.L.T. and Howl, both co-created and written by Alisa Kwitney.

About the creators of CORUDORY ROAD

Eric Palicki is the writer of the acclaimed Black’s Myth and Black’s Myth: The Key to Heart, both from Ahoy Comics, as well as work from Marvel Comics, Scout Comics, and others. He previously contributed to Mad Cave’s Lower Your Sights anthology, as well as to the Ringo Award winning Mine! anthology.

Christopher Peterson has been drawing and occasionally writing comics for the past 16 years. He has self-published off and on including anthologies, one-shots and limited series, one of which garnered a Shuster Award nomination. Recent works have been the GRINDHOUSE series from Dark Horse Comics, MAYDAY from Black Mask, and BROKEN WORLD from Boom! Studios, plus various others from Image, BOOM, STELA and Dark Horse.

About the creators of DRAGONPROOF

Eric Palicki is the writer of the acclaimed Black’s Myth and Black’s Myth: The Key to Heart, both from Ahoy Comics, as well as work from Marvel Comics, Scout Comics, and others. He previously contributed to Mad Cave’s Lower Your Sights anthology, as well as to the Ringo Award winning Mine! anthology.

Giulia Lalli is an Italian comics artist who has been illustrating professionally in the European scene since 2014, specifically in her native Italy on her own fantasy series Puck. In 2021 she made her debut in the American market working with several publishers like Curious P. Comics (Ruination), Humanoids (Eight Limbs), White Ash Comics (Glarien & Thane Vol.1) and most recently AHOY Comics (Dragonproof). At the moment she’s occasionally collaborating with Summit Comics as a cover and interior artist.