A Graphic Novel from Actor and Novelist Luke Arnold and Emmy-Nominated Writer Chris “Doc” Wyatt With All-Star Art by DaNi, Glenn Fabry, Jason Howard, Vince Locke, Brendan McCarthy, Andrea Mutti, M.K. Perker, and Bill Sienkiewicz
The Ambitious Sci-Fi Original Graphic Novel is Headed to Kickstarter, Featuring Exclusive Editions Not Available Anywhere Else
Luke Arnold — the novelist and actor of the Emmy-winning Black Sails — and Emmy-nominated writer Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Rocket and Groot) are co-writing an all-new graphic novel, ESSENTIALS. The ambitious 140-page sci-fi epic is the debut offering from THE LAB PRESS, a new graphic novel publisher helmed by founder and CEO Nicholas Kalikow, who is joined byEditor-in-Chief Dagen Walker, Vice President of Business Development Diane Richey, and Chief Creative Officer and partner Mike Zagari. ESSENTIALS will debut this spring on Kickstarter and fans can follow the pre-launch page now, to get an email when the project launches in the coming weeks.
The original graphic novel features a stunning array of all-star comic artists: DaNi (Sandman The Dreaming), Glenn Fabry (Preacher), Jason Howard (Transformers), Vince Locke (A History of Violence), Brendan McCarthy (Spider-Man: Fever), Andrea Mutti (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), M.K. Perker (Air) and a cover by legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz (New Mutants). ESSENTIALS features colors by Jordie Bellaire, Brad Simpson and Wesley Wong and lettered by DC Hopkins of AndWorld Design. The book’s design and logo were created by Emma Price (Barnstormers).
“At THE LAB PRESS, we search the world for creators, writers, and artists who are looking for a space to be audacious with their wildest ideas, subversive stories and compelling art,” said THE LAB PRESS Editor-in-Chief Dagen Walker. “We love human moments in unhinged worlds; tales that entertain while illuminating some experiential truth. As our first book to market, ESSENTIALS will capture readers with its wild sci-fi adventure themes and compelling characters.”
In ESSENTIALS, mathematician Harris Pax predicted the end of the world but failed to prevent it. Now he’s living alone in a bunker and his niece’s favorite toys have started talking to him. The good news? He’s not the world’s sole survivor. The bad news? The other survivors are trapped in alternate realities — imprisoned in imagined worlds full of zombies, robots, mythical creatures, and chaos. And now Harris Pax and an unlikely ally must travel the country on a quest to restore reality, save humanity, and defeat his new interdimensional nemesis: Snuggles.
“ESSENTIALS was born out of impossible questions: what matters most in a well-lived life? Is joy more valuable than truth? Does mortality give meaning to our existence? At what point do our perceptions become our reality?” asks co-writer Luke Arnold, who has played iconic roles including Long John Silver in the Emmy-winning Black Sails and Michael Hutchence in Never Tear Us Apart-. His first novel The Last Smile in Sunder City was released in 2020, launching the popular, ongoing series The Fetch Phillips Archives. He is making his graphic novel debut with ESSENTIALS.
“We’ve managed to assemble a staggeringly talented group of artists to explore these ideas with us, creating a story that traverses a post-apocalyptic reality, multiple subjective projections, an interdimensional collective consciousness, and the kaleidoscopic labyrinth of our own minds,” said Arnold. We wanted to tell a story that could only be fully realized in this medium, and this incredible team has taken it beyond our wildest dreams.”
An all-star roster of seven artists brings Luke Arnold and Doc Wyatt’s wild, sci-fi adventure to life, with each artist illustrating a different alternate reality. Vince Locke unveils a zombie apocalypse. Andrea Mutti depicts tragedy in outer space. MK Perker illustrates a stunning banquet for the gods. Glenn Fabry pulls back the curtain on a creepy collector of classical art And DaNi and Jason Howard play with an ever-changing “untethered” reality, which threatens to swallow our hero and everything we have ever known.
“My goal for the ESSENTIALS cover was to give a bit of a twist to the classic super hero lineup,” said Bill Sienkiewicz. “Premiere issue covers usually introduce the series’ heroes as a group of badasses. The idea of doing that with an adorable trio of children’s toys was too good to pass up.”
“We’re proud to be working with THE LAB PRESS, a company that has given us total creative freedom and total support, even when we say things like – ‘our vision is to switch between seven different artists on this book to do the different realities, and you have to coordinate everything.THE LAB PRESS is all in. They make it happen,’” said co-writer Chris “Doc” Wyatt, who has produced eight indie feature films including the cult hit comedy film Napoleon Dynamite and the multi-festival award-winning drama Coyote. Wyatt shared an Emmy nomination for the animated project Marvel’s Rocket and Groot and has worked on numerous popular series including Lego Ninjago: Dragons Rising.
“I want to create books that surprise at every turn – whether you’re a die-hard comic aficionado or just dipping your toes into this wild world,” said Richey. “Our books are ignited by the raw uncensored perspectives of creators like Cecil Castellucci, Gene Ha, Nihaarika Negi, and José Villarrubia, all of whom will be involved in upcoming original graphic novels.”
In addition to its core staff, which includes THE LAB PRESS Editorial Assistant Lindsay Musil, THE LAB PRESS is working with talented publishing freelancers, including Lillian Laserson, John J. Hill, Ryane Lynn Hill, Olivia Ngai, Emma Price (Barnstormers),and David Hyde and Dustin Holland of Superfan Promotions.
THE LAB PRESS’ Chief Creative Officer Mike Zagari is a twenty year comics veteran, who has worked at Marvel, Disney, and DC Comics and, most recently, as the head of AMC Networks Publishing. “It’s no secret that the comics industry is in a period of tremendous, transformative change,” said Zagari. “THE LAB PRESS is prepared to meet those challenges and opportunities head-on. We’re dedicated to publishing fearless storytelling, with unique styles and perspectives. THE LAB PRESS is focused on creating high end, original graphic novels with stories that challenge, surprise, and engage readers.”
For more updates on THE LAB PRESS and its first Kickstarter, visit them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and X.
About The Artists
LUKE ARNOLD began his creative career as an actor, playing iconic roles such as Long John Silver in the Emmy-winning Black Sails, his award-winning turn as Michael Hutchence in the INXS mini-series Never Tear Us Apart, and Martin Scarsden in Scrublands. His first novel The Last Smile in Sunder City was released in 2020, and this has become an ongoing series with the fourth installment of The Fetch Phillips Archives coming soon.
CHRIS “DOC” WYATT is a TV animation writer/producer who has worked on series including Ultimate Spider-Man, Legends of Vox Machina, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, Star Wars: Resistance, Batman Unlimited, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Botbots, and Lego Ninjago: Dragons Rising, among many others. Wyatt produced the cult hit comedy film Napoleon Dynamite and the multi-festival award-winning drama Coyote, and six other indie feature films. He shared an Emmy nomination for the animated project Marvel’s Rocket and Groot.
BILL SIENKIEWICZ (pronounced sin-KEV-ich) is a multi-Eisner Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated artist known for revamping the style of comic and graphic novel illustration—a feat earning him an international reputation across media industries, as well as entrée into the Eisner Hall of Fame. He is most noted for Marvel’s Elektra: Assassin, Moon Knight, and New Mutants—inspiring FX’s Legion and Disney’s New Mutants—and his acclaimed graphic novel Stray Toasters. He earned two Emmy nominations for his work on the animated series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Sienkiewicz has also contributed on-set and promotional artwork for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Batman, Dune, Moon Knight series, 2018 Halloween remake, Logan, The Grinch, The Green Mile, and Unforgiven. His work has graced numerous album and book covers, U.S. Olympic campaigns, and museums and galleries across the US, Canada, Europe, and Brazil.
JASON HOWARD is an American comic book artist, best known for co-creating and illustrating the comic book series Trees and Cemetery Beach with writer Warren Ellis and Super Dinosaur and The Astounding Wolf-Man with writer Robert Kirkman. His most recent work is the Image Comics series Big Girls which he both wrote and illustrated.
VINCE LOCKE has been creating published illustrative art for over 30 years. His portfolio includes countless comic books and graphic novels (including Deadworld, Sandman, A History Of Violence, Junction True, American Freak, And The Unwritten, all album and merchandising art for world famous death metal band Cannibal Corpse, numerous role-playing game book illustrations (White Wolf, TSR, and Wizards of the Coast), book and magazine illustrations (2000 A.D., Barnes and Noble, author Caitlin Kiernan), and artwork for the animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He is well-known for his horror themed fine art and has had paintings in many gallery exhibitions. He received the Haxtur Award for Best Long Comic Strip in 2005 for A History of Violence.
GLENN FABRY is a British comics artist known for his detailed, realistic work in both ink and painted color. Glenn Fabry’s career began in 1985, drawing SLAINE for 2000 AD with writer Pat Mills. He also worked with Mills on the newspaper strip Scatha in 1987. Painted work followed in Crisis, Revolver, and Deadline. In 1991 he took over painting the covers of Hellblazer, then written by Garth Ennis. He has continued his association with Ennis, painting the covers for Preacher (DC/Vertigo), and drawing Ennis-written stories in The Authority (DC/Wildstorm) and Thor (Marvel). In 2003 he drew a story in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman anthology Endless Nights, and in 2005 worked on the comics adaptation of Gaiman’s TV series/novel Neverwhere with writer Mike Carey.
ANDREA MUTTI is a comic book artist who started his career illustrating superhero comics in his native country, Italy. After obtaining his degree in geometry, Andrea Mutti attended the Comics School in Brescia, led by Ruben Sosa. He began his career illustrating the superheroes comic Dnaction for Xenia Edizioni. He has worked on a wide range of detective titles for various French publishers. He has also worked with Marvel, DC, Vertigo, Dark Horse, Top Cow, IDW, BOOM! Studios, Adaptive, Dynamite, Stela, Titan, and Vault.
M.K. PERKER is an Eisner-nominated comic book creator whose work includes Air (DC/Vertigo), Cairo (DC/Vertigo), The Unwritten (DC/Vertigo), The Escapist (Dark Horse), Insomnia Cafe (Dark Horse) Todd The Ugliest Kid On Earth (Image), and others. His non-comic book work includes illustrations for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, BBC and others. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators.
DANI (DaNi) was born in Athens, Greece in 1992 and studied sculpture in Athens School of Fine Arts. She began to produce a self-published series called Tales from the Strips that won the Reader’s Choice Award at the Greek Comics Awards in 2015, before working on some 2000 AD strips including Fiends of the Eastern Front and Judge Anderson and on Rebellion’s Scream! & Misty and Tammy & Jinty specials. Soon she was on the radar of the US industry, picking up work from IDW on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. More recently she has worked on Sandman The Dreaming (DC/Vertigo), Coffin Bound (Image), and The Low, Low Woods (DC/Hill House Comics) written by Carmen Maria Machado.
BRENDAN MCCARTHY is an internationally renowned artist, writer and designer. His early UK comics work includes Sometime Stories, Electrick Hoax and 2000AD. For different US publishers, he co-created Strange Days, Rogan Gosh and Skin. During the 90s Brendan worked in cgi animation (ReBoot) and live action Hollywood features, most notably as co-writer/designer for the Oscar/Golden Globes-winning Mad Max Fury Road. More recently, Brendan has produced new graphic novels including Spiderman-Fever (Marvel), Solo (DC Comics) and Swimini Purpose, The Zaucer Of Zilk and Dream Gang for independent US publishers. A best-selling collection of his work was released a few years ago, The Best of Milligan & McCarthy.