The Dark and Disturbing Tale of Ghosts and the Tragedies That Make Them Materializes in Comic Shops and Bookstores on January 20th
HOUSES AREN’T THE ONLY THINGS THAT ARE HAUNTED… Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – will invite readers into a haunted house unlike any other in PLAGUE HOUSE, the softcover trade edition of the deep and disturbing excursion into 21st century horror from Eisner-award winning writer Michael W. Conrad (Wonder Woman, In Bloom) and 2024 Ringo Award winner Dave Chisholm (High Strangeness, Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound). Ahead of this horrifying housewarming, Oni Press is offering readers a free look at the entire first chapter of the otherworldly series.
“My hope with PLAGUE HOUSE was to take a novel approach to a trope that’s been done to death,” said writer Michael W. Conrad. “Hauntings and haunted locations are endlessly fascinating to me, but I wanted to present the idea in a way that didn’t lean on the unspoken agreements that are expected in such stories.”
Thirteen years ago, Orin McCabe was a family man living a privileged life in the California suburbs. Today, he’s condemned to death row for murdering his entire family in an unexpected fit of hammer-wielding brutality. In the aftermath of his heinous crime, it’s fallen to a trio of eclectic, but dedicated, ghost hunters—Jacob, the holy man; Holland, the skeptic; and their leader, Del, a true believer in the occult and worlds beyond—to surveil the abandoned McCabe home in search of proof for the existence of the undead . . . and whatever supernatural source may have possibly fueled McCabe’s inhuman massacre. But this ill-matched and uneasy squad of investigators is about to discover something much more terrifying than any ordinary spirit. . . . Something much more pernicious, much more contagious, that if not contained, could take full advantage of America’s unquenchable appetite for violence and deliver a plague of blood unto us all . . .
“One of my very favorite things about this series is that it has these rug-pull moments—you think you know what’s going on, you think you know what it’s about, and then the bottom falls out and the scope expands,” says Dave Chisholm. “There are moments of genuine surprise in this story, above and beyond that initial hook with these characters we think we know so well. I had such a blast working with Michael and Bess on this—it really was a collaboration of the highest order, artisanal, hand-made in an absolute frenzy, pored over by people who really really care about giving you something that will keep you up at night, that will drill a hole into the back of your mind and set up some kind of unholy bunker in there.”
“I do a lot of my work during the small hours of the night, in a darkened basement,” added Michael W. Conrad. “Every creak and groan of the house contributed to the fears I channeled into the work. Thankfully, Dave Chisholm was able to translate those words into some of the most terrifying and beautiful pages I’ve ever seen. Now that PLAGUE HOUSE has been collected in trade, I invite folks who were on the ride with us before to return to the House along with those who held off initially. We’re gonna need all the help we can get to survive the ghastly truth that hides within these walls.”
“As a lifelong lover of horror across all media, I have challenging expectations for stories in this genre, which Michael and Dave delivered on boldly,” said Senior Editor Bess Pallares. “PLAGUE HOUSE forces readers to confront their deepest fears about our world and worse—about themselves—in a tender and unnerving tale of what it means to witness horror.”
Collecting issues #1–4 of the mind-bending ghost story, PLAGUE HOUSE will plunge readers into a twisting tale of horror that’s as blood-soaked as the ground you stand on this January 20th.
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PLAGUE HOUSE SC
WRITTEN BY MICHAEL W. CONRAD
ART & COVER BY DAVE CHISHOLM
COVER BY DAVE CHISHOLM
ON SALE JANUARY 20th 2026 | $19.99 | 120 PGS | SC
About Michael W. Conrad
Michael W. Conrad is an Eisner-award winning writer currently living in Portland, Oregon. Michael has worked on a number of books at DC Comics including Wonder Woman, Batgirls, Nightwing, and more. Elsewhere, Michael has written stories for iconic characters including Godzilla, Dracula, and Boris Karloff. Michael’s creator-owned work such as Tremor Dose, Double Walker, and Neptune have revealed a level of oddity that has captivated audiences looking for experiences unlike anything else on the shelves today. You can find Michael on Instagram and Twitter at @michaelwconrad.
About Dave Chisholm
Hailed by Comics Beat as “one of the most exciting comic auteurs working in comics today,” Dave Chisholm is a graphic novelist and musician currently living in Rochester, New York, where he received his doctorate in jazz trumpet from the Eastman School of Music in 2013. His expertise in music as well as his formal inventiveness within the comics medium has resulted in a string of critically-acclaimed music-centric comics and graphic novels including Spectrum (2024-25, Mad Cave Studios, made in collaboration with Rick Quinn), Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound (2023, Z2 Comics), Enter the Blue (2022, Z2 Comics), Chasin’ the Bird: Charlie Parker in California (2020, Z2 Comics), and the groundbreaking graphic novel + original soundtrack Instrumental (2017, Z2 Comics). In collaboration with writer Michael W. Conrad on Plague House (Oni Press, 2025), he’s bringing that same formal inventiveness to the horror genre.
Chisholm also has a passion for education and teaches comics and music at the Hochstein School and the Rochester Institute of Technology.