The Macroverse Goes to Hell in Exclusive Trailer for Evan Shapiro's Darkland Comic

By Cameron Bonomolo

There's no place like Hell for the holidays. On December 6th, Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer and creator Evan Shapiro (Portlandia, HarmonQuest) will launch the digital collectible comic series Darkland, a twisted black comedy described as "Game of Thrones in Hell." Like that epic fantasy series, the adult-rated Darkland descends into violence, gore, nudity, sexual situations, and mature themes as its fiery power players — Eve, Michael, Satan III, his cousin Samjaza, and lieutenant Lucifer — play a "game of thrones" for control of Hell itself. Below, ComicBook has an exclusive look and trailer for the original graphic novel releasing as collectible NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, on Macroverse platforms beginning this week.

"Darkland is meant to have the look of Game of Thrones, and the voice of Veep," said Shapiro. "Frank Calicó's artwork captures the tone 1000%, and Macroverse is the perfect platform to create a community for a new version of collectible comics."

The first of five full books is available December 6th from digital comics leader Macroverse. Four more Darkland collectible comic books, each with original NFT editions with rare 3D covers, will be released bi-weekly starting Sunday, December 11th, and are available with a subscription through the Macroverse: Next Gen Comics app. New stories will also be available for free every Tuesday on Webtoons.

Created and written by Evan Shapiro with art by Frank Calicó, Darkland is centered around the shifting alliances between the power players in Hell — and the plans they have for Earth. 

Satan III is the ruler of Tyre, a.k.a. Hell, where his grandfather Satan I was killed trying to defeat Michael and the Archangels in a war for control of Earth. His son, the quite mad Satan II, was killed by his cousin in a battle for control of Tyre. When Darkland begins, Satan III is embarking on a dangerous mission to take control of Earth from the Humans. Meanwhile, his cousin Samjaza has other plans — aligning with other Angels and Satan's wife Zagiel, to take on a distracted Satan III and gain control of Tyre for herself and her Watchers. 

The Seven Princes of Hell and the rest of the Archangels play numerous games of multi-dimensional palace intrigue, and speed rounds of biblical espionage — all while cutting off heads, eating Humans for lunch, and finding time to quench their truly disturbing appetites.

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(Photo: Macroverse Media)
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(Photo: Macroverse Media)

"Reading and collecting comics has been a part of my DNA for as long as I can remember," said Macroverse co-founder Eben Matthews. "With Macroverse we are finally bringing comics fully into the digital age and delivering a cross-platform experience that I believe is the future of the art form. The Macroverse TapStory format brings new life to the medium while the Webtoons version is designed for quick and easy mobile reading. Early next year we'll bring real collectibility to digital comics with the release of the very first, fully formed NFT comics which is a breakthrough in collectible digital entertainment."

Matthews continued: "It could not make me happier to be pioneering this with Evan and Darkland. This is a universe unlike anything out there. I can not wait to unleash this hilariously twisted story on the world."

While Darkland is his first comic book series, Shapiro's credits include executive producing or creating such series and films as Night Train, What's Your F@%king Deal, Take My Wife, HarmonQuest, the Emmy-nominated Dinner For Five, and the Peabody Award-winning Portlandia. Darkland descends December 6th.

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