What would you do if you found out that the mall you happened to be standing in was actually a mirage for an ancient sacrificial ritual after an apocalypse you have no recollection of? Well, that’s what readers will find out in Mad Cave Studios‘ new out-of-this-world graphic novel Xero, and we’ve got your exclusive first look in the preview below. Xero is the creation of not debut writer Vaho and artist Felipe Flores, and combines elements of The Matrix, Dark City, and Severance into something altogether unique and can’t miss.
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The graphic novel introduces fans to a man named Xero, who is searching for his pregnant girlfriend in a subterranean mall. Unfortunately, he can’t seem to remember everything about her, and he soon realizes that there’s even more he’s forgotten, including the apocalypse that caused the dystopian world he now occupies.
Even worse is the fact that not only is this mall actually a doomed reality, but it’s designed to incubate humans until they are ready to be sacrificed. The questions start to fly in, and as he learns more about what and who caused all this, he will eventually collide with the malevolent forces that created all this if he hopes to get out.
“Felipe drew a few panels of a recurring dream he had, and I got to build a universe from
it!” said Vaho. “He’s granted me access to an ether of ideas I never knew existed. What an absolute honor it’s been working with him and Mad Cave in bringing Xero to life.”
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“Xero is a pure comic book,” said Felipe Flores. “We went to Mad Cave and told them we wanted to make a maximal piece of pop art, with each page referencing a different era and style. We wanted to revive the compressed storytelling of the Bronze Age while weaving in and out of Manga, Video Games, and Film—to tell a story that can only be done in comics. Surely, a publisher would need to be mad to allow us to create such a thing.”
Xero will be available in bookstores and comic stores on October 7th, and you can check out the official description for the graphic novel below.
“The adventures of Xero center on his search for his half-forgotten and pregnant girlfriend,
Donna. What’s worse is that he’s stuck in a doomed reality he doesn’t even know he’s trapped in: a subterranean Mall designed to incubate humans until they are sacrificed. As Xero pursues Donna, he unravels a monstrous conspiracy spanning back before an apocalypse he does not even know happened.
Xero discovers that his life in the Endless Mall is really just a waiting game in a sacrificial
bubble. His plunge down the rabbit-hole will lead him further away from his droll, comfortable life and challenge him to fight against this mega-structure and the malevolent forces behind it.”
Are you excited for Xero? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things comics with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
