Toxic Summer #1: Get An Exclusive First Look Inside Derek Charm’s New Oni Press Title

Toxic Summer #1 hits stores next week.

April 24, 2024, 11:36am

Oni Press has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive first look inside of Toxic Summer #1, next week’s anticipated release from writer/artist Derek Charm (Jughead), with covers by Charm, Scott Forbes, Skylar Patridge, and Francesco Francavilla. Told across three specially formatted, bi-monthly issues beginning on May 1st — on shelves for Free Comic Book Day 2024 — Charm’s oversized 48-page spceial is a “nightmare beach party that will keep you up all night … If you can live long enough to tell the tale,” per its official description from Oni.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Here’s the full description of the series: Best friends Ben and Leo had the perfect summer planned after high school graduation. As lifeguards in the idyllic beach town of Port Dorian, they were planning for three months of hot guys, late-night bonfires, and no regrets . . . until a toxic spill of unknown properties on the beach transformed their dream summer into a waking nightmare. Now Port Dorian is flooded with panicked tourists, a local researcher is paralyzed while investigating the spill, and a horrifying pack of subhuman monstrosities is snatching beachgoers in the night. Mix one part Riverdale with one part The Creature from the Black Lagoon and drink it down fast because this bi-monthly horror shocker comes packed with enough acidic sludge, perverted beach maniacs, and ill will to ruin anyone’s first summer away from home!

“Inspired by classic beach movies, gross out teen horror, MAD magazine, and my own insane friendships, this is a story that has been cooking for some time,” said Derek Charm in a statement. “I couldn’t ask for a better home for it than Oni Press, or better collaborators than Bess Pallares and Frank Cvetkovic.”

“Derek expertly captures the thrilling, romantic, and sometimes horrifying twists of madcap teen summers before cell phones ruined all the mystery,” said Senior Editor Bess Pallares. “Return to the simpler but spookier time of the early ’00s with Toxic Summer! The idyllic beach town of Port Dorian and the townsfolk who live (and clean up slime) there will become fast favorites for readers looking for a fun tale to spice up their summer. Glitter body spray optional but encouraged.”

Featuring killer covers from Derek Charm (Star Wars Adventures), Scott Forbes (Aggretsuko), Skylar Patridge (Jill and the Killers), and Eisner Award winner Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie) – plus a special “Radioactive Waste Fifth Ink” sketch variant manufactured in retina-scorching green – there’s something in the water and Toxic Summer #1 is ready to take a bite in comic shops everywhere on May 1st!

Toxic Summer is the next secret installment under the ONI 2024 banner – a slate of five new monthly comic series from a wide-ranging cast of award-winning creators and fast-rising stars that fully embrace the potential of the comics medium to invert, collide, and reinvent the foundational genres of horror, science fiction, crime, fantasy, and beyond. The banner also includes Cemetery Kids Don’t Die, Night People, and Akogun, Brutalizer of Gods.

You can see the official solicitation text below, followed by the preview pages.

TOXIC SUMMER #1

WRITER/ARTIST DEREK CHARM
Cover A A by DEREK CHARM
Cover B by SCOTT FORBES
Cover C SKYLAR PATRIDGE
Full Art Variant (1:10) DEREK CHARM
VARIANT COVER (1:20) FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
B&W VARIANT (1:30) FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
“RADIOACTIVE WASTE FIFTH INK” SKETCH VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE

IN STORES MAY 1st, 2024 | $6.99 | 48 pgs. | FC
FOC: 04/08/2024
IOD: 03/28/2024