The Outlast Trials has been serving up co-op scares and tense moments since it launched into early access back in May with players presumably well familiarized by now with its characters. One of those characters is Leland Coyle, the former policeman who was enlisted by the Murkoff Corporation as one of the most recognizable Ex-Pops alongside Mother Gooseberry. The Outlast Trials players have seen him plenty in-game, and now, you can get better acquainted with him through the first issue of The Outlast Trials, The Murkoff Collections. And thanks to The Outlast Trials creator Red Barrels, ComicBook.com has the full issue for you to read right now.
If you want to get straight to the comic, we won't blame you -- you can see all 10 pages of it front to back below. But ComicBook also got a chance to bring some questions to J.T. Petty, the scriptwriter for both the Outlast games and this comic. Given that Red Barrels has pursued comic tie-ins for its past Outlast games, our first question dealt with that very topic: why expand into comics in the first place over other mediums?
"I love comics that let you obsess over details, stuff like Matt Kindt and Alan Moore, where it feels as much like an investigation as a story," Petty said. "Even in the Outlast video games, so much of the narrative is forensic-you're collecting documents, overhearing scattered dialogue, or looking at what's essentially a crime scene, and hopefully putting that all together into something like a story. Comics felt like the right medium to get further into the secrets inside the Murkoff Corp; I want it to feel like getting access to previously classified materials."
Petty added that manga artist Junji Ito was another inspiration, and aside from comics, he'd love to see the Outlast world expand into movies, too.
For those who know the backstories in The Outlast Trials already, the story of Coyle might already be a familiar one, but whether you're privy to the character's history or not, Petty hopes readers will enjoy some of the historical details embedded into the story.
"The 'Murkoff Collections' comics dig into history really explicitly," he said. "The first Outlast game was a lot about the repercussions of the 20th Century. Outlast Trials leans in to the rotten ideas post-WWII that pushed the 20th Century off the rails. Even if you don't know much about Outlast lore, there's some pretty fascinating real history sprinkled through the Murkoff Collections."
The first chapter of The Outlast Trials, The Murkoff Collections was written by Petty and illustrated by GMB Chomichuk with letters by Lyndon Radchenka. It's part of a two-book run with Chapter 2 set to release on September 22nd, and depending on the community response, Red Barrels said more issues could be created.
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