Have you ever wondered what a zombie outbreak might look like through the eyes of a cat? We need no longer wonder thanks to a brand new comic book series coming our way in 2024. Recently announced by Image Comics, Feral is being pitched as “a zombie-outbreak horror story for the cat-lovers.” What does that look like, exactly? We’ve got some cover art for you to check out below but, more importantly, we’ve got a trailer. Check it out.
Intriguing, no doubt. The zombie genre is well-trodden but the idea of doing that whole outbreak of the infected thing through the lens of cute cats feels fresh and uniquely comic book-y. The series hails from Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner, who previously collaborated on the best-selling series Stray Dogs. In addition to the trailer and the cover art, we’ve also got a several-page preview of the first issue, which you can see below. The synopsis for the book reads as follows:
“In Feral, readers are introduced to Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch, three indoor cats lost in the not-so-great outdoors during a nightmarish rabies outbreak. Without their humans to protect them, the cats rush to find their way home before they’re eaten by the forest full of rabid beasts on their tails. Don’t get bit. Don’t get scratched. Don’t become…FERAL.”
“We are really trying to give the readers a story to remember,” Forstner said about the book speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, “We’re pushing the boundaries of what we already established in our little niche of storytelling. I could have never seen myself even reading a scary story like this early on in my comics journey, but now I can’t wait to see what happens next. Every page turn is a surprise.” Fleecs had this to add:
“We didn’t want to repeat ourselves with this follow-up book so it really was at first, thinking about: Okay, Stray Dogs is dogs trapped in a house. So, let’s have this one be about what’s really frightening in wide open spaces. The antagonist in Stray Dogs is someone who’s evil from the inside out. So, let’s have these cats face something that’s like an infection. An external threat. The stray dogs were forgetful… So these cats remember EVERYTHING. These cats hold a grudge. That’s what we did differently. But the thing we did the same way was, we tried to build the story on characters, and how they fit together and how they clash and then just… What’s the worst possible situation we can put them in?”
Feral #1 hits shelves on March 27, 2024.
