What’s the most important thing in the post-apocalypse? Your tools to survive, the trust network of friends, family, and allies you’ve made along the way? Or is it… your record collection? The next comic series from Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss, together again in the world of comics since their breakout Black Mask series 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, is dying to find out.
Gizmodo’s got an exclusive first look at What’s the Furthest Place From Here?, Rosenberg and Boss’ new series together at Image Comics, featuring lettering from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Beginning later this year, the series follows a young girl named Sid, one of the few child survivors of an apocalyptic event that has left human society in ruins.
But when Sid sets out alone to venture beyond the safety found in those ruins, the gang she left behind heads out on a quest to bring her home in a story that suffuses the themes of survival and family with a science-fictional, musical twist.
“What’s The Furthest Place From Here? is a book Tyler and I have been working on in one form or another since before we even finished 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank,” Rosenberg told Gizmodo in a provided statement. “We wanted to push ourselves to do a lot of things we didn’t do in that book. We wanted to take the time to build a big science fiction world, tell an epic fantasy adventure, dabble in horror and mystery, and really try to make something on a scale that could only be done in an ongoing comic series and really only done at Image Comics.
It’s still a deeply personal, character-driven story with all the humour and heart that readers expect from both of us. I guess that’s the pretentious way of saying we’re taking risks and making something very new to us but our fans and new readers will still like it.”
The project has been in the works for years, teased back in 2018 at Image Expo. “We wanted to make this big playground for our characters to go and tell their stories in. Part of that was building a Silmarillion sized knowledge of this place so we knew what the rules are and why the rules are. Even if we don’t always share it in the book, we have the answers to any questions we might ask ourselves down the line,” Boss added in his own statement of the long road to the release of What’s the Furthest Place From Here?.
“But ultimately we’re telling a story about growing up and outgrowing the things you thought you’d always care about, and seeing the world change and trying to figure out if that will change you. It’s also about found families and the fear of becoming your parents. Only we’re doing it in this big post-apocalyptic way. It’s our attempt at John Hughes and J.D. Salinger by way of George Miller and Walter Hill.”
The first issue of What’s the Furthest Place From Here? will launch in November as a $7, triple-sized debut, but to continue on the series’ music themes, a deluxe edition of the issue will also be available for $20 which includes the comic and a vinyl single new music inspired by the series from Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil’s Blake Schwarzenbach, and Joyce Manor. Only available at comic book stores, these special editions will be available with new music for every issue of the series from new creatives, announced alongside each issue’s pre-order window.
What’s the Furthest Place From Here? Is an all-new series kicking off with a triple-sized first issue this November. There will also be a “deluxe” version that comes with an exclusive vinyl single featuring all-new music from Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil, and Joyce Manor.
These singles will be pressed in limited quantities, with comic shops to be the exclusive source for securing a copy, and each subsequent issue will also have a deluxe option with a new and exclusive accompanying single, with the lineup to be announced alongside the preorder window.