Dark Horse's Summer Shadows is a "unique and moody LGBTQIA+ vampire horror" comic

Cover art for Summer Shadows — (Image credit: Dark Horse Comics)

One of our most anticipated new comics for the fall is Summer Shadows from Dark Horse. This four-issue mystery thriller is set on the fictional Greek island of Avraxos, where Nick Landry has come searching for his ex Anthony who has vanished in sinister circumstances. Little does Nick know that his investigations will put him directly in the path of a group of blood-sucking vampires.

Written by John Harris Dunning, drawn by Ricardo Cabral, colored by Brad Simpson, and lettered by Jim Campbell, Summer Shadows looks like a compelling and evocative new crime thriller with a gruesome horror twist and perhaps just a hint of social satire about the predatory nature of the super-rich.

The monthly series launches in September, but Newsarama can also exclusively reveal that the whole story will be collected into a single trade paperback to be released in April 2025. Here's Ricardo Cabral's cover for the collection.

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Art from Summer Shadows — (Image credit: Dark Horse Comics)

Dark Horse has described the series as, "A unique and moody LGBTQIA+ vampire horror." Dunning told the Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast and blog that he was inspired to tell a story about these creatures of the night because of their innate connection to human desire, stating: "They summon up the big themes of attraction: sex, eternity, desire, danger, obsession, and our fear of being dominated by our animal selves. They're a way we can examine these hopes and fears safely in a mythic form. Monsters are a useful way of examining our deepest selves and anxieties while keeping them at a safe distance."

Below, you can see a selection of Ricardo Cabral's work-in-progress pages.

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Summer Shadows #1 is published by Dark Horse Comics on September 11, with the complete trade paperback hitting bookstores on April 15 and comic shops the following day.

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Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.