Say Anything frontman Max Bemis is remixing the gun-toting action hero genre with the new limited series Heavy. Drawn by Eryk Donovan, Heavy is described by its publisher Vault Comics as "the Punisher for neurotics…"
"Heavy, for me, is a story about transformation, growth, and a deeper understanding of inner truth and the world around us," says Donovan. "It's about love, hate, violence, and yes, sex. It's about what it means to find ourselves. It's about the power and cruelty we wield over ourselves and each other, and how the ripples of that indelibly affect our hearts."
Scheduled to debut September 16, Heavy follows a man named Bill who finds that the afterlife isn't a binary choice between Heaven and Hell - there's a third option for those on the fence where they can work off the difference.
"Welcome to the Big Wait, where folks who don't quite make the cut go to work off their debt," reads Vault's synopsis for Heavy. "Everyone in the Wait's got a job. Bill is a Heavy, whose job is policing the multiverse, making sure bad eggs get what's coming to them. He's on track to earn his Climb and reunite with the woman he loves... until he meets his new partner: the worst dude of all time."
Bemis has been writing comics regularly since 2013, and calls Heavy one of the original ideas for which he got into comics in the first place.
"Here I am now, more than 10 years later, with quite a few books to my name, and I'm finally getting to tell the story that means the most to me," Bemis says. Heavy contains my wildest fears, hopes, self-criticisms and my own muddled vision of what reality means. It's also meant to be a rip-roaring good time."
Here's a look at the three covers - the primary cover by Donovan, and two variants by Tim Daniel.
Heavy #1 goes on sale on September 16.
Check out our rundown of the 10 best comic readers for Android and iOS devices.
