Metroid meets Hellboy in Death Transit Tanager from Karl Kerschl

Death Transit Tanager #1 — (Image credit: Karl Kerschl)

The Eisner Award-winning DC writer/artist Karl Kerschl is launching a new creator-owned webcomic with a new manga-inspired bent titled Death Transit Tanager - and in a surprise move, it is available now just as it was announced.

Death Transit Tanager centers on a young woman named Tanager Ray who has the ability to talk to the dead. In this alternate reality, that ability has become a job - a Death Transit - and it is Tanager's job to 'ferry' dead souls to the afterlife - whether they like it or not.

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Death Transit Tanager #1 preview

"I started this series to cope with life in quarantine and it quickly took over my creative brain," Kerschl says in the announcement. "All of my years of reading and loving manga have been channeled into this story and every page makes me happy."

The first issue of Death Transit Tanager follows her as she attempts to help a space trucker with a broken heart.

While Kerschl is best known for his work on DC's Gotham Academy and Image Comics' Isola, Kerschl first major work was the 2011 webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher - which won an Eisner Award, which he continues to work on to this day.

"It's important for me to be able to make my work available for free to anyone who wants to read it, without commitment," Kerschl. "I can build an audience for the comic who can then choose to support it if they like it, either by purchasing digital and print collections or through the website subscription."

Death Transit Tanager #1 is available now at www.karlkerschl.com for free.

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Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)