CBR has an exclusive look at character designs and sketches from Dark Horse Comics‘ upcoming historical horror series Séance in the Asylum. The artwork is by Leonardo Marcello Grassi, who took over the project from Andrea Mutti and shows changes in the project’s art style.

Séance in the Asylum is set in 1865 and tells the story of defrauded spiritual medium Alicia Wilkinson when she is brought to the Ashcraft Hospital and offered the chance to revive her once-thriving career. To do so, she will perform a series of séances for the patients to draw out their mental maladies, despite her lack of real spiritual skills. When the patients start to act truly possessed, Alicia must figure out what is happening to the other patients before it’s too late. The first issue of Dark Horse‘s Séance in the Asylum‘s four issues will go on sale Oct. 9.

SEANCE IN THE ASYLUM #1

Written by CLAY MCLEOD Art by LEONARDO MARCELLO GRASSI On sale Oct. 9

CBR’s exclusive sketches from Séance in the Asylum give readers a preview of the cast of characters, including Alicia, Dr. John and Dr. Reginald. Also included are pencil sketches from the independent historical horror comic showing panels from the interior art.

The Spirits are Summoned in Dark Horse’s New Horror Series

Séance in the Asylum explores the spiritual realm as well as what is real and fake, and series writer Clay McLeod Chapman discussed the creation of the series and what inspired it in a press release from Dark Horse. “Years back, I uncovered an esoteric text — The Homeopathic Principle Applied to Insanity: A Proposal to Treat Lunacy by Spiritualism by Dr. James John Garth Wilkinson — written all the way back in 1857, and I knew within my bones, my blood, that this was destined to be a story,” Chapman said.

“As a lifelong acolyte of the Fox Sisters, I’ve always been obsessed with stories about tapping into the hereafter,” Chapman continued. “Now it’s an honor to usher you through the veil and explore the other side…” Séance in the Asylum isn’t the only spine-tingling story to be released by Dark Horse Comics; the publisher’s murder mystery Gilt Frame was published earlier this month, with an unlikely murder-solving duo working together to take on notorious murder cases around the world.

Séance in the Asylum #1 goes on sale Oct. 9 from Dark Horse Comics.

Source: Dark Horse