Last Updated on March 16, 2024 by Angel Melanson
In this supernatural thriller from the Eisner-nominated creators of Fear Case and Apache Delivery Service, a dysfunctional family’s mounting problems may or may not be caused by an unlikely culprit: the family’s cat. This frightening, four-part mini-series is Matt Kindt’s latest series with frequent collaborators Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins.
The story focuses on a young girl named Anna as she begins to suspect that her black cat is behind all her troubles: her parents’ fighting and the strange whispering in her ear at night. As she tries her best to rid herself of this creature, she finds that it’s not so easy to kill. But just maybe, the cat is the only thing standing between her and an even greater evil that threatens to destroy her life.
“I’ve written stories of international intrigue and locked room murder mysteries, but in twenty years of making comics, I’ve rarely been compelled to create a horror story,” said Kindt. “And for good reason. I was actually sick to my stomach when I finished writing the end of issue 1. I grossed myself out. I knew that I’d need someone fearless to draw it. (There was no way I was going to.) I knew that Tyler was the perfect artist and co-creator for the story. And when Tyler and Hilary started sending his pages in, it was just as horrible as I’d imagined —in the very best way.”
“The best horror stories peel back and slowly reveal the horrors of everyday life,” said Jenkins. “At its heart, Hairball is a story about a family, one that treats each other horribly. Is there a reason for their terrible behavior? Could the cause of all their problems really be Bestie?”
“Hairball can be described as Junji Ito Meets Hayao Miyazaki meets Stephen King,” said Dark Horse Publisher Mike Richardson. “The story is strange and supernatural, but the world is so familiar and the family’s trauma is so real that you will not forget Bestie and her family.”
Hairball is the latest release from Flux House, a new boutique imprint that will feature the writing (and sometimes) art of Matt Kindt, with crime, science fiction, and humor stories, all told and presented in startling and untraditional ways, following the release of Mind MGMT: Bootleg. Dark Horse will publish issue 1 in April 2023 with a cover by Kindt and a variant cover by The Department Of Truth‘s Martin Simmonds. You can find more info on Dark Horse Comics social media and Flux House on Twitter. Check out an exclusive excerpt and cover variants below, stay tuned for an exclusive interview between Matt Kindt and Kyle Stark (Where Monsters Lie).
