Gerard Way to release new horror-themed comic series ‘Paranoid Gardens’

My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way is returning to the comic world to launch the new horror-themed series Paranoid Gardens.

• READ MORE: Gerard Way: “My life in comics”

The singer, who had success with The Umbrella Academy, is teaming back up with Dark Horse Comics to release the new series in July, according to Deadline. Way has worked with co-writer Shaun Simon on the project.

Described by Dark Horse as “Derek meets Doctor Who in six psychotic episodes,” the comics will be illustrated by Chris Weston, who has worked at Vertigo and DC, as well as on concept art for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Motohiro Hayakawa will provide the cover art for the first issue.

“I’m excited to be back with my incredibly handsome and talented brother-from-another-basement Shaun Simon penning a story that’s really special to us, and honored the masterful Chris Weston joined us to create a visually powerful and emotionally tangible physical object that is this comic,” said Way. “I’m now more complete getting to share something we’ve wanted to for a very long time, and working with this fantastic group of individuals in the process.”

The synopsis for Paranoid Gardens says: “Loo is a nurse at the most bizarre care center around. The staff are not entirely human, and the cases are downright unearthly. Aliens, ghosts, superheroes and more creatures plague its hallways as doctors and patients and the hospital itself seem to be somewhat self-aware.”

“Loo believes that despite a recent failure at her job she’s been given some sort of higher calling in this mysterious place and decides to rise to the challenge. Along the way, she must fight her way through corrupt staff members, powerful theme park cults and her own personal demons and trauma to meet this challenge and discover what secrets the gardens hold.”

Way created and wrote The Umbrella Academy series of comics, which was released by Dark Horse Comics between 2007 and 2009, and again from 2018-2019. It was later adapted into a popular Netflix television series, which has run for three seasons, with a fourth expected later in 2024.

The series tells the story of a dysfunctional family of adopted siblings who have all been blessed with different superpowers, and in 2020, Way explained how he came to create the project.

“A lot of people at the time, right before Umbrella came out, knew me as a singer in a band,” he said.

“But I had this long history with comics, and kind of making my own and getting published at 15 and using my grandmother’s typewriter. But then I went to the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and my major was cartooning. So I had all these comic book classes, and in my senior year I interned at DC – I interned there for like a year.”

In other My Chemical Romance news, the band are set to play their 2006 album ‘The Black Parade’ in full at this year’s When We Were Young Festival, which runs on October 19 and 20.

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