After bingeing Umbrella Academy’s exciting second season, many fans are still jonesing for that hit of joyous chaos that only the Hargreeves siblings and their seemingly endless apocalypses can provide. Luckily, they can get their fix with the newest Umbrella Academy comic series, You Look Like Death.
Written by former My Chemical Romance front man, Gerard Way, the original Umbrella Academy comic series follows a group of estranged, superpowered siblings who come together again after their adoptive alien father’s death, and end up fighting their sister to stop her from playing a song to end the world. Murder-robots and The Eiffel Tower also have cameos in this bizarre joyride of a superhero story. Two more Umbrella Academy stories followed, each rendered in artist Gabriel Bá’s sharp, angular style, with a fourth comic series to be released soon.
In the meantime, fans can enjoy a side-tour into the hazy world of Umbrella Academy’s drug-addled medium, Klaus Hargreeves. You Look Like Death: Tales from the Umbrella Academy #1 follows the Seance as he stumbles into Hollywood after getting kicked out of the house. With no money, and no prospects, he quickly gets himself tangled in tinsel town’s seedier side in the form of a vampiric drug lord. This time, however, when trouble comes calling, Seance doesn’t have his family to back him up.
The scant few preview pages certainly leave a lot for fans to chew over. Artist I.N.J. Culbard’s panels are deceptively simple, with a mid-century flair, and the tiny hint of Gerard Way and Shaun Simon’s story is nothing short of enticing. On one page, Klaus sets loose a crowd of angry, green ghosts on a man with glee. On another page, the vampire drug lord Mr. Shivers - who is also a chimpanzee - pulls his attention away from a blonde woman’s neck long enough to discuss making an example of Klaus. The art seems to have a neon glow, while the punchy dialogue and bizarre story still have all the flourishes and amusing beats that make an Umbrella Academy story what it is - talking chimps in children’s booster seats, for example.
It is undeniable that there is absolutely nothing like Umbrella Academy in comics today - from its subversion of the superhero story to its, at times, wacky world-building, it’s easy to see why fans can’t get enough. You Look Like Death is sure to be a hit with its new villain, the faded glitz and glamour of Hollywood for its setting, and lovable junkie Klaus Hargreeves as the unlikely lead.
You Look Like Death: Tales from the Umbrella Academy #1 is by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, with art by I.N.J Culbard, lettering by Nate Peikos, and cover art by Gabriel Bá. It hits shelves September 16, 2020. Klaus-types can probably bogart a copy from their friends after that.
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