Oni Press has announced that Zac Thompson and Daniel Irizarri have teamed for another tale of the Cemetery Kids in Cemetery Kids Run Rabid.
One year ago, four friends barely escaped the unrelenting terror of the video game called Nightmare Cemetery. After spending endless hours locked into the innovative Dreamwave—the first gaming console played entirely while you sleep—in order to save one of their own from the game’s all-too-real consequences, they survived . . . barely. But after their harrowing rescue, they’ve decided they’ve had enough of Nightmare Cemetery and its enigmatic final boss, the King of Sleep. That is, until the newest DLC, The Blighted Sprawl, suddenly appears online with a promise to reveal the truth of what actually lurks at the heart of Nightmare Cemetery’s digital darkness . . . and why its effects are now bleeding out into the real world in an array of bizarre and disturbing new ways.
“Returning to the strange and violent world of Cemetery Kids with the singular Daniel Irizarri is a thrilling privilege,” said writer Zac Thompson in a press release. “So we’re not here to waste your time. Run Rabid takes everything you loved about the first volume and amplifies it ten-fold for a character-driven horror story played on nightmare difficulty. It’s a meaner, scarier book that reckons with false victories and dead futures. And it’s all soaked in the gore and viscera of the disgusting monsters that live inside your head. So come, experience your nightmares with us. And try not to worry about waking up.”
“Continuing Cemetery Kids has let us really hone in on what makes this world unique and terrifying,” said artist Daniel Irizarri. “Zac’s writing is my favorite so far, tapping further into our anxieties about the invasive intelligences of future psycho-technologies, creating a genuine sense of dread that our characters are truly in over their heads and the nightmare is consuming them bit by bit. The dual-reality nature also evolves as the kids feel more alone than ever finding new, terrible ways of coping with a dying future society by day, while in nightmares, exploring our abandoned liminal spaces twisted and rotted by time and trauma. Their RPG avatars may have gotten upgrades, but nothing can prepare them for THE BLIGHTED SPRAWL.”
Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 (of 4) is scheduled to arrive on August 13, 2025.
