Cryogenically frozen prisoners wake up thousands of years in the future in the new graphic novel Eden. Written by Matthew Arnold and illustrated by Riccardo Burchielli, Eden premieres the first of its five chapters today on comiXology Originals before being released in print on July 12th from Dark Horse Books, and as a special treat for Daily Dead readers, we've been provided with preview pages and an essay from Arnold about the graphic novel's true crime inspiration.
Here is Arnold's essay on the true crime inspiration behind Eden:
TRUE CRIME INSPIRATION
A theme of Eden involves judgement and punishment, particular the often harsh or unfair judgement by the media and the public. At the heart of the book is a crime — the kidnap and murder of Senator Croft’s son, Jacob. The handling of this event in the story takes its inspiration primarily from the notorious Jon Benet Ramsay true crime case.
What was fascinating to me about that case, was how quickly the media began to indict the parents based on what they perceived were oddly stoic reactions during press conferences. While people deal with stress or trauma in many ways, the world was quick to accuse the parents. Did they actually kill their own child and cover it up? Was it an accident they could not admit? Was it their son, who they covered to protect themselves from losing another child?
In Eden, I took the plot a step further, by having the parents actually convicted of the crime. As a new parent myself, I can think of few things as horrific as hurting your own baby. As I write these words, I can barely type them. Every day is a constant vigil for the child’s safety, a dizzying sense of worry that we might lose our attention for even a split second. Moreover, the stain of being wrongly convicted of your child’s death would be one of the most painful of life’s unjust circumstances: not only is your beloved child gone, but in the eyes of the world, you forever bear the cross of a monster. Even if found innocent, would you ever be able to walk through life without feeling the burning eyes of judgement on your back or the heat of the torches, lit by the naysayers who suspect the jury got it wrong. It’s a damning situation from which there is no reasonable outcome or salvation, and therefore the most germane elaboration of the book’s theme.
Below, check out additional details and preview pages from Eden, and to learn more, visit comiXology Originals and Dark Horse!
Eden ogn -- Arriving in print July 12 from Dark Horse Books
Written by Matthew Arnold
Art by Riccardo BurchielliEden is a riveting science fiction story that features the lives of escaped convicts, abandoned in a fantastical world. This thought-provoking graphic novel marries Arnold’s high concept storytelling with the mind-blowing artwork of Burchielli (DMZ, Northlanders, Highway To Hell), with colors by Luca Salce, and lettering by Ed Dukeshire. The project is edited by noted editor Will Dennis. Told in 5 heart-pounding chapters, Eden debuts on March 29, 2022 from comiXology Originals, the digital exclusive content line of comiXology, an Amazon company.
Eden is a story about starting over. When a new law declares that convicted criminals should be cryogenically frozen instead of jailed, society thinks it has found a more humane way to deal with inmates. But when a senator, accused of a horrible crime, is imprisoned under this new system, she will have to face a bizarre and frightening reality, unlike anything she can imagine.
“At the heart of this story is an exploration of forgiveness and redemption,” says Arnold. “In our social media / insta-news world, we can often make snap judgements in the court of public opinion about a person, often times on the worst day of their lives. The question the novel asks is whether true forgiveness can ever be achieved. And do we judge people on their pasts or their presents?”
In the graphic novel, two convicts, senator Anna Croft, and her sheriff husband, Ben, are sentenced to twenty-five years to life in a newly constructed cryogenic penal facility for a crime they claim they didn’t commit. Due to a malfunction, however, Anna, Ben and a few others are accidentally released. Once free, the escapees discover that they’ve been frozen for thousands of years, and are the only survivors in a catastrophic future, where prehistoric creatures walk the Earth once more. Given a second chance, the fugitives are forced to create a new society and must decide whether or not to release the rest of the imprisoned criminals in order to survive. Under Anna’s leadership, can these ‘bad seeds’ actually seed a new and better world, or are they doomed to repeat the mistakes of humanity’s checkered history?
Preview Pages:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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