Q&A: Joe Palmer Reflects on the Journey of Creating the New Comic Book Series DESTINATION KILL

Fueled by corporate greed, rising tensions between humans and robots has a futuristic London teetering on the brink of destruction in Destination Kill.

Written, illustrated, and hand-lettered by Joe Palmer, the first issue of Destination Kill will be released May 13th from Oni Press, and we caught up with Palmer in a new Q&A feature to reflect on the journey of making Destination Kill, including coming up with the initial idea eight years ago, the importance of writing flawed characters, and the joy of seeing the stunning variant covers by Riley Rossmo, Ronald Wimberly, Tango, and Liana Kangas, respectively.

You can read our full Q&A with Joe Palmer below, and we also have a look at the cover art, preview pages, and official press release with additional details.

To keep up to date on Destination Kill and other exciting releases, be sure to visit:

• https://www.onipress.com/

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions for us, Joe, and congratulations on Destination Kill! When did you initially come up with the idea for this comic book series?

Joe Palmer: No problem, and thank you!  I started thinking about the ideas that would eventually become Destination Kill about eight years ago, but I actually sat down and started writing it in 2020. It went through many, many drafts as I struggled my way through writing something of this length and whilst I worked on other projects, but I had a finished plot a couple of years later.

In addition to featuring a lot of intense action, Destination Kill introduces readers to burnt-out police detective Gina Serene and her ex-partner, P.I. Lance Wingman. How important was it for you to really flesh out Gina and Lance and make them imperfectly compelling characters for readers to follow?

Joe Palmer: It was really important to me to have Gina be somewhat vulnerable in the story. She’s a strong woman and is doing her best to do her job as a police officer, but she’s also really struggling personally. And that just comes out of real life. People aren’t perfect, and life is more interesting because of that. As for Lance, I don’t want to give too much away, but he’s also got his own issues.

Destination Kill takes place in London’s Central City in the year 2125. How much fun was it for you to create a futuristic version of such a historic city?

Joe Palmer: It was great fun! I’ve lived in London for the past 16 years, and I’ve always wanted to try and tell a sci-fi story set in the city. There are elements in DK that are futuristic, like talking robots, but the actual city is based on how it is right now, and a lot of the locations that appear in the book are real places.

Were you inspired by any other comic books, TV series, movies, or video games while working on Destination Kill? I was happily reminded of other great stories such as Judge Dredd and V for Vendetta while diving deeper into the world of your comic book series.

Joe Palmer: I’m inspired by everything, but I wasn’t drawing from any one particular source. I guess a lot of sci-fi stuff is so heavily baked into culture there will inevitably be elements that will be reminiscent of other things. But I’ll take the comparisons as compliments!

You pull double duty writing and illustrating Destination Kill. Approximately how long does it take you to create a full issue from the first draft to the final version, and do you encounter any particular challenges or rewarding moments while both writing and drawing a comic book series?

Joe Palmer: It took ages to write this book, and it was very challenging as I was really inexperienced. As I mentioned earlier, it went through many drafts, but I guess it was written over the course of a couple of years. But I was working on other stuff during that time, so I really don’t know. Drawing the book took a little over a year.

I think the main thing I learned about writing was that writing a full script, or as close to a full script as possible is massively beneficial, and I will always try to start from that foundation in the future. The art comes more naturally to me, but it’s always a struggle. A lot of hours of redrawing!

In addition to your main cover, the first issue of Destination Kill features amazing cover art by a talented roster of artists including Riley Rossmo, Ronald Wimberly, Tango, and Liana Kangas. How much fun was it to see their creative takes on the world of Destination Kill, and what was your reaction the first time you saw their respective covers?

Joe Palmer: I’d had a little bit of experience of the variant cover thing on Time Before Time, a book I did with Declan Shalvey and Rory McConville, but it’s always amazing to see other artists' renditions of characters that came out of your head. And with this project being completely mine, it’s even more personal to me. I mean, c’mon, getting Ron Wimberly to do a variant cover for a book that I made? That’s incredible, and I remind myself all the time.

Destination Kill is initially planned as a four-issue series, but do you have plans to continue this story beyond the fourth issue if the opportunity arises?

Joe Palmer: The story comes to quite a definitive end, but I do have an idea for a sequel. I don’t know yet if there will be demand for it, or if I even want to do it, but I do have an idea that I think is cool, so we’ll see!

What has it been like to work with the team at Oni Press as you prepare to release Destination Kill into the world?

Joe Palmer: Everyone at Oni has been great and really supportive of the book. There are a lot of things about the direct market that perplex me, so having a publisher to learn from and to help navigate the landscape has been very helpful!

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Destination Kill?

Joe Palmer: I hope readers have a good time with the book. It was intended to be a fun ride, and if it makes you think a little bit, then that’s an added bonus.

With Destination Kill #1 hitting comic book shops on May 13th, what other projects do you have coming up, and where can our readers go online to keep up to date on your work?

Joe Palmer: I’m currently writing and drawing another book, but it’s early to talk about it. You can find me online on Instagram, Twitter (X) and Bluesky, all @joepalmerart.

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From the Press Release: THE FUTURE IS A RIOT! In advance of the upcoming Comics PRO Comic Book Industry Meeting in Glendale, CA, Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to announce DESTINATION KILL #1, a hyper-timely, visually arresting, and brutally addictive dystopian thrillride written, illustrated, and hand-lettered by British comics virtuoso Joe Palmer (Time Before Time)! In the footsteps of JUDGE DREDD, V FOR VENDETTA, and TANK GIRL, DESTINATION KILL #1 is powered by the thrum of a million gigawatts of nonstop visual firepower . . . as rendered by one of the most incendiary visual storytellers in comics today.

“DESTINATION KILL started life as an image in my mind of a lone, masked builder armed with a pistol, standing on the snow-covered rooftop of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London,” said cartoonist Joe Palmer. “That image really stuck with me, and over time it evolved into this fantastical story of a transatlantic train and a citywide builder-led revolution that I knew I had to make someday. This book is me taking the (long overdue!) step of being in total creative control of my work, which turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I wasn’t consciously thinking about it at the time, but at least part of the reason for doing this was to put something out in the world that represents me and my personality, and I feel like I’ve done that.”

The year is 2125, and the all-powerful corporation Overcon uses its robot workers to pour our drinks and dispense our meds, all while rebuilding London’s Central City into a hyper-modern megalopolis bolted together in its own image. But as Overcon prepares to celebrate the first year of its Paradise Loop—a superfast transatlantic train that connects the Central City to New York in under 60 minutes—an unwieldy army of displaced human workers floods the streets with weapons, plotting an attack at the anniversary gala. Enter: Gina Serene, a stressed-out, pill-popping police detective in desperate need of a vacation and her ex-partner turned P.I., Lance Wingman—who are now the only thing standing between Overcon’s skyscraper-sized fist and the worker uprising that threatens to bring Britain's capital crashing down around them.

“DESTINATION KILL is the type of story we've been missing for decades—an action thriller equal parts entertaining in its satire and horrifying in its prescience," says Senior Editor Bess Pallares. "Joe’s characters, worldbuilding, and craft as a cartoonist sing brilliantly from the page in the perfect execution of style and substance. If you’re wondering how to manage stress in an insane world, you've come to the right place.”

Don’t miss the extra-sized, 40-page first chapter of 2026’s most spectacular comics debut – featuring cardstock covers from creator Joe Palmer, Riley Rossmo (The Moon is Following Us), Ronald Wimberly (Prince of Cats), Tango (Power Rangers), and Liana Kangas (Know Your Station) – when DESTINATION KILL #1 punches a ticket for comic shops everywhere in May!

For more updates on Oni Press, visit them on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram.

DESTINATION KILL #1 (of 4)
WRITTEN BY JOE PALMER
ART BY JOE PALMER
COVER A BY JOE PALMER
COVER B BY RILEY ROSSMO
COVER C BY RONALD WIMBERLY
COVER D BY TANGO
COVER E (1:10) BY LIANA KANGAS
COVER F (1:20) FULL ART VARIANT BY RONALD WIMBERLY
COVER G (1:50) FULL ART VARIANT BY RILEY ROSSMO
ON SALE MAY 13 | $5.99 | 40 PGS. | FC
IOD: 03/21/26
FOC: 04/20/26

COVER A BY JOE PALMER

COVER B BY RILEY ROSSMO

COVER C BY RONALD WIMBERLY

COVER D BY TANGO

COVER E (1:10) BY LIANA KANGAS

COVER F (1:20) FULL ART VARIANT BY RONALD WIMBERLY

COVER G (1:50) FULL ART VARIANT BY RILEY ROSSMO

INTERIOR ART BY JOE PALMER