J. Michael Straczynski’s Twilight Zone Comic Releases An Intriguing Trailer And First Pages

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has been all over the place recently, but very soon he’ll step through a door—a very specific door whose knob is the human mind and whose peep hole is an eyeball that can only see inwards—a door that takes him into…The Twilight Zone. (My written Rod Serling impression is second to none, I’m aware.) Just in time for the new year, Dimension Comics will release issue #1 of Dynamite Entertainment’s rebooted Twilight Zone comic series. To pump up they’ve put out a trailer and released some pages. Hopefully you don’t break your glasses before watching, because that’s not fair…that’s not fair at all!

This is a pretty interesting clip, mixing images from the pages with lighting and movement in ways that most motion comics present things. It appears to be introducing potential readers to the debut issue rather than the first handful, and while it’s a pretty solid way to advertise the issue. I could go for something a bit more exciting with some clever wordplay, or at the very least, someone could have raised Serling from the grave and made him narrate it. I mean, they want people to buy the issues, right? Make the effort.

The first issue follows Wall Street investor Trevor Richmond on his way to running the economy down the toilet, and not for the first time. In an effort to leave his embezzled millions and dirty life behind, he utilizes the services of Expedited Services, Inc., a company that makes people disappear, so to speak. The problem is, maybe this new life isn’t all he hoped, and his old life is now just hanging around, waiting for someone to claim it. Maybe he should have just used the money he had to live his own life.

It sounds like an interesting tale, and it’s the first of three coinciding stories that, according to the publisher, “will push the boundaries of The Twilight Zone into new and uncharted territory, a journey that will travel into the past and the future, into murder and revenge and the sunrise of nuclear Armageddon.” I totally didn’t see Armageddon entering into this.

Below you can check out the cover and first three pages of that first issue, and though you won’t see any of Straczynski’s dialogue on the pages, you’ll find the striking artwork of Guiu Vilanova (Dark Shadows). You should be able to find The Twilight Zone mysteriously sitting on comic shelves on January 1, 2014, though Dynamite recently issued a press release stating that a distribution shortage will delay the comics in certain areas until January 8.

twilight zone comic

twilight zone comic

twilight zone comic

twilight zone comic