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DC is hosting a murder mystery horror comic for the end of the world that will make Fallout jealous

James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno build another horror-filled Nice House for DC's Black Label imprint

The Nice House by the Sea #1
Image credit: Álvaro Martínez Bueno/DC

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The end of the world has returned, but once again, at least some people are getting to use it as an excuse for a quick getaway. The critically acclaimed DC Black Label series The Nice House on the Lake is coming back for a sequel, with a new cast, a new storyline, and a new title: The Nice House by the Sea.

Echoing the original series, The Nice House by the Sea re-teams James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno as a new mystery figure calling themselves Max gathers together a group to live through the apocalypse, with each acting as a particular archetype — in this case, the Doctor, the Writer, the Historian, the Actor, the Artist, the Priest, the Scientist, the Singer, the Politician, and the Mathematician. But don’t expect this go-around to be a repeat of what happened in the first series.

“The people in this house do not like each other,” co-creator Tynion explained about the cast of the new series. “They don’t want to spend time with each other. There have been some weak bonds that have formed over time, but none of them are particularly affectionate toward each other. This is a house of strangers and tension much more than a house of friendship, and we’re going to see the way that guilt, boredom, and loneliness has twisted each of them.”

Guilt? What would they have to be guilty about…? Oh, maybe the other thing that differentiates this cast from that of The Nice House on the Lake.

“Unlike our lake house, everyone in The Nice House by the Sea accepted the deaths of all their friends, family, and loved ones,” Tynion teased. “They accepted the eradication of the human race and their selection as the last humans that will ever exist. It’s a truth some of them think they can live with, but the way they are living with it is by never, ever looking at it.”

Related: James Tynion IV preps for a "big aggressive move" in comics by launching creator-centric company for comics (and movie, and tv) development

The new series reunites the creative team from the original Nice House on the Lake, with Tynion and artist Álvaro Martínez Bueno rejoined by color artist Jordie Bellaire and lettering from Andworld Design.

“I’m working with one of the best creative teams in comics right now,” enthused Martínez Bueno. “We’re doubling the stakes we placed three years ago and we’re pushing The Nice House on the Lake in new directions while holding together the core of what makes the project so exciting. The challenge of creating the new cast, the new locations, and reimagining the entire iconography of the series for The Nice House by the Sea has been the most exciting of my career so far.”

The new 12-issue series The Nice House by the Sea launches July 23, and heralds what publisher DC is calling “a new cycle of DC Black Label comic book horror that will grip you by the throat and force you to look hard at yourself.”

Look for more from DC’s July plans right here.


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