Derek Charm Detonates a Frantic Mutant Beach Party in TOXIC SUMMER #1

Aloha, Welcome to a Poisonous Pool Party That Bites – As Told in Three, Deluxe Bi-Monthly Issues from the Acclaimed Cartoonist of Jughead

Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 is proud to present  TOXIC SUMMER #1 – a fast-paced comics escapade with teeth from the mutated mind of Eisner Award-winning Cartoonist Derek Charm (Jughead, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl)! Told across three specially formatted, bi-monthly issues beginning on May 1st – on shelves for Free Comic Book Day 2024 – this monster-sized 48-page nightmare beach party will keep you up all night … If you can live long enough to tell the tale!

“Inspired by classic beach movies, gross-out teen horror, Mad Magazine, and my own insane friendships, this is a story that has been cooking for some time,” said Derek Charm. “I couldn’t ask for a better home for it than Oni Press or better collaborators than Bess Pallares and Frank Cvetkovic.”

Best friends Ben and Leo had the perfect summer planned after high school graduation. As lifeguards in the idyllic beach town of Port Dorian, they were planning for three months of hot guys, late-night bonfires, and no regrets . . . until a toxic spill of unknown properties on the beach transformed their dream summer into a waking nightmare. Now Port Dorian is flooded with panicked tourists, a local researcher is paralyzed while investigating the spill, and a horrifying pack of subhuman monstrosities is snatching beachgoers in the night.

Mix one part Riverdale with one part The Creature from the Black Lagoon and drink it down fast because this bi-monthly horror shocker comes packed with enough acidic sludge, perverted beach maniacs, and ill will to ruin anyone's first summer away from home!

“Derek expertly captures the thrilling, romantic, and sometimes horrifying twists of madcap teen summers before cell phones ruined all the mystery,” said Senior Editor Bess Pallares. “Return to the simpler but spookier time of the early ‘00s with Toxic Summer! The idyllic beach town of Port Dorian and the townsfolk who live (and clean up slime) there will become fast favorites for readers looking for a fun tale to spice up their summer. Glitter body spray optional but encouraged.”

Featuring killer covers from Derek Charm (Star Wars Adventures), Scott Forbes (Aggretsuko), Skylar Patridge (Jill and the Killers), and Eisner Award winner Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie) – plus a special “Radioactive Waste Fifth Ink” sketch variant manufactured in retina-scorching green – there’s something in the water and TOXIC SUMMER #1 is ready to take a bite in comic shops everywhere on May 1st!

TOXIC SUMMER is the next secret installment under the ONI 2024 banner – a slate of five propulsive new monthly comic series from a wide-ranging cast of award-winning creators and fast-rising stars that fully embrace the potential of the comics medium to invert, collide, and reinvent the foundational genres of horror, science fiction, crime, fantasy, and beyond: 

• INVASIVE #1 by Cullen Bunn & Jesús Hervás in December
• JILL AND THE KILLERS #1 by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs & Roberta Ingranata in January
• CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #1 by Zac Thompson & Daniel Irizarri in February
• NIGHT PEOPLE #1 by Barry Gifford, Chris Condon, Brian Level, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Artyom Topilin & more in March 
• AKỌGUN, BRUTALIZER OF GODS #1 by Murewa Ayodele & Dotun Akande in April
• TOXIC SUMMER #1 by Derek Charm in May

TOXIC SUMMER #1

WRITER/ARTIST DEREK CHARM

Cover A by DEREK CHARM

Cover B by SCOTT FORBES

Cover C by SKYLAR PATRIDGE

Full Art Variant (1:10) by DEREK CHARM

VARIANT COVER (1:20) by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA

B&W VARIANT (1:30) by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA

“RADIOACTIVE WASTE FIFTH INK” SKETCH VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE

IN STORES MAY 1st, 2024 | $6.99 | 48 pgs. | FC

FOC: 04/08/2024

IOD: 03/28/2024

About the Creator

Derek Charm is an Eisner Award-winning comic artist, illustrator, and character designer for animation. He was the artist on several monthly comic runs, including Jughead and Jughead’s Time Police for Archie Comics, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for Marvel, and Star Wars Adventures for IDW Publishing/Lucasfilm. Outside of comics he has done illustration and design work for Marc Jacobs, Pepsi, and Warner Bros. Animation.

About Oni Press

Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, Ezra Clayton Daniels' Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.

The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.