Another Outsider has broken into the house and threatens to curse Shiva. Teacher takes an ax to it and chops off its head, but that doesn’t kill it. The stranger mutters some things about Shiva’s soul, and its “mother,” and it intrigues Teacher. The now-headless one teases Teacher, saying he knows how to lift the curse, and he brings Teacher to “Mother,” who is under the water in a deep lake. Teacher only learns of more disturbing news rather than a cure for Shiva, so the two head home in defeat. Strangely though, Shiva doesn’t show any of the classic signs of one who is cursed. Inside, a Father sets into motion the plan to bring back the girl from the other side for some unknown purpose.

In this kingdom there are two sides: Inside and Outside. Those on the Outside are cursed and can infect those from the inside. Those living on the Inside live behind tall walls and search for anyone who may be “infected” in order to banish them to the Outside. Shiva is a young girl who was suspected of being infected, and now lives Outside, eagerly waiting for the day her aunt will come retrieve her. She lives with Teacher, an Outsider who is very careful not to touch Shiva or allow her to touch him. The two forage for food, chop firewood, have tea parties, and read stories to pass the time. Teacher knows no one is coming for Shiva and struggles with how to keep her alive and happy.

Vol 1: Fantasy heartbreaker, illustrated by Stephanie Hans, letted by Clayton Cowles

For Ash's 16th birthday, his best friend Solomon (Sol) creates a new role-playing game that will knock everyone's socks off. Ash's kid sister, Angela, tags along, and the group is rounded out by Chuck, Isabelle, and Matt. The players build their characters, and Sol passes out special dice to each of them, reserving the D20 for himself as the master. They role, and they find themselves inside the game. Two years later, they come back to the real world, unable to speak about what has happened. Angela is missing an arm, and Sol is missing entirely. Twenty five years later, Sol's D20 finds its way back to Ash, who brings the gang back together again to decide what to do. Before anything can be decided, the five are sucked back into the game again. Sol is now the Grandmaster, and he insists they play again to defeat him this time. The group tries to work together to defeat Sol, but they discover their personal motives don't perfectly align this time.

Vol 1: Destiny, illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli, colored by Matt Wilson

Thirty years ago, the US sealed itself off from the rest of the world. No communications in or out, no people in or out. In the absence of this global superpower, the world fell into war and used terrible means to establish two warring factions: The Pan-Asian Prosperity Zone, and the Alliance Euro-Afrique. Now, America has broken its silence and sent a message to both: we have the cure for your current deadly virus, set to wipe out almost all human life within the next few years, and you have to come here to get it. The two sides assemble a team of seeming misfits - America experts, epidemiologists, soldiers, a journalist - and send them into a place no one has set foot for three decades. Just as their helicopter crests the ocean walls of California, all hell breaks loose, and it quickly becomes a much different mission, full of Americana, action, and mystery.

Illustrated by Kotaro Takata
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Akira spent three years of his life post college working for a company that, on the surface, professed to caring about their employees, but the long hours, multiple-day marathon work sessions, and the attitudes of the bosses say otherwise.  The only thing making it slightly bearable is the crush he has on a lady in accounting.  One day, Akira wakes up and finds tons of people have been turned into zombies! Rather than be stressed about a zombie apocalypse, Akira is just relieved he doesn't have to go back to his horrible job.  What's more is his crush was also turned into a zombie, so there's really no reason to go back! Akira decides to make a list of all the things he wants to accomplish in his limitless spare time before becoming a zombie.  On a beer run to a neighborhood market, he runs into another non-zombie - a pretty beautiful girl with great survival instincts.  She waves off Akira's offer to team up, and we see a glimpse of her life, where she has made a list of 100 ways to avoid becoming a zombie.

Illustrated by Arielle Jovellands
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Two astronauts fight against a harsh environment and each other after their ship collided with an asteroid and crashed on the planet’s surface. Harper North, the lead scientist, and the team’s survival expert are the only survivors. The ship’s emergency shuttle crashes around 100 kilometers away, so it’s a race against each other and the deadly summer sun and acid rains to see who can get to the one-person shuttle first. The team came to this deadly planet in search of a special flower with properties that can help an unknown sickness on Earth, but the tragedy of the crash and loss of the rest of the crew bring out the worst in North and her surviving shipmate.

Odessa is another entry in a dotted landscape of post-apocalyptic stories.  In it, a world-destroying earthquake ravages California and most of the Western United States.  There are rumors that anything East of the Mississippi River is relatively untouched.  For her seventeenth birthday, Virginia receives a package from her mother, who left the family eight years ago.  The package sparks a fierce need in Ginny to set out and find her mother.  While her father would much rather leave it all in the past, he begrudgingly understands Ginny's need for answers will take her on this journey.  Ginny sets out on the dangerous journey south into the gang-torn California Straight, with some unwanted taggers-on as well.  Ginny's two younger brothers, Wes and Harry, decide that she doesn't get to be the only one who wants to know what happened to their mother.  The three undertake a perilous journey full of scavenging, biker gangs, jinxed-up cannibals, and plenty of scoundrels.