The Walking Dead’s Charlie Adlard Picks Boom For Next Project

Charlie Adlard time! As they’ve done in past years, Boom Studios has used ComicsPRO’s Annual Conference to announce, or more accurately tease, new creators working on new projects at the publisher. This year, the announcements came in the form of a sizzle reel that President of Publishing & Marketing, Filip Sablik, shared with retailers moments ago. One of the creator names shown was an unexpected one – Charlie Adlard. Adlard, of course, is Robert Kirkman‘s creative partner for the majority of the biggest comic book hit of the noughties, The Walking Dead. Adlard penciled 187 issues of the series which spun off into multiple TV shows, video games, board games, and formed the cornerstone of Kirkman’s Skybound.

And while Adlard has worked the bande-dessinée Vampire State Building for French publisher Soleil (and subsequently released in the States by Ablaze) with writers Ange and Patrick Renault and developed a historical fiction project called Heretic with writer Robbie Morrison, he’s been absent from any new projects from American publishers in over two years despite offers from Marvel and DC. Thanks to The Walking Dead Deluxe, the coloured re-release of the entire series on a weekly basis, he’s still had a regular presence in the market.

Based on the video we saw, the creators named are each working on a series for Boom in 2022, which begs the question – what’s the name of Charlie Adlard’s first new series after The Walking Dead? And who is the writer? It could be other fellow Brits shown in the video like Kieron Gillen or Al Ewing, but our money is on Step By Bloody Step writer Si Spurrier. Spurrier’s name flashes on the screen just ahead of Adlard’s and he hasn’t had a new project at Boom since 2019’s Alienated with Chris Wildgoose.

Adlard isn’t the only new Image creator shown off in Boom’s sizzle reel. Darcy Van Poelgeest, who wrote Image’s breakout hit of 2019, Little Bird, also appears in the list of names. Like Adlard, assuming Boom is teasing a new creator-owned series, this would be Van Poelgeest’s first since Little Bird won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. A sequel to Little Bird, Precious Metal with artist Ian Bertram, was announced by Image for 2021 in 2020 but has yet to be released.

Will Boom have additional Image creators to announce later this year? Only time will tell, but we plan to be the first to let you know if and when it happens. In the meantime, stay tuned for more news coming out of ComicsPRO as it breaks.