John Arcudi's Dead Inside: Preview the new murder mystery comic

Although Mike Mignola remains the singular creative force behind Hellboy, writer John Arcudi helped him flesh out that universe’s occult mythology with his long run on B.P.R.D. (with input from Mignola). Now that his time with B.P.R.D. is over, Arcudi is moving on to other projects. Later this year, Dark Horse will publish Arcudi’s new comic Dead Inside. Illustrated by Toni Fejzula, the series follows Linda Caruso, a detective in Mariposa County’s Jail Crimes Division. That’s right, she investigates crimes committed inside county jails. It sounds easy, what with the limited number of suspects, but the very first pages of issue 1 introduce a bunch of challenges: The security cameras don’t work, the guards aren’t paying close attention, and nobody will talk.

“The front door to the prison is locked, but the place is crawling with inmates and CO’s and therefore suspects,” Arcudi told EW in a statement. “So anybody thinking that the Jail Crimes Division investigator’s job might be easy should think about that. Everybody anywhere near where the crime was committed is a criminal.”

This has been a banner year for strange murder-mystery comics; Dead Insidejoins the ranks of Hadrian’s Wall and Matt Kindt’s Dept H. Dead Inside #1 hits stands Dec. 21. Check out an exclusive preview below.