Daniel Kraus, the bestselling author of the New York Times, is giving comic fans a new take on the superhero genre on Vault Comics’ Athanasia this winter. Klaus has been joined by handling designs from fan favorite artists Dani, colorist Brad Simpson, lettaller Jim Campbell and Tim Daniel.
The clock meets unbreakable in a dark, disturbing, supernatural story of heroic dead bleeding to the ground. It is best to leave some secrets buried.
From Vault:
Get ready for the most unsettling superhero story ever. Forest Molson is not going anywhere. A year after high school and a year after drinking, she works with her father as an assistant ground keeper at Atanasia Cemetery. At her lowest point, Forest discovers Athanasia’s darkest secret. At night, the soil in the cemetery bleeds the oozing material of a rotten superhero. This egg will become a new drug for Forest, and she is intended to use the unpredictable force given to become a judge, ju judge, and executioner of Venture City. But when she loses her mind to her new addiction, she gets closer to becoming the most evil of all. Athanasia is a superhero story seen through the darkest lens.
An early, characterless preview can be seen below.
“(The idea) came first when I was approached when I was doing a superhero comic for a character who was established from one of the Big 2. It was a strange invitation as I’m not a superhero guy. I couldn’t stress it enough. My pitch was accepted, Klaus said.
“Within about ten minutes of thinking about it, my brain became a ‘superhero cemetery’,” Klaus continued. “What happens to the soil if we fill a superhero? Very quickly, the answer guided me the narrative path to addiction and the length we go to excuse our actions.
“This book struggles with family issues, fighting addiction and inner balance,” Dani said. “Also, Daniel and I share the same approach to the superhero genre and its dark layers, so this was a project I wanted to be involved in immediately.
“The relationships Daniel created in this book are very delicate and fragile. As an artist, it was important to showcase this through my linework, so I made the creative choice to update normal style heavy blocks of ink and replace them with textured pen scratches.
Athanasia was published as a 256-page deluxe graphic novel and can be found anywhere in comic stores from Vault Comics in October 2025.
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