Exclusive: Cemetery Kids returns with “Run Rabid” and we have exclusive character designs and commentary

YOU CAN’T ESCAPE THIS GAME, EVEN IN YOUR DREAMS! Oni Press has announced Cemetery Kids Run Rabid, a synapse-shredding new level for the boundary-breaking science-horror hybrid that began with Cemetery Kids Don’t Die from writer Zac Thompson and artist Daniel Irizarri! Return to the world of Thompson and Irizarri’s Thompson and Irizarri’s sold-out, cyberpunk horror hit with AN ALL-NEW JUMPING-ON POINT will launch new readers and returning fans alike even deeper into a pixelated landscape haunted by an all-too-real evil…

One year ago, four friends barely escaped the unrelenting terror of the video game called Nightmare Cemetery. After spending endless hours locked into the innovative Dreamwave—the first gaming console played entirely while you sleep—in order to save one of their own from the game’s all-too-real consequences, they survived . . . barely. But after their harrowing rescue, they’ve decided they’ve had enough of Nightmare Cemetery and its enigmatic final boss, the King of Sleep. That is, until the newest DLC, The Blighted Sprawl, suddenly appears online with a promise to reveal the truth of what actually lurks at the heart of Nightmare Cemetery’s digital darkness . . . and why its effects are now bleeding out into the real world in an array of bizarre and disturbing new ways.

A narrative time-jump let us refresh the characters through the natural passage of time and their reaction to the events of the first story. I avoid trying to capture modern teen fashion, instead looking to the early 2000s which, to me, still has an edgy future aesthetic that I hope will loop back into style. Their dream avatars had to evolve too, with Birdie taking on more of a Slasher/Mage combination and Pik returning as something darker than his original berserker. Our new character Maddy let us bring in new elements in the real world as well as with her dream avatar: A rogue druid with minotaur traits, you never know what she might be hiding under her 6 sleeves.

-Daniel Irizarri

Daniel really said it all. He’s told stories for every character with his designs in game and in reality where you can infer so much just by looking at them. I adore the monster designs this time out. The Blighted Sprawl is home to all kinds of twisted souls and strange hybrid-animals that tow this uncanny line between dream and reality. I find that liminal space really terrifying.

-Zac Thompson

We have exclusive character designs and you can get Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 when it comes to shops August 13, 2025.

Source: Graphic Policy