New Edition of Two-Volume Story Blurbed by Guillermo Del Toro, Frank Quitely, Jeph Loeb
Mad Cave Studios will co-publish Tripwire’s graphic novel Sherlock Holmes and the Empire Builders: The Gene Genie, by writer Joel Meadows and artist and co-creator Andy Bennett. The graphic novel, a sci-fi spin on Sherlock Holmes set in an alternate world, was originally published in two volumes by Tripwire Comics Presents, which is helmed by Meadows. Both volumes were crowdfunded on Kickstarter and have attracted praise from a number of well known industry figures; director Guillermo Del Toro called it “A darn good yarn,” and it has also been blurbed by Jeph Loeb, Michael Avon Oeming, Frank Quitely, and Bryan Talbot, among others.
The complete edition has a new cover by Laurence Campbell, one of the artists for the Eisner-winning crime comic The One Hand and The Six Fingers (see “Ram V and Dan Watters Write Linked Crime Series”), and a new introduction by JM DeMatteis. Extras include the pin-ups by George Pratt, Shawn Martinbrough, John K Snyder III, Dan Panosian, and Frazer Irving that appeared in the original two volumes. The 176-page trade paperback will go on sale on April 21, 2026, with an MSRP of $19.99.
“The collection is a result of the two successful single volumes we have published ourselves in 2023 and 2025,” Meadows told ICv2. “We started chatting to Mad Cave about the idea of co publishing a collection and it was confirmed in autumn of last year… The edition is an international one so it will be available in the U.S. and also the UK through Simon and Schuster and through Lunar to the direct market.”
Tripwire began as a fanzine and morphed into a print magazine that was known for the quality of its interviews (see “‘Tripwire’ Turns 21”). It is now a website, and Meadows has crowdfunded a number of books on Kickstarter, including Tripwire from the Archive: Volume 1: Comics, a collection of creator interviews, Into White: The Art of George Pratt, and Sherlock Holmes: Down and Out in London, an illustrated novella by Meadows. A collection of strips from the magazine is in the works for later this year.
Click Gallery below for preview and artwork!
Source: ICv2
