Notes on Athanasia

What happens when superheroes die, and what if their power doesn’t stay buried?

That’s the chilling premise of ATHANASIA, the new supernatural superhero comic from New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus (The Autumnal, Whalefall, The Shape of Water) and acclaimed artist Dani (The Invisible Man, Black Beth). Blending the psychological unease of Watchmen with the grounded grit of Unbreakable, ATHANASIA takes the superhero genre and twists it into a haunting meditation on power, addiction, and corruption.

There’s nothing I relish more than cannonballing into a new genre, format, point-of-view, et cetera. Nothing felt more out of my comfort zone than a superhero story; I feel like an outsider when it comes to that genre, so it made sense to make my character an outsider as well, someone who only gets to participate in the whole superhero thing from a bitter remove.One of my most popular books is ROTTERS (2013), and I’ll always have a soft spot for cemetery tales (I made a brief return to the boneyard for Vault’s THE CEMETERIANS). But this was a whole new kind of cemetery, one that connected to another topic I’ve always been interested in, that of zones of our planet that are somehow poisoned. Chernobyl is the obvious example, but if you’ve lived long enough, you know people who have gotten cancer and wondered if it had something to do with some toxic event near their childhood home or polluted pond they used to swim in. We’re all surrounded by the dangerous byproducts of things that were supposed to be created for our benefit.

Mostly, though, ATHANASIA marked a chance to work with Dani, who is my favorite artist working anywhere near the comics space. I’ll always be grateful we had this project.
— Daniel Kraus

In ATHANASIA, readers meet Forrest Molson, a young woman struggling with addiction and direction in life. While working as a groundskeeper at Athanasia Cemetery—the final resting place of Venture City’s fallen superheroes—she stumbles upon a horrifying secret. At night, the soil of the cemetery bleeds with strange ooze, a byproduct of the decaying heroes buried beneath. This substance doesn’t just whisper of power—it delivers it. But for Forrest, the rush comes with a cost, pushing her down a path where justice and corruption blur, and where the line between savior and monster dissolves.

"Working on Athanasia was such a unique experience. Wanted to find a way to adapt Daniel's script in a way that would reflect the characters and the story on my art style so chose to go with a more detailed style than my usual blocks of ink in order to symbolize the fragility of the relationships described in the book. Couldn't be happier with how things turned out, especially when Brad [Simpson] added his final touches of green!"
— Dani

What is Athanasia?

With its mix of psychological horror, superhero mythology, and eerie cemetery gothic, ATHANASIA asks readers to reconsider the cost of power—and the shadows it leaves behind. Fans of Watchmen, Unbreakable, and supernatural thrillers will find themselves immersed in a story that is both disturbingly relevant and unnervingly personal.

ATHANASIA is created by Daniel Kraus and Dani, written by Kraus, illustrated by Dani, with colors by Brad Simpson and letters by Jim Campbell.