Read an exclusive excerpt from a teen horror comic inspired by real small town cults

In Matthew Erman and Sam Beck’s Loving, Ohio, the unknowable, knife-armed serial killer is less existentially frightening than the idea of never making it out of your childhood town. Unfortunately, the teenage protagonists of the new horror graphic novel still have to reckon with both.

“The mythology of the midwest is to escape,” Erman told Polygon via email, “and not getting to do that means you’ve failed somehow (that’s how it felt growing up at least). […] This line ‘that idea of never leaving Ohio’ just ripples throughout the book. Because it really does reflect that deep fear so many grow up with of never getting to escape the ‘home’ they feel tethered to, be it a small town, a possessive church, or a rough family etc.”

Loving, Ohio follows four teenagers: Sloane, Cameron, Elliott, and Ana. They are still reeling from their friend Jesse’s recent suicide as they confront a rash of teen disappearances and violence that seems to be connected to a local religious organization called the Chorus — and a deadly serial killer called the Man in the Afternoon. The book was inspired by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, David Lynch films, and the music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and Haruomi Hosono, Erman said, but also his lived experience.

“It’s a fictional story, but some of it is based on how I was in a cult up until I was a teenager, and each character I think in their own way, expresses something unique about being in, or being aware of a cult in the town you live.”

One of Polygon’s must-read books of the summer, Loving, Ohio twists and turns easily between teenagers shooting the shit, and moments of horror both completely mundane — like the dread of a last-minute fluke getting between you and graduating from high school — and violently surreal — like the Man in the Afternoon’s sudden appearance at a local rock show, seen below in a six page excerpt courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.

“Sam and I tried very hard to play with these themes,” Erman told Polygon, “specifically in design and tone to make the book feel like a reflection of the horror, and the horror is a reflection of the town and to me meant a mix of the mundane, the inhumane and the eldritch swirling around new age eastern cult speak. The book is full of intentional mysteries that go intentionally unsolved.

“Embrace the mystery,” was his advice to readers.

Loving, Ohio is available now from Dark Horse Comics.