WALKING DEAD Artist Charlie Adlard Teams Up with Other Comic Creators for PLANET DIVOC-91 on WEBTOON
A lot of comic creators are getting together to create a comic on Webtoon called Planet DIVOC-91. This includes The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard and Folklords and BANG! writer Matt Kindt. Well, the webcomic will take place across 9 chapters and is meant to be humorous and satirical in nature. In the series, young adults are removed from Earth and transported to another planet while Earth faces a human extinction level threat.
PLANET DIVOC-91 follows the adventures of two earthlings: Sanda Oung, a 23-year-old girl from the UK, and Champo Oung, Sanda’s 19-year-old, non-binary sibling. In the series, 15% of the world’s population of 7.5 billion people are now stuck on another planet, miles from the safety of home. Sanda learns that humans have been brought to Planet Divoc-91 because the Earth is at risk of an extinction level event – and young adults have been moved to safety by the Board of Adversity Scientists for Intergalactic Leadership’ (BASIL), led by a charismatic and fearsome alien named ADRO.
The first chapter is being written by Sara Kenney and illustrated by Adlard. It’ll be 17 pages long with 17 pages of extra material! Adlard released the following statement:
I’m thrilled to be working on such a project. It’s in times like these that we all need to pull together and help, and, in my own little way, this is something I can feel useful in doing.
Future chapters will only be 6-8 pages long. Chapter 2 will be written by Charlotte Bailey with art by Nick Brokenshire and chapter 3 will be written and illustrated by Hannah Berry. Other creatives on the project include Alex Paknadel (Friendo), Rachael Smith (House Party), Karrie Fransman (The House That Groaned), Martin Simmonds (Death Sentence), and Zara Slattery (Coma Comic)
DIVOC-91 is being produced by Dr Bella Starling, Director of Vocal at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and Kenney who serves as Creative Director at Wowbagger Productions, in association with the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. The project is being funded by NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre seed funding as well as The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC); Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC); The University of Manchester through the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund award; Sarah Iqbal, DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance; Anita Shervington, Blast Fest and Nabeel Petersen, Interfer (South Africa). The goal has been to help talk about the current COVID-19 pandemic. Kenney said:
Bella and I were already working together on creative projects to engage audiences in sharing their views about antibiotic resistance and immunisation and when lockdown hit, it became obvious that our thinking could be refocused on the COVID pandemic. We realized there was a ton of information and advice about the pandemic out there, but it’s so difficult to know what to believe and who to trust, and there were virtually no young voices in the mix.
In terms of what to expect, Kenney said:
Although the topics we’re discussing in the series are incredibly serious, PLANET DIVOC-91 is full of humour and is occasionally ridiculous. We’re aiming for more of a District 9 or The Good Place feel than, say, Star Trek.
Chapter one of Planet DIVOC-91 will be available for free on WEBTOON starting July 15.
