‘The Nun’ Screenwriter to Co-Write Post-Apocalyptic Comic ‘Mall’ (Exclusive)

Following the news that Vault Comics has signed Wasted Space writer and co-creator Michael Moreci to a multi-project deal, Heat Vision can reveal his first new project under the new arrangement: a collaboration with Gary Dauberman, the screenwriter behind Annabelle, The Nun and the film adaptations of Stephen King’s It.

Dauberman and Moreci will co-write Mall, a new comic book series set in a post-apocalyptic world where civilization finds itself divided into tribes based on the brands they love, co-existing uneasily in a mall they haven’t left in years. Zak Hartong (Albatross, Clovis) will illustrate.

Vault editor-in-chief Adrian Wassel described the title as “madness at its finest” in a statement, adding, “It’s a story about the end of the world … after the end of the world. It’s as though Gary and Mike reached into my brain, grabbed all my fond memories of The Warriors, Mad Max and John Carpenter’s opus [Escape From New York], then mixed them into some terribly drinkable cocktail.”

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For his part, Dauberman said that, despite his success with movies — his directorial debut, Annabelle Comes Home, is set for release June 26, continuing the Conjuring movie franchise — the project required the comic book medium.

“Sometimes there are stories that just scream ‘Make me a comic!’ and this was one of them,” he said. “Working with partners like Mike Moreci, Emile Gladstone and Zak Hartong, along with Damian [Wassel, Vault Comics publisher and CEO] and Adrian at Vault, has elevated this story beyond my wildest expectations.”

Mall No. 1 will be available digitally and in comic book stores Aug. 28. The official synopsis for the first issue, as well as the variant cover for the issue — an homage to Gray Morrow’s classic 1975 cover for Marvel’s Marvel Preview No. 3 — can be seen below.

Here in the heartland of the U.S. of A., the world has ended! But worry not, because the mall still stands. And within the walls of this consumeristic mecca lies a new world order: box store tribes and name brand gangs, all vying for limited space and resources. So, actually…you can worry! Especially for poor Andre Reed, who — after the assassination of a tribal leader — has to navigate the mad haven to prove his innocence, and prevent the end of world, again!