Editor Shelly Bond was a driving force of DC's Vertigo imprint for decades, which is why it was so disappointing to see her let go by DC as part of a larger restructuring of Vertigo in 2016 . But Bond is hardly absent from the comics scene. She's found a new home at IDW Publishing, where she's spearheading a new mature readers imprint called Black Crown.

Kid Lobotomy #3 cover by Tess Fowler. (IDW Publishing)

Get a Closer Look at the Cast of Kid Lobotomy 8 IMAGES

Kid Lobotomy will be the first Black Crown comic to see the light of day. Written by Peter Milligan (Shade, the Changing Man) and drawn by Tess Fowler (Rat Queens), this unusual new horror series focuses on a very dysfunctional family who run a hotel crawling with ghosts and other oddities.We had the chance to chat via email with Milligan and Fowler to learn more about Kid Lobotomy and how it lays the groundwork for the Black Crown imprint as a whole. Scroll down to learn what they had to say and see some exclusive concept art.Oh, it was a leap all right. But whenever I write a new story I want it to be a leap—into the unknown, into the creative flux, into what Harold Bloom called “strangeness”, which is different from weirdness.I don’t know about the early, mid, late or any other kind of ‘90s, but one similarity to working with Vertigo is the creative freedom, the feeling that the personal and the obscure are fair game.Shelly Bond is a comic book battle general. When she says get on the field...you go.Kidding aside, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to play with the original cool music nerds of comics. Who says no to that adventure?The Boss and Mr. M already had a road map by the time I climbed in the car. But I made a good racket shortly after arriving.First off, there was no bloody hashing involved, mate! Secondly, it’s hard to ever say exactly how an idea for a book comes about. But it’s safe to say that Kid Lobotomy has a pretty unusual gestation. Shelly sent me an email out of the blue to see if I had any thoughts/ideas or inclinations, and as she is a kind, pleasant kind of soul who takes great delight in gently reaching out to former collaborators she titled the email “Hey Lobotomy”.That was the starting point, from which this madness festered and grew. It’s true to say that until that moment the idea of a lobotomy was a long way from my thoughts. After a few more emails with Shelly it was pretty much all I could think about (lobotomy and a stiff drink). Lobotomy in this book becomes a kind of metaphor for everything going on – and going wrong – inside the head. Inside that ball of jelly wherein lies the mind, the self, an entire universe. There were a few things going wrong inside my own brain at this time (due to some epileptic episodes) so I took a personal interest in all this.I would, but Peter hasn't explained it yet. I'm still hiding under my bed. This book is creepy.Okay. The main character is Kid Lobotomy. He’s a failed rock star, a medical school drop out, a reluctant hotel manager and a Kafka obsessive with a lot of strange, dark memories. His sister is the intense and volatile Rosebud, while the man who rules the family is Big Daddy – ambitious, Machiavellian, a modern King Lear who treats the whole world as his fool. Beyond Kid’s immediate family and main hotel staff – the lovely though mysterious Ottla, the ironic Gervais, the scary Night Manager - a key character in this book is the hotel itself: The Suites, that place where Kid grew up and now finds himself manager. There are skeletons buried deep in the bowels of this place, skeletons that are starting to wake up… and ring for room service.What gave it away?Is it Kafka-esque? There are layers of a kind of absurdist Goth-nicity and Kid is obsessed with Franz Kafka, in particular with the novella Metamorphosis, whose tale of a man who turns into a cockroach seems somehow to be a metaphor for Kid’s own life. And then there’s the chambermaid Ottla…though just how she’s connected with the great Czech writer isn’t at the beginning clear…That's probably safest, considering that's how I deal with the writer.I always suggest my readers question the reality of what they see. But you’re right, we’re seeing a lot of what’s going on from Kid’s POV and we only need to spend a few moments with this charming young man and part-time brain doctor to see that as narrators go he could be less than completely reliable.Though it’s hard to get across the music itself it’s possible to convey the drama that surrounds it. What we might call the epiphenomenon of music. The poetry. The rush. The sexiness. The hair grease.The books take place on a single street. They are literally not only in a shared universe but they occupy the same breathing space. Philip Bond has done an extraordinary job designing the street and the buildings it holds. And I can't wait to meet everyone who lives here with me and Mr. M and all our Kid Lobotomy pals.Shelly is working on the books, it’s her line, so a degree of stylistic cohesion will probably stem from that. That said, I don’t think the books/stories are meant to be closely intertwined. I certainly don’t feel intertwined with anyone, thank you very much. Though each story takes place in and around the same street so I suppose a degree of intertwining in the future isn’t out of the question.Kid Lobotomy #1 will hit stores on October 18.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN