Ticking off the days before joining Top Cow's prime lineup in 2020, The Clock is a provocative new sci-fi thriller written by their President and CEO, Matt Hawkins (Postal: Deliverance, Stairway), and accented with compelling art by the Eisner Award-winning Colleen Doran (Sandman, The Amazing Spider-Man) — and SYFY WIRE has its fingers on the pulse of the premiere issue.

Credit: Top Cow Comics

Arriving on Jan. 8 with the debut installment, The Clock #1's storyline in an intense outbreak of medical anxiety and pandemic fear. In three weeks, hundreds of millions of people worldwide perish or are near death from varied forms of cancer...all of them seemingly healthy just days before. This insane proliferation appears to be a viral outbreak of some nature, but the finest scientific minds are unable to find any cause.

A leading medical researcher loses his beloved wife and is now racing against the clock to uncover a cause or cure for his nine-year-old daughter, who is dying of cancer as well. Lurking silently in the shadows, this global conspiracy propelling events could lead to World War III... or worse.

Credit: Top Cow Comics

“I’ve been excited about The Clock ever since I had the initial idea of weaponizing cancer which is beyond scary,” Hawkins tells SYFY WIRE. “I’ve known Colleen since my early days of Image and have always wanted to work with her. It’s a pleasure to see her pages as they come in.”

Doran admits to being absolutely thrilled to work with Matt Hawkins on this project.

"It’s been percolating for awhile, waiting for the right moment to slide into my schedule," Doran tells SYFY WIRE. "This is mostly on me, of course, but it’s been delightful to finally be able to concentrate fully on the work. Matt Hawkins has one of the best, most fertile scientific minds in the business. His education background gives him a real advantage. He has a keen, curious imagination. He’s an idea factory! The themes in the book are topical and complex, so as an artist, I feel it’s my function to be as straightforward as possible on the visuals and not grandstand, just let the story and characters speak for themselves."

Credit: Top Cow Comics

"It’s important to me that the characters show real emotions so the reader can feel the weight of the situations they face," she adds. "I’m getting a lovely opportunity to produce some of my favorite cover work. Matt is open to design-oriented cover work and I’m really enjoying this chance to experiment."

Now step into our exclusive peek at Top Cow's The Clock #1 in the gallery below, then tell us if it's just what the doctor ordered for your monthly pull list.