Writer Marguerite Bennet and artist Leila Leiz are collaborating on Horde, a new original graphic novel due out from AfterShock Comics in October.

The project was first announced last year at NYCC, but Horde now has preview artwork and a release date. The plot is about a woman trying to reconnect with an estrange mother whose hoarder house is “a nightmare labyrinth of secrets and dangers.” The protagonist watches as her mother loves her possessions more than her daughter. She has to free her mother from the house, which is possessed and fighting to keep her.

A full solicit for Horde with preview art and promotional quotes from AfterShock Comics can be found below:

HORDE OGN / $19.99 / 72 pages / Full Color / ON SALE 10.16.2019

Writer: Marguerite Bennett

Artist: Leila Leiz

Colorist: Guy Major

Letterer: Marshall Dillon

Cover: Leila Leiz

After the death of her father, Ruby Ando tries to reconnect with her estranged and isolated mother, whose hoarder house is a nightmare labyrinth of secrets and dangers. All the love Ruby was never shown she sees her mother lavish on her treasures and trinkets, the possessions that possess her. But when Ruby desperately tries to free her mother, the house wages war, ensnaring both women within its maze. Brought to hideous and twisted life by a mother’s love, the “Horde” is determined to purge Ruby from the collection—or see her join it forever.

Brought to life by Marguerite Bennett (ANIMOSITY, DC’s Bombshells, Batwoman) and Leila Leiz (ALTERS, Nvrlnd), HORDE is a haunting, housebound horror story about the things we let control us.

MARGUERITE BENNETT ON THE SUBJECT MATERIAL OF HORDE AND HOW IT HITS CLOSE TO HOME WITH MANY READERS/FAMILIES – AND THE PERSONAL INSPIRATION THAT LED TO EXPLORING THIS PROJECT:

“There always is, ha. I think the great evils of the world have always begun with the treatment of people as things. Even in this raw nerve of a familial melodrama, this is the crux – all the suffering, all the frenzy and madness and emotional climax all stem from this. Separate from the tragedy of mental illness is the deliberate dehumanization of human beings.

MARGUERITE ON THE MAIN CHARACTER AND WHAT LED HER TO BE CREATED:

“Ruby fears that her mother, Mia, values possessions over everything, including her own child. She feels like an object, a souvenir of her mother’s great love affair with Ruby’s father. She feels like a trinket, exoticized and objectified by a woman who used possessions to feel powerful, special, superior, and important — uses objects as armor, as proof of her success and lifelines to memory.

Anyone who has felt “collected,” dehumanized, disposable, tokenized may relate. The struggle to define and then seize your own self-worth, to prove yourself to others but especially to the ones who ought to love you above all things is a vicious battle. Ruby is the fear of every overachieving child desperate for love and recognition, filled with anger and grief and still that longing for one last chance.”

MARGUERITE ON WORKING WITH LEILA LEIZ AND HOW SHE HAS ENHANCED THE BOOK:

“Leila is BRILLIANT. The script was so monstrously demanding in its density and emotion and madness, and she absolutely killed it. All the detail, all the loveliness with which she renders even the most grotesque things is what makes the book something special, without question. I crammed in so many reference photos, everything from how fashion informed character to the obscene taxidermies scuttling around Mia’s basement, and Leila made them more elegant and terrifying than I could have ever imagined. SHE is the reason this book exists.”

MARGUERITE ON ‘ANIMOSITY’ BEING HER LONGEST-RUNNING SERIES TO DATE THAT SHE HAS CREATED, WHAT THAT MEANS TO HER AS A CREATOR, AND WHY IT’S SO SPECIAL:

“ANIMOSITY is my big baby, where one day, all the animals come online, starting thinking, start talking, start taking revenge, and a dog and his human daughter embark on a cross-country road trip amid black comedy talking animal apocalypse. I never imagined we’d come so far, and I am grateful beyond grateful, beyond the confines and definition of the word, to the readers and fans and wonderful people who have made Sandor and Jesse’s journey possible.”

MARGUERITE ON WHAT SHE LIKES MOST ABOUT LONG FORM VS. SHORT FORM WRITING:

“I love them both for their different powers – love the tight, complete one-shots that strike like lightning, love the long, elegant twists and turns in the emotional build-up and payoff of a saga. I love the escalating tension of serialized storytelling, and love the closure and completion and bone-deep satisfaction of a book that begins and ends on its own terms. I hope this new format – my first foray into the graphic novel medium – leaves you feeling much the same, though with a bit more horror in your heart and adrenaline in your veins.”