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Reality TV takes a grisly turn in Markosia’s “Stay Alive”

By John Freeman on January 12, 2020

Coming soon from Markosia is Stay Alive, a new horror-comedy graphic novel created and written by James Harberson and Mackie Wildwood, pencilled, inked and coloured by Stephen Baskerville.

Aimed at mature readers, Stay Alive is a grisly tale with a dark edge to its story and humour, and not a tale for the squeamish, about celebrity exploitation, mob justice, and serial killers.

It centres on Jane Morgan, an actress who’s fallen from an Oscar-nominated film debut into personal misadventures and Z-grade, T-and-A slasher flicks.

Desperate to rescue her career, she provokes uKill.com, a mob justice entertainment consortium that murders whoever its website patrons choose by popular election – literally anyone, anywhere.

By spoiling the last-wish pro baseball adventure of a terminally ill child, Jane becomes uKill’s target, and parlays her calamity into a starring role on Stay Alive, a reality TV show documenting her attempts to avoid becoming uKill’s next victim.

Jane’s blood-splashed redemption path follows, populated by stalkers, assassins, and show-me-the-money allies.

Stay Alive has echoes of the dark savage humour of old EC comics, but it certainly isn’t subtle when it comes to gory deaths and savage action. Nevertheless, it does have some thought-provoking observations on celebrity-fuelled social media and reality TV…

• Stay Alive is available for pre-order now at AmazonUK and Barnes & Noble

• Check it Stay Alive on Twitter @NovelStay and Instagram @stayalivegn

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.