Dark Horse Comics and Zack Kaplan have been on a roll over the past few years, and the good news is there’s plenty more on the way thanks to a new three-series deal. Now the first of those new titles is heading our way, and it’s a tale of monsters, monster killers, and true love known as Only The Savage Are Left. The series is slated to hit later this year, but we’ve got your exclusive first look at the anticipated title right here.
Only The Savage Are Left is from the dynamite team of Kaplan, Stefano Raffaele, Thiago Rocha, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and as you can see in the preview below, the chaos all begins with a virus known as the teratavirus. The virus is insanely infectious and causes those afflicted to lash out at nearby living things, but humanity actually manages to almost contain it. Unfortunately, the story only goes downhill from there, as what makes this virus unique is ultimately humanity’s undoing. The only cure to the virus is to kill another infected person, and that discovery leads to humanity’s undoing.
While the brutality of the virus and the chaos it causes will get a lot of attention, there’s also a clear heartbeat at the center of the story, and it comes in the form of a young man named Ryder. In the preview, we see Ryder and his partner in better times, and when the city is eventually overrun, the couple manages to escape and looks to leave this in the past.
At some point along the way, though, she goes missing, and Ryder sets out from the settlement to face this brutal and deadly new world head-on in order to find her. The danger is very real, but there’s also the constant question of what extremes will someone go to in order to not only survive but to save someone they love, and if you lose the last shreds of your humanity in order to make those goals happen. You can find the official description below.
“A strange virus has spread across the world, transforming its victims into monsters. The only cure is to kill another infected soul. When a nonviolent young man sets out from the safety of his settlement to find his missing true love, he must face the corrupted world of monsters and monster-killers. A dramatic survival adventure that dares to ask what we should stand for in the monster apocalypse.”
Only The Savage Are Left #1 will hit comic stores on June 3, 2026.
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