Monstrous secrets lurk in Boom!'s new horror series, Something Is Killing The Children

As we pass into the dog days of summer, prepare your relaxed senses for a nerve-jangling new horror series from Boom! Studios titled Something Is Killing the Children. Written by GLAAD Award-winning author James Tynion IV (The Woods, Justice League) and paired with alarming art by Werther Dell’Edera (Briggs Land), this disturbing release cuts into comic shops on Sept. 4 — and SYFY WIRE has a riveting exclusive look inside the premiere issue.

Besides his memorable superhero work on DC's Batman Eternal and Dark Nights: Metal, Tynion has also delved into more intimate stories in books like his Apocalyptic Trilogy for Boom!: Memetic, Cognetic, and Eugenic.

Here the darker angels of his artistic nature are drawn into the harrowing story of a close-knit heartland community called Archer's Peak, an innocent place rocked by a series of ghastly supernatural murders.

Credit: Boom! Studios

Into this bloodbath we witness the initial appearance of Erica Slaughter, a strange figure who creeps into town claiming she can halt the savage homicides turning their town into a deadly haven of complete chaos. The confounded police force and authority figures don’t know how to deal with this mysterious masked outsider who believes the local kids and their rumors of unseen marauding monsters lurking in the woods.

Should they put their trust in this reckless monster hunter with their children’s lives on the line? Or is Erica Slaughter actually a deranged killer who’ll only bring more sorrow and tragedy into their peaceful community?

 "I remember Erica Slaughter forming in my mind," Tynion tell SYFY WIRE. "This strange quiet young woman with blonde hair covering a strange golden scar on her temple. The blood under her dirty fingernails. The deep shadows under her eyes. The haunted look that says she has seen many unspeakable horrors, and that she will see many more. I pictured her arriving in a small town, on a mundane bus, with nothing but a beat-up backpack it looks like she's been wearing since she was a child herself. She has a mission.

"There is something killing the children. She is there to kill that something. And then she'll move on and do it again, and again until she can't anymore. I can't wait to introduce you all to her in this story that's a hell of a lot more personal and more frightening than I ever intended. Werther, Miquel, and I have been working our asses off, and I can't wait for you to see the fruit of our labor."

Credit: Boom! Studios

Boom!'s Senior Editor Eric Harburn considers Something Is Killing the Children to be a chilling portrayal of the kind of horror that hides under the surface of our world and what happens when we can finally see the monsters around us.

“James and Werther have created a new horror series that will make you question everything you can see — and what you’re terrified might be able to see you,” he said in an official statement.

Now step cautiously into our exclusive early look at Boom! Studios' Something Is Killing the Children #1 in the gallery below, then tell us if you'll snatch a copy when it first strikes comic shops Sept. 4.