Hill and Immonen Plunge into aquatic horror in this exclusive preview

DC’s Hill House Comics has been churning out exceptional horror comics for the last few months, but the imprint’s biggest release comes next week with the release of Plunge, a new miniseries bringing legendary artist Stuart Immonen back to monthly comics. Written by Hill House Comics’ curator, Joe Hill, with colors by Dave Stewart and letters by Deron Bennett, Plunge takes readers onto the high seas as it investigates the return of an oil tanker that mysteriously disappeared 40 years ago. After finishing his run on Amazing Spider-Man in 2018, Immonen took a break from ongoing comics and started working on an Instagram comic with his wife, Kathryn. His superhero work is phenomenal but it’s especially exciting when he gets to build a concept from the ground up, and Plunge gives him the opportunity to flex some new muscles as he dives deep into the horror genre.

This exclusive preview of next week’s Plunge #1 highlights both the spectacle and claustrophobic tension Immonen brings to Hill’s story, opening with a stunning shot of massive squid washed up on an island shore. Hill has proven time and again that he understands the mechanics of comics and trusts his artists to carry the storytelling weight, and these pages are full of atmosphere that draws the reader into this creepy aquatic world. The prevalence of brownish green in Stewart’s coloring gives the visuals a sickly quality, and his rendering brings a lot of extra texture to Immonen’s linework, from the overgrown blades of grass to the rusty exterior of a ship emerging from the deep. There’s undeniable beauty in the execution of this horror story, and one of the most intriguing things about Plunge is seeing how this creative team mines terror from the majesty of the open water.