Posted in: Comics, Conventions, Dark Horse Comics, Events, Lucca Comics & Games, Pop Culture | Tagged: coronaviirus, COVID, covid-19, frank miller, Invasive Species, lockdown, pandemic, Ryan Benjamin
LUCCA: Frank Miller Says ‘Invasive Species’ Is Based On COVID Paranoia
LUCCA: Frank Miller tells Bleeding Cool his new comic book series with Ryan Benjamin, Invasive Species, is based on paranoia around COVID-19
Article Summary
- Frank Miller says Invasive Species was born from COVID paranoia, inspired by fear, masks, isolation, and mistrust.
- At Lucca Comics & Games, Miller linked the new series to 1950s alien invasion films and Cold War infiltration fears.
- Frank Miller describes Invasive Species as a viral alien invasion tale, with creatures entering through ears and infecting people.
- Originally planned at Abrams, Invasive Species now lands at Dark Horse in 2027 with Ryan Benjamin and a wider reveal.
Dark Knight, Born Again, Give Me Liberty and Sin City creator Frank Miller is appearing this weekend at Lucca Comics and Games, and this very second, sitting with Peach Momoko on the Marvel Legacy panel. You can catch up with more Lucca coverage on Bleeding Cool right here. And at the show, Bleeding Cool’s Gavin Sheehan asked Frank Miller what comic book project he’s working on that he’s most keen for people to read. And after working through the many, and thinking about which he was allowed to talk about right now, he settled on Invasive Species, which he’s been working on withX-Men artist and Donny Cates collaborator Ryan Stegman. He told Bleeding Cool;
“Invasive Species is one I’m particularly charged up about. It’s a project I conceived during the height of the COVID pandemic, where everyone was afraid to sneeze within 100 yards of anybody else because everybody was so afraid, and everyone was wearing masks. I think people were showering in their masks. It was so, so paranoid. And what it reminded me of was those wonderful 1950s alien movies, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars and so on. They were all in fear of a Russian invasion. But I thought we have biological warfare talk every which way, and now we’ve got viruses that we’re all afraid of, and it’s got us all locked inside, not talking to each other. And I thought it was a perfect metaphor for our times. And so I made up a story where we were being invaded not by a bunch of spaceships, but by a virus. By little aliens that got inside, came in our ears and infected us. That’s all I’m saying.”
It’s more than we previously knew. Originally planned by Abrams Books last year, Invasive Species is now coming from Dark Horse Comics in 2027. It was previously pitched as “Little Becky could fight the aliens if she could just get them out of her brain! Frank Miller, Ryan Benjamin, John Livesay, Alex Sinclair and Pete Carlsson bring the classic Alien Invasion story to a little town just like yours. The aliens are not OUT there, they’re IN there.” But the COVID-19 origins of this story, as well as its take on fifties alien-invasion and Russian infiltration tropes, are brand-new information. Thanks, Frank!
Lucca Comics & Games is the West’s largest comic con, second only worldwide to Tokyo’s Comiket, held annually in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. It began in 1965 as the Salone Internazionale dei Comics in Bordighera, moved to Lucca in 1966, and evolved into Lucca Comics & Games in the mid-1990s. The event takes over the historic city centre with pavilions, exhibitions, and activities celebrating comics, manga, animation, board games, role-playing games, video games, and cosplay. The 2026 edition, its 60th anniversary, is running this week and finishes tomorrow, featuring over 80 publishers, over 400 international guests, including Go Nagai, Peach Momoko, C.B. Cebulski, and Frank Miller, with pavilions, tournaments, awards, and family areas like Lucca Junior. Paying attendees are usually around 300,000, but many also come to the local area for the vibes and spinoffs. Organised by Lucca Crea and owned by the Comune of Lucca, it combines a marketplace, cultural programming, and community events in one of Italy’s more atmospheric medieval settings. You should come; it’s lovely.
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