Comic creators Zack Kaplan and John Pearson join the Capes and Tights Podcast for Episode 280 on May 6, 2026. To prepare for the conversation, we have compiled 12 comics by Kaplan and Pearson you should read.
Kaplan is a break out science fiction comic writer and creator of such comics and graphic novels as Eclipse, Port of Earth, The Lost City Explorers, Join the Future, Break Out, Metal Society, Mindset, and more recently, Forever Forward, Beyond Real. The Midnight: Shadows, Masterminds, and Kill All Immortals. He has worked with publishers such as Image Comics/Top Cow, Dark Horse, Aftershock Comics, Vault Comics, Humanoids, Scout Comics and DC Comics. He has a new series coming to Dark Horse on June 3, Only the Savage are Left.
Pearson is the Eisner Award-winning artist and illustrator of such comics as The Infernals, In Bloom, and with Kaplan, Mindset. He has built a reputation as an inimitable talent through his varied portfolio producing work for clients as diverse as DC Comics, Image Comics, Vault Comics, Z2 Comics, Heavy Metal Magazine, Netflix, WWE, Rue Morgue Magazine, The Ray Harryhausen Foundation, Burning Witches Records and Arrow Video amongst many others.
Together the two are set to release a new series at Dark Horse in fall 2026 entitled The Smart Division.
Mindset
When an introverted tech geek accidentally discovers mind control, he and his friends do something unexpected – they put the science into a meditation app to help users break their technology addiction. But as their Mindset app achieves a dangerous cult following, lies, conspiracies, and murder come to light. Are they helping people or controlling them?
Free your mind. Who’s in control?
Kill All Immortals
A thousand years ago, Viking explorer Erik the Red and his four adult children discovered a mysterious source of immortality. Now, in our modern world, they are an enigmatic billionaire family with a powerful banking empire.
But when Erik’s only daughter, Frey Asvald, seeks to finally be free from her family’s influence, she must be prepared to reveal their supernatural secrets and confront her well-trained siblings in a deadly and epic struggle for power.
Get ready for a bloodthirsty immortal fight like no other, with comic creator Zack Kaplan (Mindset, Break Out, Port of Earth), artist Fico Ossio (Action Comics, Star Wars, No One Left To Fight), multi-Eisner Award-Winning colorist Jordie Bellaire and Eisner-nominated letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Masterminds
When an ambitious and troubled video game programmer dares to audition for a secret society in the gaming/tech industry, composed of cutthroat, genius masterminds that promise to help their members achieve their wildest dreams, he and his rebellious co-worker find themselves in a gauntlet of real-life puzzles that quickly turn deadly. But in order to win, they must solve the dangerous challenges, unlock the group’s true motives and unveil the real architect of this ordeal. Are they truly smart enough to survive the mysterious game of the Masterminds?
Author Zack Kaplan (Kill All Immortals, Port of Earth) and illustrator Stephen Thomson (Aliens: Definace, Black Panther and the Crew), the creative team behind The Midnight: Shadows, join forces with colorist Thiago Rocha and Eisner award-winning letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou to bring you an enigmatic thriller for the age of tech industry omniscience.
Port of Earth
An alien arrival saga like you’ve never seen. What if aliens came to Earth, not in war or peace, but with a business deal: open a spaceport here on Earth in exchange for advanced technology. But when rogue alien visitors wreak havoc in our cities and strange alien threats emerge, the newly formed Earth Security Agency must answer the call to keep Earth and the Port safe.
Now, facing a deadly alien outbreak, a growing human resistance to the Port, and a delicate relationship with our alien Port partners, the ESA’s leaders and agents must balance between protecting humans and alien visitors alike, or risk planetary occupation.
An exciting, gritty and politically charged action thriller from Zack Kaplan (Mindset, Metal Society, Break Out, and Eclipse) and Andrea Mutti (Maniac of New York, Bunny Mask, Star Wars, Batman Eternal).
In Bloom
43% of the cells within a healthy human body belong to something other than the human host. Microbiomes, invasive bacteria, fungal and viral agents, and something else, something… more.
When the BLOOM happened, humanity was changed forever, transformed by symbiotic fungal megasystems that infected their bodies.
Some affected people grew new body parts, some found their personalities changed in radical new ways, while others reported contact with some… other intelligence not their own.
In this revolutionary new world, Agent Spears finds himself investigating a series of mysterious murders, a chain of violence that leads him to a terrifying question on which the fate of every living being rests.
Visionary writer Michael W. Conrad (Wonder Woman, Bizarre Adventures) and Eisner Award-winning illustrator John J. Pearson (The Infernals) present a boundary-pushing science fiction saga that will change the way you see the human body.
Eclipse
Imagine if sunlight burned you alive. In the near future, a mysterious solar event has transformed the sun’s light into deadly immolating rays. The world’s few survivors now live in nocturnal cities. But a killer emerges who uses sunlight to burn his victims, and when he targets the daughter of a solar power mogul, it falls to a disillusioned solar engineer to protect her.
Beyond Real
Question reality. When struggling artist June is injured in a severe car accident that leaves her boyfriend in a coma, she begins to experience strange visual phenomena. Soon, she’s able to see that we are all actually living in a computer simulation. June must set out on a journey of possibility and peril into the metaphysical layers of the simulation to reach the world’s creator and save her true love from death.
Zack Kaplan (Mindset) is joined by a slate of spectacular artists including Fabiana Mascolo, Toni Fejzula, Jordie Bellaire, Vincenzo Riccardi, Dennis Menheere, Jorge Corona, Luana Vecchio and Liana Kangas.
The Midnight Shadows
Join THE MIDNIGHT, one of the world’s top synthwave bands, comprised of Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan, on an electrifying and original sci-fi graphic novel adventure inspired by the poetic storytelling and the neon-soaked aesthetics of their music.
Jason has spent his life running from his problems, but now he and his childhood sweetheart are on the precipice of parenthood, and he’s struggling with the loss of his adolescence. Then he re-discovers his favorite old video game, THE MIDNIGHT, a nostalgic 1980s fantasy adventure about a helmeted hero who travels to a cyberpunk world to save the people from eternal darkness. Seeking to repair his broken game, Jason ends up at a mysterious arcade in an abandoned 1980s mall, where he plays the old arcade game of The Midnight and suddenly he’s transported to…
…a post-apocalyptic Neverland in the year 2085. A world of perpetual night where time stands still. A final bastion of humanity in a glistening futuristic city. And a shocking reveal – they know him as the hero who once vanquished the shadow monsters, and they believe he’s returned to his true reality to do it again. More surprising, his wife is here, but only with a memory of Jason as this world’s hero. As this lost boy tries to embrace his new hero powers, with the help of his true love and her cyberpunk warriors, he must face the responsibility of protecting an entire world from danger and discover which world he truly belongs to.
For The Midnight fans and newcomers, created by rising comics writer, Zack Kaplan (Break Out, Mindset), artist Stephen Thompson (Star Trek, Batman Beyond), artist Jahnoy Lindsay (Superboy) and The Midnight, follow your dreams to a visually stunning cyberpunk metropolis, find love in the darkness, defeat shadow monsters and explore what happens when we hide in our fantasies. Are we escaping life’s monsters or simply escaping ourselves? The answers lie in The Midnight Graphic Novel.
The Infernals
Abe Morgenstern, the son of Satan, has one month to live. Before he dies, he must decide which of his three wayward children — volatile narcissist Nero, conflicted field operative Jackal, or troubled schoolgirl Bee — will inherit his shadowy empire. But with the forces of Heaven, Hell, and everywhere in between bearing down on them, will they survive long enough to take control of the Apocalypse? And is Abe ready to give up being the Antichrist — or does he have something else up his sleeve?
Dark Empty Void
Scientists have created a stable, microscopic black hole in a secret underground compound, but when they lose control, the black hole spews out a cosmic maelstrom, strange dangerous creatures, and most surprisingly…a mysterious human teenage girl. Now, a depressed but brilliant psychologist must help her estranged husband and the other scientists solve the mystery and close the black hole before it consumes all of Earth.
Dare to witness a cosmic horror series that will amaze and terrify you, with hit comic creator Zack Kaplan (Kill All Immortals, Beyond Real, Mindset), fan-favorite artist Chris Shehan (The Autumnal, House of Slaughter), rising star colorist Francesco Segala (Nights, House of Slaughter) and Ringo-nominated letterer Justin Birch (Road of Bones, House of Slaughter).
Break Out
Mysterious and massive Cube spaceships from another dimension materialize over our cities around the globe. They routinely abduct teenagers to be held inside their floating prison ships. And the world accepts it as inevitable. But not Liam Watts. His younger brother has been taken. And Liam is tired of “thoughts and prayers.”
Now, in a “take back our future” anthem, Liam must assemble a skilled team of ordinary high school students and in just a few weeks, they must plan a heist to infiltrate the high-tech spaceship a mile in the sky. But what they’ll find there will throw their plans into turmoil and challenge their resolve. How do you break out of a prison that’s not even from this world?
Only the Savage Left
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.
Coming June 3, 2026 from Dark Horse.
Beast Wagon
In the middle of a summer heatwave, the new arrival at Whipsnarl Zoo heralds a primal disturbance amongst its animal population. Some believe it the harbinger of a vast cosmic event. For others, it is simply another prisoner. For some, it is a reason to revolt. Over the course of the day, the human and animal interactions grow stranger, and the boundary between the two begins to blur…
The Smart Division
A dark and modern sci-fi detective series about the first AI app that helps us commit the perfect crimes, and the two disparate FBI agents who must hunt it down and stop it.
Coming this fall from Dark Horse.
