AfterShock's THE REPLACER Explores Possession and Disability

The Replacer is an upcoming 64-page OGN from writer Zac Thompson and artists Arjuna Susini and Dee Cunniffe through AfterShock Comics, which tells the story of a family whose father is paralyzed after a stroke.

Convinced his father hasn't actually suffered a stroke, The Replacer's lead character sets out to prove that a demon has taken over his father. According to the solicitation, the story is inspired by Thompson's personal life experiences.

“The Replacer is a concept I've been developing for a few years. It's about how a little boy, Marcus, who's world is irrevocably changed after he witnesses his father suffer a massive stroke," said Thompson in a statement. "When his disabled father returns home, permanently paralyzed and unable to speak full sentences, Marcus becomes convinced that his father has been replaced by a demon."

"I'm excited for this to come out because this book is a rumination on my own life experience," Thompson explained. "My father suffered a from a massive stroke when I was seven, and it took me a very long to understand what that meant to me as a person and how much it changed the way I see the world. I'm excited for people to read a horror story with a different kind of lens, and to shine a light on how we treat people with disabilities.”

The Replacer is due out April 24.

THE REPLACER
$7.99 / 64 pages / Full Color / ON SALE 04.24.2019
Writer: Zac Thompson
Artist: Arjuna Susini
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Cover: Arjuna Susini
The 1990’s. Tragedy strikes the Beharrell family in the form of a debilitating stroke. Now the youngest child in the family is convinced his paralyzed father didn’t truly fall ill but is possessed by something sinister. He believes a demon, THE REPLACER, has come to take away his jolly, agreeable, tech-obsessed Dad. But no one seems to see the monster — and with every passing day, his father falls deeper into the clutches of evil. Based on Zac Thompson’s true story of coming to terms with a disabled parent, THE REPLACER is a complete 64-page graphic meditation on loss, tragedy and fear told through the eyes of a nine-year-old — a horror tale about learning to walk again, even if a demon has to teach you how to do it. A bizarre mashup of IT, The Exorcist and The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, with stunning visuals by Arjuna Susini (Made Men), THE REPLACER is not for the faint of heart.