Author: Brian Azzarello

THE GODS ABOVE, THE CREEPING BELOW

Val, an American heavy metal fanatic, is on her dream vacation: attending the Inferno Metal Festival in Oslo, Norway. There she meets a charismatic young band, who take her out to a remote forest to show her the local “haunts.” Taken by their charm and oblivious to the danger, Val is drugged, beaten, and left for dead…

But her story is far from over.

She wakes at dawn, haunted by a vision of rain falling from a wolf’s jowls. Stumbling back to Oslo, she finds that the festival has already ended–13 years ago.

The world has moved on and the men who brutalized her are long gone, but when moss and roots begin to sprout from her skin… she realizes that everything has changed. Everything except her desire for revenge, that is.

In nature, there are gods older than man, and something ancient, something… hungry, has awakened powers in her that will guide her rage as she seeks to exact justice on those that wronged her.

Writer Brian Azzarello and Vanesa Del Rey deliver a bloodsoaked feminist revenge saga, blending Norse mythology and eco-horror into a boundary-pushing cocktail of metal, magic, and murder!

Collects The Creeping Below #1-5.

Publisher: Penguin Random House
Published: 03/17/2026
Pages: 112
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9798892153737

About the Author
Brian Azzarello has been writing comic books professionally since the mid-1990s. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award-winning co-creator (with artist Eduaro Risso) of 100 Bullets, along with Loveless & Moonshine. The New York Times bestselling author’s work for DC Comics includes the titles Hellblazer, Superman, Joker, Luthor, Before Watchmen, Wonder Woman, & Dark Knight III with Frank Miller. Most recently he and artist Lee Bermejo launched DC’s groundbreaking Mature Readers imprint Black Label with the controversial and critically acclaimed Batman: Damned.

Cuban born artist Vanesa Del Rey began her professional career doing concept art for animation. Her work in comics has been described as dark, gritty and mysterious with great dominance of figurative work. She has illustrated The Witcher, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Women Alpha, and Daredevil Annual (2016) for Marvel Comics. Her debut series include the Harvey Award-nominated series HIT and The Empty Man for BOOM! Studios. REDLANDS, (co-created with Jordie Bellaire) is her first creator-owned series with Image Comics and was nominated in the 2018 Eisner Awards for Best New Series. Her most recent titles are: Basic Instinct (Sumerian) and The Exorcism at 1600 Penn (IDW) She currently lives in Ohio, USA.