Published May 31, 2026, 6:01 PM EDT
Robert Wood is a writer and editor based out of Cheshire, England. He is the author of 'The False Elephant: and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories' - 100 stories, each told in exactly 100 words.
Rob got into comics via Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man and the UK anthology 'The Mighty World of Marvel,' which was running Frank Miller's Daredevil, Classic Hulk and Contest of Champions II.
Prior to journalism, he worked in copywriting and copyedited for Oxford University Press. He is on X as @PinchTwigs and Instagram as roobwoodjourno.
A new horror series combines the trippy cosmic horror of Annihilation with the vicious cruelty of IT's Pennywise the Dancing Clown, as a twisted entity descends from the Moon to claim the eyes of innocent people.
The Eye Collector is a horrifying new series, with standalone stories of terror that connect to create the dark mythos behind the titular creature: a bargain-hungry monster that tempts parents with fame and riches if they sacrifice the eyes of their children.
The Eye Collector's installments will move through time and space, with stories set on the Moon, on Earth and in a distant future with "shades of Metropolis and shadows of David Lynch." This surreal approach promises to make the monster's visceral demands all the more terrifying.
The Eye Collector Is Cosmic Horror with "Shadows of David Lynch"
Recently, Image Comics announced The Eye Collector - a new horror title from Jonathan Ball (Clockfire) and GMB Chomichuk (Blood Letters.) Each issue will be a bizarre narrative where the titular horror lives up to its name, with the intent of a story that only gets more surreal as it unfolds.
The comic's green-hued art is already amazing, with a preview depicting the Eye Collector waking up from a cosmic slumber after encountering the Apollo 10 astronauts.
While fans only see the Eye Collector for a moment, it combines the unknowable horror of Annihilation's Shimmer with the more personal cruelty of IT's Pennywise - as an astronaut exclaims "Oh my god" in shock at seeing the monster, the Eye Collector mockingly exclaims, "Do you still have gods? Shame." The first issue's summary reads:
In The Eye Collector, an ancient being has its curiosity toward Earth reignited when the humans of the Apollo 10 mission make wishes over the Moon. But what is this spectral creature, and what does it want with our world? Seeing is believing…
The Eye Collector Is Already a Great Villain
The Eye Collector's antagonist is already a truly disturbing villain - one which is a cosmically unknowable predator in the style of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, but with enough in common with humans to be able to terrorize them on an individual level. Image Comics hints that the monster has "careful, ancient plans," suggesting a series-long plot against humanity.
At the same time, what the monster wants from humans is particularly vicious, and it's so far unclear if it actually needs human eyes or simply enjoys the horror of taking them away. Image's press release states:
The Eye Collector explores themes of desire and fantasy while focusing on how our perspective informs and shapes our reality. We have seen, of course, nightmare versions of how this unfolds in the political and social world, as algorithms have transformed the media landscape into distorted funhouse mirrors, and AI increasingly makes our world hallucinatory and erodes our ability to discern the real from the deepfake.
However, the story focuses more claustrophobically on how the monstrous Eye Collector, who returns to Earth and begins to tempt the parents of a child living in a neglectful household with realizing their dreams in exchange for their son’s eyes.
It seems the Eye Collector will act as a metaphor for disinformation, baiting its victims into an unthinkable sacrifice.
The Eye Collector Is a Unique Comic Horror Story
While the episodic structure of The Eye Collector is already ideal for monthly comics, Ball and Chomichuk are consciously leaning into the unique aspects of comics as a medium in their horror saga. Chomichuk says:
The Eye Collector is our irreverent experiment in comics storytelling, and over the course of the series you’ll see us using storytelling techniques that only work in comics. You look at the page, and it looks back at you.
One of the most unique aspects of graphic novels is the way they segment time - panels create discrete narrative moments, but a comic can be flipped through near-effortlessly. This fact can easily give readers a highly personal relationship with time, especially when scenes invite them to flick back and forth, checking the veracity of claims or returning to prior moments in a new context.
Creators like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons have long used this physical reality of the medium to tell stories about the mutability of time, with stories like Watchmen hinging on the reader's ability to time travel even outside the creators' direct instruction. It seems The Eye Collector will tap into this same theme.
The Eye Collector is a new cosmic horror comic combining the surreal chills of Annihilation with the demonic antagonist of IT, coming soon to comic store shelves and digital services.
The Eye Collector #1 is coming from Image Comics June 24.
English (US) ·