Image Comics has revealed Vampire on Aisle 6, a three-issue series from writer/artist Zoe Thorogood with folk-rock musician and Harley Poe frontman Joe Whiteford, according to Comics Beat (September 29, 2026). Issue #1 streets Wednesday, December 23, 2026.
Premise: Luka, recently bitten, is trapped in a mascot-themed superstore where the sun will not set for another ten hours — and he has just made his first kill. The comic ships alongside an EP of eight new Harley Poe songs that comment on the story and characters. Thorogood calls it a comic-plus-album about traumatic change and isolation; Whiteford frames it as an anti-corporate, punk-rock collaboration and his first comic credit.
Cover program includes multiple Thorogood covers, a Whiteford cover, a blank sketch variant, and a 1:50 incentive. Beat also notes a four-page preview accompanied the announcement. Thorogood and Whiteford married earlier this month; she previously teased the project in a Popverse interview as the ending Whiteford could not crack until it became a comic.
For Direct Market buyers, December 23 is a holiday-week Image debut with a music cross-sell — useful FOC copy for shops that already move Thorogood’s prior work. For a broader industry-awards temperature check on RCG, see 2026 Ringo Awards: Absolute Batman Best Series.
Image shops pitching December debuts should note the dual SKU story: the floppy and the EP are meant to comment on each other, so music retailers and comic shops both have a hook. Thorogood’s cover-heavy order mix (including a blank sketch and a 1:50) is classic Image incentive structure for a three-issue horror-comedy. RCG is dating issue #1 only; later issue streets should follow in Image’s subsequent solicit waves.
Tonally, expect anti-corporate satire and messy vampire hunger rather than sparkling romance. Whiteford’s Harley Poe catalog already lives in macabre folk-punk, which matches a grocery-store siege better than a traditional gothic castle. For US readers chasing Image’s late-year original slate, December 23 is the dated entry point — comic first, album alongside, spoilers reserved for the preview pages Beat already posted.
What we are not saying: we are not inventing issue #2/#3 exact ship days beyond the three-issue frame, EP streaming dates, or sales forecasts. Report #1 on December 23, 2026 with the comic-plus-EP pitch Image and Beat published.
