Oni Press’s newest title is infusing a real location with a new kind of horror, courtesy of author Rodney Barnes. Crownsville, which hits shelves next month, is inspired by the real story of the titular Crownsville Hospital in Maryland, a psychiatric institution with a terrible legacy, and FANGORIA is exclusively debuting the trailer for the five-issue miniseries.
Located in Annapolis, the Crownsville Hospital was a segregated, all-Black psychiatric institute that operated from the beginning of the 20th century up until 2004. Condemned after nearly a century of overcrowding and neglect, as well as rumors of abuse and illegal medical experimentation, the now-abandoned building is the setting for Barnes’ latest story, which features art by Elia Bonetti. The series’ synopsis is as follows:
An unexplained death inside the abandoned hospital is ruled a suicide. But a lone police detective and his old friend—a local journalist— soon discover the reality of the horrors that are still locked within its walls. In issue two, the mystery deepens around Annapolis police detective Mike Simms and journalist Paul Blairare as they discover that anyone coming into contact with the facility is being deeply affected —and even killed… penance for sins of the past.
“The Crownsville Hospital was a boogeyman in my childhood,” said Barnes, a native of Annapolis. “If I wasn't well behaved, I was told I would be sent to Crownsville. The horror was real. My grandmother was a nurse at the hospital and I knew I didn’t want anything to do with that place.”
Crownsville #1 features three cover variants by Jason Shawn Alexander, Bonetti, and Szymon Kudrański, as well as a full art variant by Alexander and a special one-in-twenty variant cover by Andrea Sorrentino.
The first issue of Crownsville hits shelves on November 12. Check out the trailer below:
