Meet the Would-Be Survivors of the Apocalypse in a Look Inside The Nice House by the Sea

Image: Álvaro Martínez Bueno and Jordie Bellaire/DC Comics

Three years ago, DC blew the lid off the comics industry with the launch of The Nice House on the Lake—a tense, gripping tale of isolation as a group of friends found themselves brought together to ride out the end of life as we know it, guided by an alien being masquerading as one of their closest friends. Now, the apocalypse is worth revisiting... with a new cast of humanity’s final chances.

In April, DC confirmed that James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire, and Andworld Design would team up once again for a new, 12-issue cycle of comics set in the same universe as The Nice House on the Lake with The Nice House by the Sea. Like On the Lake, By the Sea will feature 10 survivors brought to a lavish abode as the rest of the world falls apart in a calamitous doomsday.

Just like before, those 10 survivors have been brought together by one singular, alien figure, this time a mysterious being known as Max. But unlike On the Lake, By the Sea’s cast are not friends—anything but. Complete strangers, bordering on outright antagonistic to each other, these 10 survivors also differ from By the Sea’s eclectic cast in that they actually got to know in advance they were being brought together to survive the end of the world... as what they assumed to be the last humans alive.

Image: Álvaro Martínez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire, and Andworld Design/DC Comics

Revealed back in April only by their professions—the Doctor, the Writer, the Historian, the Actor, the Artist, the Priest, the Scientist, the Singer, the Politician, and the Mathematician—io9 can now exclusively help you put some names to the faces of The Nice House by the Sea as part of our look inside the first issue.

“Unlike our lake house, everyone in The Nice House by the Sea accepted the deaths of all their friends, family, and loved ones,” Tynion said in a press release provided by DC when By the Sea was announced in April. “They accepted the eradication of the human race and their selection as the last humans that will ever exist. It’s a truth some of them think they can live with, but the way they are living with it is by never, ever looking at it.”

The first issue of The Nice House by the Sea will hit shelves Wednesday July 24—click through to see a preview, as well as the alternate covers for the issue!