WonderCon: IDW announces X-Files: Year Zero mini-series

IDW takes the X-Files back in time to see the first ever cases marked with an ‘X’, and then back to the present with the mysterious Mr. Zero.

In the 1940s, a shadowy informant known as “Mr. Xero” directed the FBI to a number of paranormal cases that would soon be classified as “X-Files,” which were reserved for the improbable and unexplainable. When faced with an eerily similar “Mr. Zero” in the present, Agent Mulder resolves to uncover the truth about who this mystery person is and their connection to these cases.

The multi-talented veteran Karl Kesel (FF, Superboy) makes his debut at IDW as the writer on the series. Vic Malhotra (The X-Files: Conspiracy: The Crow) and Greg Scott (The X-Files: Season 10) will be splitting art duties with Malhotra providing the art for the 1940s sequences and Scott drawing the present day storyline. Covers will be provided by Season 10’s Carlos Valenzuela, with pulp-novel-inspired subscription variants by Robert Hack (Doctor Who) and a retailer incentive cover by Eisner Award-winner Francesco Francavilla for the first installment.

“The origins of the X-Files unit of the FBI were only hinted at in the TV show, and we’re proud to present the story of how the precursors of our favorite paranormal agents established the division in the late 1940s,” says editor Denton J. Tipton. “I think Bing and Millie will become fan-favorites alongside Mulder, Scully, Reyes and Doggett.”

“I’ve always thought the 40s would be a wonderful setting for X-Files, with the Russian red menace, atomic mutations and flying saucers all lurking in the shadows— what I like to think of as ‘UFO Noir.’” said Kesel from an undisclosed location. “Of course, iconic characters like Mulder and Scully are a joy to write, and being given the opportunity to introduce their predecessors— Bing Ellinson and Millie Ohio— well, the truth is it’s all a little unbelievable to me. But the unbelievable is what X-Files is all about, isn’t it?”

IDW has been doing a bang-up job with the continuation of the X-Files series as it made the leap from TV to printed page. This kind of a tract has been something of a trend in the comic industry over the last few years with successful continuations of television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more. X-Files has been at IDW for about a year now in the form of the ongoing Season 10 comic and it’s been as faithful to the show as any other adaptation out there.

Monsters, conspiracies, cults… you name it and IDW has probably pitted Mulder and Scully up against it. It’s a great book and one that X-Files fans really shouldn’t be missing out on since the TV and/or movie prospects of the property aren’t exactly too bright right now.

Taking the brand back to the beginnings of the actual FBI office that brandishes the name is a pretty darned cool idea too. I never actually realized it before, but Tipton is right when he says that the origins of the whole X-Files department were never revealed in the nine years that the show was on the air. So with that in mind, it’s more than time for the shroud to come off and fans to get to see just what high-strangeness led to the first case-file marked with the now familiar ‘X’.

X-Files: Year Zero kicks off with the first issue in its five issue mini-series this coming July from IDW and the creative team of Karl Kesel, Vic Malhotra, and Greg Scott.