Dear Gentle Reader,
I want to start with something simple: thank you.
Thank you for showing up to comic shops on Wednesdays. Thank you for the DMs, the reviews, the late-night theories about where the Underworld Universe is headed. Thank you for sticking with us through Phase 1, through Revolution 9, through Hour of the Wolf, through Exit City, through the loooooong dark of Endless Night. You built this thing with us. You’re the reason it has weight.
And this week, I get to put something real in your hands.
Logo by Tim Daniel (Actually, all of Phase 1 logos are done by him).
Tim Daniel IG Tim Daniel X
It’s here. The first volume of the Underworld Collection is officially on shelves and available everywhere this week. Phase 1 — the entire saga, the founding myth of this universe — collected into a single, definitive hardcover edition.
This isn’t a cash-in. This isn’t a clearance sale. This is a thesis statement.
When we launched Phase 1, I told the team that the Underworld Universe wasn’t going to be another shared world that fizzles out after a crossover. It was going to mean something. It was going to be ours — built from the ground up, owned by the people who made it, and built to last. The Complete Collection is the proof. It’s the artifact. It’s the thing you put on your shelf next to the books that made you fall in love with this medium in the first place.
And it exists because you made it exist.
Where to get it:
• Your Local Comic Shop — order through Lunar Distribution (item #0126MA0841)
• Mad Cave Studios direct: madcavestudios.com
• Simon & Schuster / bookstores everywhere (ISBN 9781545823668) — order here
• Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your favorite online retailer
Whatever the channel, ask for it by name. Underworld: The Complete Collection Vol. 1.
Look, I’m going to be honest with you, because that’s how I prefer to do this.
Independent publishing is hard. The last year has been a grind for everyone in this industry, and Mad Cave is no exception. I’ve read the speculation. I’ve seen the takes. Some of it is fair. Some of it isn’t. None of it changes what we do on Monday morning.
We’re still here. We’re doing the work. We’re tightening the operation, sharpening the slate, and betting bigger — not smaller — on the things that matter. The Underworld Universe is at the top of that list. It always has been.
So when I say Phase 2 is coming, I don’t mean it as a hashtag. I mean it as a promise.
[ IMAGE PLACEHOLDER ] — PHASE 2 TEASER ART — Honor and Curse: Eternal cover or key art by Jaime Infante. High-impact visual to anchor the Phase 2 reveal. A Phase 2 lineup graphic (Honor and Curse: Eternal / Victoria Jaguar / Mister Nemo) would also work here.
Here’s where I have to be a little careful, because I want you to experience this, not have it spoiled. But let me give you a taste.
Honor and Curse: Eternal is the flagship. Twelve issues. Genshi Sakagura. I’m writing it. Jaime Infante is on art. The early order numbers are blowing past Phase 1, and there’s a reason for that — this is the most ambitious thing I’ve ever put my name on. It is mythic, it is brutal, it is operatic, and it is going to redefine what people think Mad Cave can do.
Mister Nemo and Victoria Jaguar. Two more pillars going up alongside it. Each one its own front door into the universe. Each one carrying threads that are going to braid together in ways I’m not going to spoil here.
Mister Nemo Cover issue #2 Art by Alden Kaye
Victoria Jaguar Issue #1 Art by Marco Rudy
Coming Soon..
And then there are the things I can’t talk about yet. The bibles on my desk. The names you’ll know soon enough. The crossover that makes Endless Night look like a warm-up.
I’ve been writing comics for a long time. I’ve never been more sure of a slate than this one.
Phase 1 was us proving we could build a universe. Phase 2 is us proving we can run it.
Everything we learned from Revolution 9 through Endless Night — what worked, what didn’t, where we left ideas on the table, where we pushed too hard, where we didn’t push hard enough — all of it has been poured into what comes next. We have a clearer plan, a sharper team, and a deeper bench of creators than we’ve ever had. The slate is tighter. The storytelling is more connected. The stakes are higher.
This is the version of Mad Cave I’ve been trying to build for a decade.
The Complete Collection is the love letter to the readers who got us this far. Phase 2 is what we do with that love.
We’re still here. We’re doing our best work. And I promise you — the fans aren’t ready for what we have planned.
Stay close. It’s about to get loud.
— Mark London
By the way: One more thing — and this is the part that matters most this week.
Honor and Curse: Eternal #2 hits comic shops tomorrow.
If issue #1 was the door cracking open, #2 is the moment the cage starts to give. Genshi gets pulled into a rescue mission that goes sideways fast — overwhelming odds, an enhanced soldier he can’t out-muscle, and the dawning realization that the only thing that can win this fight is the thing he’s spent six hundred years keeping caged. The line between man and myth blurs in this issue. And once the Tengu is unleashed, there may be no turning back.
Jaime Infante’s pages on this one are some of the most brutal, beautiful work I’ve ever had the privilege to write to. I’ve been sitting with these pages for months and I still can’t believe we get to put them in your hands.
So here’s the ask: walk into your local shop tomorrow. Ask for Honor and Curse: Eternal #2 by name. If they don’t have it, ask them to order it. That single act — one reader, one shop, one Wednesday — is how independent comics survive and how universes get built.
I’ll see you out there.
Order Honor and curse: Eternal
The Collection is just the beginning. Here’s where you’ll find us this year — come say hi, get a book signed, and meet the creators building Phase 2:
• ALA Annual — June 25–29, 2026
• San Diego Comic-Con — July 23–27, 2026
• New York Comic Con — October 8–11, 2026
• Miami Book Fair — November 2026
P.S. If you’ve already grabbed the Collection, the single most helpful thing you can do is leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you bought it — and tell one friend. That’s how independent publishers win. We see you, and we’re grateful. — M.
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