Eisner Award Nominees Christopher Cantwell & Tyler Crook Break OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 at Oni Press

THEY CAN RUN. THEY CAN HIDE. BUT THEY CAN NEVER ESCAPE FATE! Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to unveil one of 2025’s most compelling new series with OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 – a relentlessly paced and visually breathtaking original limited series beginning in March with a double-sized, 48-page debut from Eisner Award–nominated writer Christopher Cantwell (Iron Man, Briar) and Russ Manning Award–winning and Eisner Award–nominated illustrator Tyler Crook (Harrow County, The Lonesome Hunters)! Born from one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th century, this taut, five-issue American odyssey follows history’s most notorious fugitives as they desperately race for freedom through the California countryside … leaving a trail of wreckage, bodies, and painful revelations in their wake.

Convicts Frank Morris and Clarence Anglin have washed ashore in San Francisco after surviving their infamous escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in June 1962. They soon meet their gruff and disappointed handler, a mysterious young woman who’s also running from something, and hope to quickly get their way north to the border – if they can even make it out of Modesto alive. As a dogged federal manhunt and chance encounters threaten the desperate convicts, everyone involved is about to discover the same bloodstained truth: life on the run is an even more hellish prison than Alcatraz could have ever been.

“The possible escape from Alcatraz by three men in 1962 is one of those mythic loose threads in history, one that captured my imagination a long time ago,” said writer Christopher Cantwell. “Out of Alcatraz is my obsessive ruminations about what might have become of them if they really did make it off that island and out of the bay, and has turned into this American parable about what it means to be free and if any of us ever really can be. Watching Tyler render this tense, violent, and human story so beautifully with his visionary eye and hand has been one of the high points of my career as a writer.”

“To me, Out of Alcatraz is a classic ’60s crime/road movie,” said artist Tyler Crook. “These convicts, free of the world’s most secure prison, are confronted with the prisons that they create for themselves through their own worst instincts. This results in a tense narrative full of great characters and set in a fascinating time and place. Working with Chris has been amazing – we are both working our butts off to make this the best comic we possibly can.”

Pairing co-creators Christopher Cantwell – creator of critically heralded TV milestone Halt and Catch Fire and co-showrunner of The Terror’s upcoming return on AMC – and Tyler Crook – the master illustrator behind series like Harrow County with Cullen Bunn, The Unbelievable Unteens with Jeff Lemire, and his own Lonesome Hunters – together for the first time, OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 begins a harrowing epic of killers and convicts every bit as cold as Alcatraz Island itself, as told across five lavishly painted issues from two Eisner-nominated storytellers at the peak of their powers.

The race to escape the shadow of America’s most infamous prison begins this March in OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 – the double-sized, 48-page page first issue featuring covers by co-creator Tyler Crook, Oliver Dominguez (Electrical Wizard), Valeria Burzo (Castle Full of Blackbirds), Massimo Carnevale (Y: The Last Man), and Hayden Sherman (Absolute Wonder Woman).

OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 is the latest in a series of five all-new, genre-defying projects from acclaimed creators revealed by Oni Press for Spring 2025:

MINE IS A LONG, LONESOME GRAVE #1 by Justin Jordan & Chris Shehan | February 2025

OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 by Christopher Cantwell & Tyler Crook | March 2025

FREE FOR ALL #1 by Patrick Horvath | March 2025

PLAGUE HOUSE #1 by Michael W. Conrad & Dave Chisholm | April 2025

THE GODDAMN TRAGEDY #1 by Chris Condon & Shawn Kuruneru | May 2025

OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 (of 5)

WRITTEN BY CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL

ART BY TYLER CROOK

COVER BY TYLER CROOK

ON SALE MARCH 2025 | $5.99 | 48 PGS. | FC

Escape was only the beginning – find your way to freedom when OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 arrives in comic shops everywhere this March!

Author Profile

Al Mega

I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!