First Look: Face Your Fears in CROWNSVILLE #1

Rodney Barnes & Elia Bonetti Unearth Decades of Terror on November 5th!
True Crime Meets Supernatural Horror in a Shocking Tale Inspired by the Tortured Past of Maryland’s All-Too-Real Psychiatric Hospital

Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, is proud to unleash a look inside CROWNSVILLE #1, the first in a chilling five-part series from Rodney Barnes — the Eisner Award-nominated writer of Killadelphia and Peabody award-winning writer of The Boondocks and Wu-Tang: An American Saga — and acclaimed artist Elia Bonetti (Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy)! Inspired by the real-life horrors of the notorious Maryland psychiatric hospital once called the “Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland” that preyed upon the segregated Black communities surrounding Annapolis, Maryland for decades, CROWNSVILLE #1 is a haunting fusion of true crime, tension-addled thriller, and roaring supernatural horror arriving in comic shops everywhere on November 5th with a DOUBLE-SIZED, 48 PAGE FIRST ISSUE!

Founded at the turn of the 20th century outside of Annapolis, MD, the Crownsville Hospital was a notoriously segregated, all-Black psychiatric institute. After decades of overcrowding and neglect— alongside darker, more-persistent rumors of patient abuse and illegal medical experiments—it was finally closed. Today, it stands condemned—a crumbling testament to a legacy of all-too-real terror inflicted on a marginalized and vulnerable community. But even as a ruin of its former self, Crownsville still casts a long shadow. . . . When an unexplained death inside the abandoned hospital is ruled a suicide, Annapolis police detective Mike Simms and journalist Paul Blairare are compelled to dig deeper, only to discover the reality of the horrors that once took place there . . . and the powerful connection they share to the anguished spirits of the dead that are still locked within its walls.

The past is a ghost that will devour you whole… Discover why on November 5th as master storytellers Rodney Barnes and Elia Bonetti unleash one of 2025’s most enthralling, most terrifying, and most spectacular statements on horror in CROWNSVILLE #1 – featuring wrenching coversJason Shawn Alexander (Spawn), interior artist Elia Bonetti (Darth Vader), Syzmon Kudranski (The Punisher), and Andrea Sorrentino (Gideon Falls, EC’s Blood Type)!

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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!