The latest project to stem from Tim Seeley's exclusive contract with DC Comics/Vertigo is a return to the horror genre for the creator most famous for his exploration of slasher movie tropes in Hack/Slash. Teaming with artist Stephen Molnar (Star Trek), the current Nightwing scribe is slated to launch Imaginary Fiends this October as part of DC's Vertigo imprint.

RELATED: Tim Seeley and Jesus Merino Board DC’s The Hellblazer

The series, described by Seeley "as a chance to tell a story about a broken person and her monster friend," tells the story of Melba, a young woman who spent years in an asylum after having attempted to kill her best friend. Melba is haunted by Polly Peachpit, an entity Melba claims forced her to try to kill her friend, and who has been haunting Melba ever since, a situation that has forced the pair to form a genuine relationship.

The series opens with Melba preparing to transfer from her underage facility to a federal prison on her eighteenth birthday, until the FBI intervenes and offers Melba the chance to stymie the plans of other entities like Polly, dubbed Interdimensional Mental Parasites.

"Imaginary Fiends is a return to horror for me," Seeley told SyFy Wire. "Fiends is darker, scarier, and more fanatical than anything I've ever done."

"It's always exciting to have the opportunity to create a new book," Molnar said of his first Vertigo series. "I hope our audience has as much fun reading our story as I do drawing it."

Imaginary Fiends #1, by Tim Seeley and Stephen Molnar, with a cover by Richard Pace, arrives in stores November 15 from Vertigo.

imaginary-fiends-concept-art-2

“Polly Peachpit.” Those were the words ten-year-old Brinke Calle said when she was found covered in her own blood by the woods in rural Cannon Falls, MN. Her best friend, Melba, had just attempted to murder her because a spider girl named Polly Peachpit told her to. Since that day, Melba has spent seven years in a mental health facility. Tomorrow is her eighteenth birthday. Tomorrow, she’ll be transferred to a federal prison. Tomorrow, her real sentence will begin.

That is, until she receives a visit from FBI Agent Virgil Crockett. Crockett explains that there is another world beyond ours, where hungry spectral aliens stalk the minds of the impressionable and weak. These things, called IMPs (Interdimensional Mental Parasites) feed on compliance. They convince hosts to do things for them, and the more they feed, the stronger they become. More IMPs stream into the world each day, invisible to everyone but his or her hosts.

After years of drugs and counseling, Polly and Melba have developed a unique relationship—and to Crockett, this relationship represents something her people can work with. In exchange for release from prison, Crockett asks Melba (and Polly) to serve as IMP hunters. For Melba, it’s a chance to prove that she’s innocent, convinced to murder by a monster...a monster she must now unleash.