Dark Horse Comics has turned Sesame Street into a new, twisted action satire series for grown-ups, Survival Street.
CBR has an exclusive look at the new four-issue Dark Horse series. Launching this August, Survival Street comes from writers James Asmus (Rick & Morty: Corporate Assets) and Jim Festante (Rick & Morty Presents Mr. Meeseeks, The End Times of Bram & Ben), artist Abylay Kussainov (Brothers), colorist Ellie Wright (We Only Kill Each Other, The Black Ghost) and letterer Taylor Esposito (No One Left to Fight), with cover art by Kussainov and variant cover art by Benjamin Dewey.
Recommended for ages 14 and up, Survival Street puts a darkly humorous spin on the long-running educational children's television series. The synopsis for the series reads, "After an unbridled wave of corporations take over America the country is left completely deregulated. It is effectively carved up into feudal states where billionaires and businesses make their own laws. Among the wreckage, mass privatization shuts down public broadcasting, forcing all the beloved edu-tainers out on the dirty streets. A group of them sticks together, determined to keep helping kids across the country–and to do it by becoming an A-Team-esque band of mercenaries fighting for (and educating!) kids in the crumbling, corporate war zone of New Best America."
"Survival Street originated as our personal pandemic passion project, but once Jim and I connected with Abylay, he brought it thundering to life as the ultimate world and story to process so much of our anxieties, frustration, future shock, and gallows humor," Asmus said of the project. "And as a huge fan of Dark Horse's original series since the early days of Hellboy, Sin City, Madman, and The Mask - I'm thrilled and grateful they've been so supportive of this wild and surprisingly personal series."
Sesame Street first aired on PBS in 1969. Combining puppetry, animation, live-action and sketch comedy, Sesame Street was one of the first children's television shows to use a curriculum with education goals to shape its content. It's also one of the first shows formerly studied for its educational effects. The show has now aired over 4,500 episodes after it made the move to HBO in 2016 and then HBO Max in 2020. Past creators have based adult entertainment off Sesame Street, such as the Broadway musical Avenue Q, which won Best Musical, Book and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards.
Survival Street #1 releases on August 3 from Dark Horse. The issue is available for pre-order at local comic book shops.
Source: Dark Horse Comics