The X-Files, that classic TV series that took off recently with its The X-Files Season 10 monthly comic book series, will be expanding The X-Files universe even further.  IDW Publishing revealed some details about the new series Sunday at WonderCon in Anaheim, California.

Writer Karl Kesel (Marvel’s FF, Superboy), artists Vic Malhotra (The X-Files: Conspiracy, The Crow) and Greg Scott (The X-Files Season 10) are teaming up to tell the secret origins with The X-Files: Year Zero, a five-issue miniseries debuting in July.  The artists will split duties with Malhotra drawing the 1940s story following two agents that go by Bing and Millie, and Scott drawing present-day Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder as they tackle a mystery with ties that date back to the beginning of the FBI’s X-Files unit.

Cover art will be created by The X-Files Season 10 artist Carlos Valenzuela, with retro/pulp novel cover variants by Robert Hack (Doctor Who).  Even borg.com favorite cover artist Francesco Francavilla will be supplying a cover variant for the first issue.

“I’ve always thought the 40s would be a wonderful setting for X-Files, with the Russian red menace, atomic mutations and flying saucers all lurking in the shadows— what I like to think of as ‘UFO Noir,’”  said writer Karl Kesel.  “Of course, iconic characters like Mulder and Scully are a joy to write, and being given the opportunity to introduce their predecessors— Bing Ellinson and Millie Ohio— well, the truth is it’s all a little unbelievable to me.  But the unbelievable is what X-Files is all about, isn’t it?”

The cover shows the first look at Bing and Millie, who seem inspired at least somewhat by Glenn Ford and Gloria Graham in The Big Heat (1953) or maybe that’s Jane Greer from Out of the Past (1947).

Look for The X-Files: Year Zero in July at comic book stores everywhere.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com