Crownsville Weaves a Tale of Horror Surrounding a Notorious Maryland Hospital

When it comes to contemporary horror comics, it’s hard to beat Image Comics’ Killadelphia. That’s why we’re thrilled to learn that co-creator Rodney Barnes is branching out for a new horror project at Oni Press called Crownsville. And it’s one with deep roots in America’s racially charged past.

IGN can exclusively debut the first preview of Crownsville #1, the first in a five-issue limited series written by Barnes and drawn by Star Wars: Darth Vader artist Elia Bonetti. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

Crownsville is a modern-day horror mystery centered around Crownsville Hospital, the infamous all-Black psychiatric institute located in Annapolis, Maryland. Though long since abandoned and left to rot, the hospital serves as the setting of a dark mystery as a police detective and a journalist investigate a mysterious apparent suicide.

Here’s Oni’s official description of the series:

Founded at the turn of the 20th century outside of Annapolis, Maryland, 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.

“Crownsville is the supernatural mystery tale I’ve been dying to tell,” said Barnes in a statement. “From a childhood haunt born in a place of pain, it’s my cathartic effort I’m thankful to share with the world. I can’t wait for folks to get a look at it.”

Crownsville #1 will be released on November 12, 2025.

In other comic books news, you can check out our exclusive preview of Deadpool/Batman #1 and see a new trailer for Johnny Depp and Ridley Scott’s Hyde.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.