DC’s ‘The Nice House on the Lake’ continues with ‘The Nice House by the Sea’ this July

This July, James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno’s award-winning DC Black Label horror series THE NICE HOUSE ON THE SEA is set to continue with a second cycle, entitled THE NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA.

For those who missed the Eisner Award-winning original series, which placed firmly in our “Best of the Year” lists in both 2021 and 2022, it features a group ten friends who are invited to a weekend getaway at a secluded house on a lake by their mutual friend Walter. There they discover that Walter, who has always seemed a little strange, actually has an ulterior motive for the gathering – namely, the end of the world, which has seemingly been caused by “his people”, with them along being hand picked for survival. Trapped in isolation as the entirety of the planet is destroyed, the friends are forced to reconcile a life where everything they need is provided for them with the nagging guilt, anxiety and terror at what is unfolding outside of their ‘bubble’.

Rather than continuing the existing story directly, this new series takes us to a brand new house with a brand new host, and promises to add several intriguing new wrinkles to the format established in the first series. Here’s the official synopsis:

No one who was invited to the House by the Sea knew Max—but she knew each and every one of them. Masters of their fields, titans of industry and knowledge, they all represented the best and brightest of humanity. The cast of DC’s The Nice House by the Sea, a second 12-issue comic book season launching on Wednesday July 24 by acclaimed The Nice House on the Lake creators James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire and Andworld Design, includes the Doctor, the Writer, the Historian, the Actor, the Artist, the Priest, the Scientist, the Singer, the Politician, and the Mathematician. This time, they’re all strangers. And they’re at the House by the Sea by choice.

“The people in this house do not like each other,” shared Tynion. “They don’t want to spend time with each other. There have been some weak bonds that have formed over time, but none of them are particularly affectionate toward each other. This is a house of strangers and tension much more than a house of friendship, and we’re going to see the way that guilt, boredom, and loneliness has twisted each of them.”

“Unlike our lake house, everyone in The Nice House By The Sea accepted the deaths of all their friends, family, and loved ones,” continued Tynion. “They accepted the eradication of the human race and their selection as the last humans that will ever exist. It’s a truth some of them think they can live with, but the way they are living with it is by never, ever looking at it.”

“I’m working with one of the best creative teams in comics right now,” added Martínez Bueno. “We’re doubling the stakes we placed three years ago and we’re pushing The Nice House on the Lake in new directions while holding together the core of what makes the project so exciting. The challenge of creating the new cast, the new locations, and reimagining the entire iconography of the series for The Nice House by the Sea has been the most exciting of my career so far.”

THE NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA #1 goes on sale July 23rd 2024, and you can feast your eyes on some early unlettered preview artwork below.