Summit Comics Unleashes GRYMSTONE: SOIL & ASH on Kickstarter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SEPT. 8, 2026 (PORTLAND, OR) — Some toys were never meant to be played with.

Summit Comics is bringing GRYMSTONE: SOIL & ASH to Kickstarter, a five-part surreal folk-horror series written, colored, and lettered by Scott Alan Gregory, with art by Thiago Mottaand variant covers from Pete Collins, Juan Angel, and Damian Connelly (You Promised Me Darkness). The project earned Gregory a contract as the winner of the 2025 Summit Comics Writer Talent Search and now marks the publisher’s first villain-centered series.

A seven-inch-tall ’80s action figure possessed by the ancient spirit of a wicked woodland entity binds three troubled families across three different eras. As GrymStone’s influence takes shape, a Chicago man seeks help for his brother, who believes the talking action figure hidden in his basement is compelling him to commit violent acts.

GrymStone: Soil & Ash draws from the unsettling atmosphere of ’90s Vertigo horror to explore mental illness, inherited damage, and the evil that takes root beneath it all through the surreal, dangerous, and tragicomic storytelling that defined the era’s alternative comics landscape.

Reflecting on the creative freedom that followed his Writer Talent Search win, Gregory said:

“Winning the Summit Comics Writer Talent Search came with no roadmap. They welcomed me aboard, gave me the run of the kitchen, and let me cook. Artist Thiago Motta and I came back with GrymStone: Soil & Ash, a weird, personal, and uncomfortable story rooted in what draws me to folk horror: the discord between ontological dread and human fallibility. Ritual, dark symbolism, and sacrifice collide with ego, personal baggage, and hidden intention, inevitably giving way to desperation and violence. Creating this book has been both cathartic and revelatory, permitting me to be weird and wild while obliging me to dig into personal shortcomings and deep-seated trauma. ‘Write what you know,’ they say. With folk horror, it’s ‘Write what you don’t want to know.’”

Kickstarter backers can choose from rewards including signed scripts, original sketch cards and covers, and the opportunity to appear in the comic in a featured speaking role. A limited number of backers can also become the star of a customized two-page GrymStone story created for the Summit Comics Substack.

Drawing from the same surreal, psychologically charged horror as Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Hellblazer, and Shade, the Changing Man, GrymStone: Soil & Ash follows a villain whose influence spans three families and generations.

GrymStone: Soil & Ash is now live and runs through October 8, 2026. To learn more about the title and Summit Comics, visit https://readsumm.it/.