Disciples

Marin County, 1978. In this graphic novel, teens Clara and Wendy get high one night alone at home. Before the night ends, they've disappeared ― until five months later, when Clara is found, disheveled, but alive, in Death Valley National Park.

From Clara's mysterious reappearance in Death Valley, Disciples cuts to the present day, where stories of "The California Cult" and its enigmatic ― and never-caught ― leader, Billy Joe, are as much a part of the popular culture as the Manson Family. Clara, the lone survivor of the cult, has adopted a new identity to protect her and her daughter, Wren. And she mostly does, until one night when the past and present horrifically collide.
Disciples is a seamless collaboration between cartoonist Ben Marra and filmmakers David Birke and Nicholas McCarthy. Birke and McCarthy's script celebrates and reinvents a cult film ethos. It combines the best of 1970s era eerie-thriller-terror movies in a fresh and revelatory way, similar to how Marra has continued/reinvented the work of Abel Ferrara and George Cosmatos in graphic novels like Night Business.
Black-and-white illustrations throughout

David Birke is a screenwriter known for the films Elle (2016), Slender Man (2018), and 13 Sins (2014). He lives in Tarzana with his wife and two daughters.



Nicholas McCarthy is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and writer known for the feature films The Pact (2012) and The Prodigy (2019), and a writer on Nickelodeon’s 2020 reboot of the classic horror television series Are You Afraid of the Dark?


Benjamin Marra is the author of several acclaimed graphic novels from Fantagraphics, including Terror Assaulter(O.M.W.O.T.), Night Business, and American Blood. He received a B.F.A. in Illustration from Syracuse University; studied in Florence, Italy; and earned his M.F.A. degree in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts. He lives in Montreal.

Benjamin Marra is the author of several acclaimed graphic novels from Fantagraphics, including Terror Assaulter(O.M.W.O.T.), Night Business, and American Blood. He received a B.F.A. in Illustration from Syracuse University; studied in Florence, Italy; and earned his M.F.A. degree in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts. He lives in Montreal.