Sunlight kills.

Everywhere the bodies of the dead lay where dawn caught them.

Now the survivors of the solar plague cower in darkness during the day.  They flee by night while cities burn.

We caught up with John O'Connor to get an update on Black Dawn.

Horror News Network: Can you catch our readers up to speed on what has happened so far in this series?

John O'Connor: Yes, absolutely.  For some period of time that we will never know, a disease has quietly propagated around the world.  Carriers were symptom-free but highly contagious, and gradually the disease spread everywhere.  Until one day, like the ILOVEYOU virus, something in its inner workings turned it on.  Then all the people who had been quietly living with it experienced a sudden fatal hypersensitivity to sunlight, complete with hemorrhagic eruption of the skin.  The effect on societies everywhere was sudden and crushing.  Everything came to a halt.  Few even understood what had happened.  In the US the government and the military are trying to organize some kind of refugee relief operation, but even that is hardly functioning.

So we are following a small family as they flee the chaos of a dying city in a stolen truck.  They head into the desert, bound west for California.  They fought off an attack by bandits, and now have come across a remote refugee collection station operated by the military.  The father is Jedediah Miller.  He is a cop who got shot by the bandits early on in the story.  His two kids, both teenagers, are daughter Sherry and son Jay.  They have their own issues.  Their mom died before the solar plague.  They don't get along at all.  Jed made Sherry promise that she would have her brother if something happened to him.  Now Jed has died from a gunshot wound, and the people who run the refugee station think that the plague came from God as a way to cleanse the world of sin.

There is a primitive medical logic operating here too. There is a kind of natural immunity that exists to most diseases. Some people resist infection to even very contagious diseases.  You see it in the world of pest control too.  There are always a few roaches who are immune to the latest poison.  The people who run the station are looking for those few people who might have that immunity to the solar plague.

Horror News Network: Can you provide a bit of a spoiler on what upcoming obstacles the Miller family will face?

John O'Connor: Well, what I can tell you is this: watch out for the drunk guy.

Horror News Network: In your opinion, how does this survival horror comic stand out from those that are on the market today?

John O'Connor: There are some great titles out there today.  Look at The Walking Dead, for example.  They are terrifically done.  What makes Black Dawn different is that the characters are barreling deeper and deeper into an impossible situation that may be fictional, but is really no different from real life.  We're lucky in America in 2010.  I think of the people who, through no choice of their own, ended up living in Poland in 1939 when the Nazis invaded, or trapped in the World Trade Center on September 11th.  People react differently in truly stressful situations.  You have to look at yourself and say: what would I do?

Horror News Network: Will this series be collected in a trade?

John O'Connor: That's the plan. We're halfway through the six issue series now.  I just reviewed the revised storyboard for #5.  They're looking great.  Jeff Clemens is a super talented artist.  I'm lucky that he saw my ad on Craigslist.  And our friends at Scare Tactix Graphix are great to work with.  We owe them a lot.

Horror News Network: Are there any plans for a follow up of this series?

John O'Connor: There are a few things in the works.  There are some folks in California putting together a potential movie and game package based on Black Dawn.  I'm also planning a potential follow-up featuring some new characters and some new takes on what happens to the world in the aftermath of the solar plague.

Horror News Network: Where can our readers find out more about Black Dawn?

John O'Connor: Come to www.blackdawnweb.com for one.  They can also friend our Facebook page.  Or they can contact me at john@blackdawnweb.com.  I'd love to hear from anyone who is curious.  This is the kind of story that won't appeal to everyone, but there is an audience out there looking for what it would be like to live in a world that has gone to hell.  This is for them.  And if they want, they can be in a future issue.  We've had a few folks that wrote to us and told us how much they enjoyed it.  We put them in as characters in the story.  Hey, we're fans too.  We thought it would be fun.

Horror News Network: In closing, what would you like to say about what is to come in Black Dawn?

John O'Connor: You just have to decide for yourself: what kind of a person are you?  When the chips are down, when everything is falling apart, what kind of person are you at the core?  That is what our characters will have to ask themselves.  And this too: Come sunrise, where are you going to hide?

Horror News Network: Thanks for your time John.  Comment on this interview on our forum.