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The fictional serial killer contest in James Tynion IV & Michael Walsh's new series Exquisite Corpse is more than just a comic book storyline... it's a game you can play
Tynion and series co-creator Michael Walsh have revealed that Exquisite Corpse will also be available as a game coinciding with the comic book's debut
The Pacific Northwest's premiere comic + pop culture show Emerald City Comic Con 2025 has come and gone, but if all you have are memories and regrets we got you covered. From a recap of all the big moments of the show, to VODs of all the panels from the Main Stage powered by Xfinity, and even details on the ECCC 2026 dates so you can do it all over again (or for the the first time).
As with all the best suspense stories, Tiny Onion’s upcoming new series, Exquisite Corpses — created by James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh, and to be published by Image Comics later this year — has a secret at its heart: it’s not actually a comic book series after all. Or, rather, it’s not only a comic book series.
As teased during Tynion and Walsh’s Friday evening Emerald City Comic Con 2025 panel, Exquisite Corpses will extend beyond the comic book page, with the story also existing as a playable card game that will launch alongside the comic — although, just as the comic has ashcan previews available at ECCC, there might be some preview cards to be found inside some merch available at the Tiny Onion booth, if you know where to look.
Development on the game started almost simultaneously with development with the comic, with Walsh — who, in addition to his comic book work, is also an artist for Magic: The Gathering — bringing an early version of the game mechanic to one of the earliest creative summits for the project. Exquisite Corpses, which has been in development for close to two years by this point, centers around a contest between 13 serial killers in one small town in America that can only have one winner; the killer left alive when everything and everyone else is dead.
"One of the things that was really, really exciting in how we built this, that goes back to that first conversation where it was just like, 'Hey, this is an idea that we think that at its core, it's about a game.' And Michael was just like, 'You know what? We could just make the game, and make it a game that people can actually play,'" Tynion remembered during the panel.
"And then Michael showed up at that first story summit, six months before the rest of the team was there. He was like, 'I think I have a game mechanic,' and started in front of us on all of these little dry erase cards, actually creating the stats for each of the characters in front of us, like, 'Ah, we'll do something like this, something like this.' And then we played a version of the game right there on the table and it was really fun. And it was like, oh, this could be something. This could be a really, really cool thing."
While Walsh and Tynion purposefully didn’t reveal too much information about the game at the panel, they did let slip two particularly interesting details: it will be a card game, and yes, players will have the chance to play as the various killers in the comic book series.
More information about Exquisite Corpses the game will be released in the months leading up to the May 2025 launch of the comic book series.
And if you are thinking about attending Emerald City Comic Con next year, get a Popverse ECCC Superfan membership to get guaranteed first access to tickets, premium access to the celebrity photo ops & autographs, automatic reservations for Main Stage panels, access to an exclusive lounge, and more.
About ECCC 2025
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