Charlie Adlard and Benjamin Dickson are preparing a new comic, The Mountains Belong To Us, for 2027. The project was previewed with free sampler copies at Thought Bubble in Harrogate, England, before a fuller publisher announcement expected later in the week.
The premise points toward a story rooted in loss and responsibility, then made stranger by a deliberately fantastical hook. A young woman loses her father while travelling to a convent. A shepherd takes her in, but he is later drafted into war, leaving her to take over the flock alongside Max, the sheepdog. Max can talk. So can the sheep, although the animals reportedly do not have a great deal to say.
That concise setup leaves major questions unanswered: the setting, the scale of the war, the identity of the publisher, the format of the series and a precise release date have not been detailed. But the early description is enough to establish an unusual blend of pastoral work, bereavement, upheaval and low-key animal fantasy.
A new direction for Adlard and Dickson
Adlard is widely associated with his art for most of The Walking Dead, a series whose reputation rests heavily on sustained survival horror and a long-running ensemble under extreme pressure. His other comics work includes The X-Files, and he has more recently written and drawn French BD albums, some of which have been translated into English.
“BD” is shorthand for bande dessinée, the French-language comics tradition that is often associated with album-format works. That background does not confirm a particular visual approach for The Mountains Belong To Us, but it helps explain why a project led by a shepherd, a flock and an isolated young protagonist need not resemble Adlard’s most famous zombie work in either tone or structure.
Dickson is known for Chamberlain, a graphic novel focused on the final years of Neville Chamberlain’s premiership. Its visual style was noted for connections to Hergé’s Tintin, while its story follows attempts to prevent the Second World War. That prior work makes the war-related element in The Mountains Belong To Us particularly noteworthy, even if there is not yet enough information to say whether the new comic will be historical fiction, a fable, fantasy or something that crosses between those modes.
The pairing also suggests a division of creative strengths rather than a simple reunion with familiar material. The information available identifies Dickson and Adlard as the comic’s creators, but does not specify individual writing, art, colouring or lettering credits. Readers should therefore avoid assuming a detailed credit breakdown until the publisher reveal supplies one.
What the premise establishes
At its core, The Mountains Belong To Us appears to place a personal coming-of-age story inside circumstances shaped by forces beyond its heroine’s control. She initially seems destined for a convent, loses her father on the journey, finds shelter with a shepherd and must then assume his livelihood after conscription takes him away.
That sequence gives the flock a practical narrative role. This is not simply a story where animals happen to be present: caring for sheep becomes the responsibility inherited by the central character. A flock entails routine, vulnerability and the need to make decisions every day, meaning the setting can naturally create pressure without requiring a conventional action-adventure framework.
The talking-animal aspect changes the register. Max’s ability to speak, and the limited speech of the sheep, signals that the book will not be plain realism. Yet the qualification that the sheep do not speak much matters. It implies the flock may function less as a chorus of constantly quipping characters and more as a restrained, uncanny presence within an otherwise emotionally grounded story.
There is room for the book to explore how a person reacts when every support system changes at once: family is gone, an intended future has been interrupted, a protector has been removed by war and an unfamiliar task becomes non-negotiable. Those are interpretations of the premise rather than confirmed plot points, but they are the tensions most clearly embedded in the announced setup.
The significance of a sampler at Thought Bubble
The first samplers were distributed at Thought Bubble, the comics festival and convention held at Harrogate Convention Centre. The event’s 20th show took place on November 14 and 15 as the culmination of a broader week of events across Yorkshire.
Thought Bubble is centered on comics creators, especially writers and artists, and has a stated emphasis on small press. That makes it a fitting venue for a sampler: it puts a physical introduction to an upcoming book directly in the hands of convention attendees before the wider publication plan is public.
A sampler is not the same thing as a finished issue or an indication that a title is on sale. In this case, it is best understood as a preview copy used to introduce The Mountains Belong To Us ahead of the official publisher announcement. The available information does not establish how many copies were printed, what pages they contain, whether additional samplers will be distributed, or whether the final comic will retain every element previewed there.
The festival itself began in 2007, founded by Yorkshire artist Lisa Wood, also known as Tula Lotay, as part of the Leeds International Film Festival. Its first event was held in the basement of Leeds Town Hall and drew a couple of hundred people. The convention later moved from Leeds to Harrogate in 2019, with space needs among the reasons given for the change.
For creators, events built around direct contact can be useful well before a book’s formal launch. A sampler gives readers a chance to encounter the title and its creative team in person; for the team, it creates an early, tangible identity for the project. None of that guarantees a particular publishing outcome, but it explains why a preview at a creator-focused show is more meaningful than a title drop without any material attached.
What readers can and cannot infer right now
The confirmed basics are straightforward: The Mountains Belong To Us is a 2027 comic by Benjamin Dickson and Charlie Adlard; it follows a young woman who comes under a shepherd’s care and later takes responsibility for his flock when he is drafted; Max the sheepdog speaks; the sheep speak sparingly; and preview samplers were handed out at Thought Bubble ahead of a publisher announcement.
Everything beyond those points needs caution. There is no confirmed issue count, graphic-novel length, release month, publisher name, retailer plan, digital edition, cover information or broad availability. Nor is there enough material to classify it confidently as a war comic, a fantasy comic or a pastoral drama. It may contain elements of each, but a premise is not a complete description of tone.
That uncertainty is part of what makes the upcoming publisher reveal important. It should answer the practical questions readers, comic shops and libraries need to know: who is releasing it, how it will be sold, when it arrives and what form it will take. Until then, the Thought Bubble sampler is the clearest sign that the collaboration is moving from concept toward publication.
For a wider look at comics built around a high-stakes central conflict, see Grendel: Devil’s Crucible–Sedition #4.
