What happens when the act of helping someone becomes the spark that unravels everything?
This NCBD, Mad Cave Studios presents IS TED OK?, the newest creator-owned series from award-winning cartoonist and musician Dave Chisholm (Spectrum, Miles Davis & The Search for the Sound), who writes, illustrates, and designs the series in his signature, formally inventive style. Across six oversized issues, with covers by Chisholm, and a variant Cover B by Eisner Award-winning comic book artist Christian Ward (Batman: City of Madness, Two Face, Event Horizon).
Is Ted OK? unfolds as a spectacularly unpredictable yarn—each issue widening the lens, escalating the stakes, and shattering the scope of the issue before it, all without losing its beating heart: the search for human connection in an oppressive, paranoid world.
IS TED OK?
Writer, Artist, & Letterer: Dave Chisholm
Release Date: February 25th, 2026
Synopsis: This is a story about Ted and Sarah. Ted, isolated and paranoid, works for a mega-corporation owned by the world’s only trillionaire. He suffers from night terrors, obsessively draws the same mysterious figures again and again, all while listening to one track of music on repeat–oh, and the only “person” he ever talks to is a stray cat. His humanity is hanging by a thread.
Sarah is a new arrival to the city, fighting her own demons, and her job is to remotely spy on Ted to ensure he doesn’t hurt anyone…or himself. When Ted’s mental state begins to crack, Sarah compassionately intervenes to help, and things go catastrophically wrong.
Writer and Artist, Dave Chisholm
Dave Chisholm is a cartoonist and musician currently living in Rochester, NY where he received his doctorate in jazz trumpet from the Eastman School of Music in 2013. Hailed by ComicsBeat as “one of the most exciting comic auteurs working in comics today,” Dave Chisholm is best known for his formally-inventive music-related comics including Ringo-Award-winning “Miles Davis & the Search for the Sound” and “Spectrum.” In his ambitious newest work “IS TED OK?” he brings his innovative approach and emotional vulnerability to a PKD-esque sci-fi world.
“I really, really can’t wait for everyone to read this book. IS TED OK? began years ago with a handful of songs that sparked images in my head, and from that, Ted and Sarah were born. From there the story kept snowballing: the allure and horror of a surveillance state, the threat of a mysterious dome, corporate doublespeak, violence, power, empathy, and what pushes someone toward or away from human connection. All of it fed into this strange, funny, horrifying, and deeply human sci-fi mystery. Each of the six oversized issues expands the scope and raises the stakes, and I’m beyond grateful to Mad Cave Studios for believing in the full ambition of this project. I promise it’s going to blow your mind visually, narratively, and emotionally.”
– Writer and Artist, Dave Chisholm
See What Critics Are Saying!
For readers who crave high-concept sci-fi with emotional teeth. Is Ted OK? leans into the paranoia of Severance, the scale and strangeness of Akira, and the narrative daring of Mind MGMT and Department of Truth—all while grounding the story in something deeply human: the fragile, necessary search for connection in a world built to suppress it.
Is Ted OK? #1 is now available on the official Mad Cave website, and is available at your favorite bookstore, local comic shop, and digital comic reader!
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