In 1776, artist Toriyama Sekien created the Gazu Hyakki Yako, a four-volume collection of magical power.  A person who has all four volumes will have the knowledge to control worlds. 

Sekien hid the volumes in the five planes of the Godai, represented by different elements: Chi (Earth), Sui (Water), Ka (Fire), Fu (Wind), and the mysterious Ku (Void).  Both the Shugenja and Omi are searching for the books to attain ultimate power and sovereignty.

Rumors a volume of the Gazu Hyakki Yako in America bring agents of the Omi and Shugenja.  A young yamabushi named Miyako is dispatched to Los Angeles with her mentor, Senpai, to search for the book. Unbeknownst to them, an agent of the Omi, Genyosha, has already arrived.  

The volume was found and is protected by a raccoon-dog yokai named Tanuki in the guise of an old Japanese man selling import products in Little Tokyo.  To assist him, he creates an inugami, or "ghost dog," that inhabits the body a teenage African-American boy he names Goro, and raises him as a foster son. 

Goro and Miyako will unite with friends, Kamen Cole, and reneged yokai named Shima, a kyuketsuki, or vampire, to defend Little Tokyo and keep the Shugenja/Omi war from destroying their sanctuary where yokai and humans coexist.

WHAT IS IMMORTALITY?

Can a man resurrected from the grave die again?

LAZARUS: Immortal Coils #1, the first in a four-part miniseries starring the Biblical figure as an immortal warrior in a city built by demons where humans are used as hosts for an invasion.  The miniseries is created and written by Joseph Gauthier, penciled by Carlos Rafael Duarte (Highlander: Way of the Sword), with covers by Casey Edwards and Kevin Sharpe.

“We’re taking it to the next level.” says writer/creator Joseph Gauthier. “There is something absolute when dealing with anything biblical. The closer you are to the source, the more ‘real’ it feels and unquestioning it becomes. While immortality in fiction is nothing new, we’re not talking about a hero who was unwittingly bitten by a vampire, born with a genetic quirk, or part of an experiment. Lazarus was raised by Jesus, “The Man” himself. We flip the script on the monster genre; the mystery isn’t what kills the monsters, but the hero. There’s a lot of fun you can have with that.”

Immortal Coils begins in 33AD as Lazarus recounts his origins, and readers are introduced to his present day conflict in Gehenna, a city built by demons that refer to themselves as Aeons, and builds towards a conflict with his nemesis, Ahasverus, the “Wandering Jew.”

Joseph Gauthier continues, “We’re answering the question of what happened to these guys, especially Lazarus, who just up and vanishes after his resurrection. They’re flips on the same coin, both interacting with Jesus; one blessed, the other cursed, on course for a head-on collision that’ll crack the world wide open. And did I mention there are monsters?”