Any time you hit your family doctor with an ailment outside their clinic's day-to-day capabilities, what do they do? Send you to a specialist. But what if your malady is vampirism? Or demonic possession? Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner have the cure for what ails the supernaturally afflicted in today's Witch Doctor #1. Protagonist Dr. Vincent Morrow is a man who knows the unknown, taking a clinical approach to healing those stricken with the gruesome parasitic entities whose presence in the human body manifest in seemingly magical ways. Dr. Morrow doesn't rock a cape, helmet or amulet on his quest, just a stylin' white suit that's sure to see a laundromat after he's gotten his heal on. Not every patient survives Dr. Morrow's surgeries, but his Hippocratic actions get an "A" for effort when the alternative is a wooden stake through the chest. Check out select pages from Witch Doctor #1 after the jump.

The first of a four-issue miniseries, Witch Doctor #1 follows a short #0 story that debuted at the end of The Walking Dead #85, which established the kind of dirty work the hero would be getting into. Packaging a zombie story with Dr. Morrow's brand of medicine is no mere coincidence, however, as Witch Doctor is the first new series to be released by Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint through Image Comics. The Portland, Ore. team of Seifert and Ketner filled us in on their excitement over publishing through Skybound last summer, noting the support of Kirkman and other industry professionals in fostering the book's development from a treatment to a full-fledged mini:

"We've always had amazing luck with catching publishers' eyes. Scott Allie shopped us for a potential story in "MySpace Dark Horse Presents" the very first weekend our first issue was out (Stumptown Comics Fest 2008 in Portland), and he and the other Dark Horse folks have always been big supporters of ours," wrote Seifert, "Lukas has gotten work based on 'Witch Doctor' from Dark Horse and Top Shelf, and we've had a lot of attention from a handful of publishers, including folks who didn't think the book was right for them but liked what they saw. We also got a couple offers for 'Witch Doctor,' including one from one of the larger indy publishers... but then Robert came along."

Skybound hasn't shied away from comparing Witch Doctor to television shows like House and Fringe, and for the most part the equivalence is accurate. Morrow's a quirky hero at home in a world overstocked with maladies most would be happy to live in ignorance of, embodying humanity amid insanity while still flashing the occasional smirk at death.

From the official Witch Doctor press release:

Meet Vincent Morrow, a doctor looking for a vaccine... for the apocalypse! In this stand-alone first issue, a family needs Dr. Morrow's help with their son's illness: Demonic possession. But when Morrow attempts an experimental cure, he discovers the boy's disease isn't all spinning heads and pea soup - it's like nothing you've seen before!

Read select pages from Witch Doctor #1 below: