SDCC ’25: Black Mask announces CALEXIT benefit comic

Black Mask Studios will debut a new issue in its Calexit series at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2025, with profits benefiting families impacted by ongoing ICE raids via Alliance San Diego’s Immigrant Relief Fund. Calexit: Battle of San Onofre #1 is written by Matteo Pizzolo and illustrated by Butch Mapa and will be available from Thursday, July 24 until Sunday, July 27 while supplies last at Booth #5536.

Battle of San Onofre follows a group of friends who are radicalized by a Department of Homeland Security raid at their workplace. Here’s the full synopsis:

Zora Donato was working at a Dunkin Donuts in Oceanside when a Homeland Security raid inspires her to join the Oceanside Resistance and fight back against DHS Occupying Forces entrenched in a newly-declared independent California. 

Although the comic is particularly timely now, it was written last year, before the current wave of deportations under the second Trump administration. Calexit has long put its fictional story to work in the real world through fundraisers, campaign spotlights, and more. Calexit: All Systems San Diego raised funds for the San Diego Rapid Response Network in 2018 and character Emmie-X became a face of that year’s “Get Out the Vote” campaign in California. Writer Pizzolo has also contributed his royalties to forming the “Become the Government SuperPAC” and each issue of Calexit features interviews with real-life organizers, activists, and local political candidates. Those featured succeeded in their primary elections.

“With Calexit, I do my best to keep the dystopia optimistic and constructive. I focus on characters struggling to do the right thing for each other in a world gone mad,” said Pizzolo. “I wrote this character-origin story last year, and it’s heartbreaking to see real world events devolve at such a rapid clip and mirror the comic’s dark speculation. We’re doing what we can with the tools at our disposal, raising money for an organization that is on the frontlines, helping people.”

During SDCC ’25, Black Mask will have the entire Calexit series available for purchase at Booth #5536.

Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from SDCC ’25.