Last year, during the pandemic months, the prolific Albany post-hardcore collective Self Defense Family dropped a series of previously-unreleased archival records, many of which were really good. (“Jesus Of Nazareth“? Banger.) A couple of weeks ago, Drug Church, the other band led by Self Defense frontman Patrick Kindlon, announced that they’ve got a new EP called Tawny on the way. But Self Defense have a new project, too. Self Defense have recorded a soundtrack album for a new graphic novel.

In addition to leading his two bands and hosting his various podcasts, Patrick Kindlon writes comics. Next month, as Brooklyn Vegan reports, Z2 Comics, the same company that’s putting out the Mitski-soundtracked This Is Where We Fall, will publish a new book called Run The Dungeon. Kindlon wrote the book, collaborating with artist Goran Gligovic. Talking to Brooklyn Vegan, Kindlon describes the book like this:

Being trapped in a scary stone labyrinth got entirely too dark and serious for me the past decade. I found myself wanting to read a proper 2nd Edition D&D style dungeon crawl. Where death is looming, but your job is to laugh in its face. Goran’s work inspired me to actually write what I’d been imagining, because he perfectly captures the energy of good-natured adventure. His art makes me feel like I’m in a basement with friends, arguing the effectiveness of the magic missile spell. Building Self Defense Family into the project came naturally, as these were ideas we’d been talking about for some time while Chris expanded into composing music for TV. Run The Dungeon is the result of these two things colliding into a complete storytelling experience for me, and I think for readers as well.

Self Defense Family have shared the early track “View From Beneath,” which finds Kindlon bellowing over a contemplative synthscape. It sounds more like Future Islands than I was expecting a new Self Defense track to sound. Check it out below.

Run The Dungeon is out 6/29, via Z2 Comics. Pre-order it here.