Sliders Had a 1990s Comic Book Spinoff: Everything to Know

Sliders remains one of the most beloved sci-fi franchises of the late ‘90s, thanks to 87 reality-hopping adventures through the multiverse. If you’ve already watched all five seasons (maybe even more than once) and you’re looking to expand your sliding experience, look no further than the back catalogue of your local comics dealer. There, you might find the sliders in an alternate reality and an alternate medium.

What happens to Quinn and friends in the Sliders comics?

In 1996, during the early seasons of the series, Acclaim comics took Sliders from the small screen to the spinner rack, publishing 10 licensed tie-in Sliders comics. The first two issues were simply titled Sliders, the rest had secondary titles tacked to the end.

The two-issue Sliders run hit store shelves in June and July of 1996, followed by Sliders: Ultimatum in August and September. Sliders: Darkest Hour ran for three issues from October through December 1996. Meanwhile, there were three Sliders Special issues, each containing a double-length 40-page story.

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The first Sliders Special, subtitled Narcotica, was written by Jerry O’Connell (Quinn Mallory), himself, and hit store shelves in November 1996, alongside the second issue of Sliders: Darkest Hour. The second and third Specials, subtitled Blood & Splendor and Deadly Secrets, came out in January and March of 1997, respectively.

Sliders

We open on a world filled with giant ants. Under the ferocious jaws of these gargantuan creatures, humanity never stood a chance and the sliders aren’t doing too well themselves. Fortunately, it’s about to slide, and they hop a portal to a fresh San Francisco. Or, in this case, not so fresh.

The entire city, maybe the entire world, is eroding before their eyes. The cause: a bizarre spacecraft flying over the cityscape, sapping the energy out of everything (including people) turning them first into pale shadows of themselves, and then into dust.

This is our first introduction to the Zercurvians, members of a 2-dimensional species who broke into the third dimension and lost their minds a little in the process. Now, they steal dimensional energy from one world after another in an endless attempt to maintain their 3-dimensional forms.

In the second issue, readers encounter yet another extraterrestrial species with their alien boots on humanity’s neck and a world where Atlantis never sunk. Fortunately, the Atlanteans are itching for a good fight and happy to lend a hand against extraterrestrial and extradimensional invaders.

Sliders: Ultimatum

All the world’s a circus, with all of the creepy and none of the fun. The sliders are stuck on a circus world where survival means walking a tightrope between entertainment and violence, and sometimes just walking a tightrope.

A portal delivers them to a hyper-religious world. The riders of a streetcar are summoned to the heavens in a beam of light, a constitutional amendment unites church and state, Roe v. Wade is overturned, all things which sounded appropriately like science fiction in 1996. On this world, the rapture is in apparent progression, but the real truth is more human and more nefarious. If the rapture isn’t stopped, it could tear this entire reality to shreds.

Sliders: Darkest Hour

The Zercurvians return after their supposed defeat at the hands of Quinn Mallory and the Atlanteans. They’re alive, but barely, struggling to maintain their form and stranded in the space between realities. In a last ditch effort they summon all remaining power and strike out at the sliders just as Quinn and friends leap into the abyss.

A wicked wave of energy catches the sliders in route to their next reality and plants a dark seed inside their minds. Quinn steals from a child, Wade attacks someone with a potted plant (only to reveal they were actually a robot), and that’s just for starters.

On this world, humanity has traded in their flesh and blood for the relative immortality of machine living. They can do anything and be anything, except for truly alive. Rembrandt nearly trades his own flesh and that of his friends, for a chance at living forever.

The four of them escape mecha world with their bodies intact and they land on a world that might be their own. But their hearts and souls continue their corruption and the only cure might be back through the looking glass.

Sliders Specials

The first Sliders Special, Narcotica, was written by series star Jerry O’Connell and deals with a world where drugs like ecstasy and cocaine are not only legal but compulsory. All manner of addictive substances are put into the food and water supply to keep the population docile. The growth and distribution of “un-treated” food is a crime and cartels rise up to smuggle food into the United States.

Sliders: Blood & Splendor, the second Special, is billed as a lost episode. We open on the sliders in an underground cavern, fleeing from a race of subterranean mutants. They leap first into a cavern and then into the space between worlds. Along the way to the next Earth, they see other versions of themselves in the tunnel, being attacked by mysterious slug-like creatures. Then they arrive on a world dominated by the Aztecs, where Quinn is the subject of a high-profile ritual sacrifice.

In the final Sliders Special, and the final issue to be published (another issue was halted mid-production and never hit store shelves) we visit a world where Wade’s birth parents are still alive, but estranged. A megacorporation has created an aggressively invasive plant which has collapsed Earth’s ecosystem. Now, they offer relative safety in space, for a price.

How do the Sliders comics connect to the Sliders TV show?

Rather than serving as a spinoff or retelling of the concept, the Sliders comics were meant to be read alongside the television series and understood as part of the same story. “My goal is to keep them as closely related as possible when it comes to character arcs and situations,” series creator Tracy Tormé told Earth Prime in 1996. “There will definitely be a single reality for both the comics and TV show, so that if fans pick up the comic and meet Rembrandt for the first time, they can easily watch the TV show and immediately recognize Rembrandt there as well. The comics have the potential to really blow the Sliders universe into the stratosphere. We’re definitely going to take advantage of that and not limit ourselves.”

Issues occasionally make references to specific episodes of the series, with footnotes, while other issues played with concepts tossed out of the TV writers room. The team behind the Sliders comics – D.G. Chichester, Dick Giordano, Mike DeCarlo, Jade Moede, Sam Rarszack, Bernard Chang, Kevin Kobasic, Mike DeCarlo, Sam De La Rosa, Val Mayerik, Dennis Calero, Barbara Kaalberg, and O’Connell) recognized the ability for the comics medium to accommodate bigger and flashier stories than could be achieved on TV.

“It’s always great to see you work interpreted in other media, and from a production standpoint, we can explore so much more in the comics than we can in the TV show. In comics, we aren’t limited by special effects budgets or anything like that. There really are no limits in comics,” Tormé said.

When you’re ready for another spin around the multiverse, all 5 seasons of Sliders are streaming now on Peacock!