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Our Five Most Anticipated Image Books of 2014 (Times Two)

By and | February 10th, 2014
Posted in Columns | 21 Comments

Recently, our MC2 column broke down our five most anticipated Marvel titles for 2014, and one of the comments suggested we do the same for Image. We thought that was a great idea, so for this week’s Countdown, our MC2 team of David Harper and Matthew Meylikhov chose the five Image Comics books they’re most excited for in 2014. There is a lot to look forward to from them, and you can share in the comments the ones you’re looking forward to most in the comments.

David’s Picks

5. MPH

When it comes to superhero comics, my favorite power set is undoubtedly superspeed. Whether you’re talking about The Flash family or Quicksilver, speedsters are my jam.

Also my jam are Mark Millar and Duncan Fegredo, an artist who draws a lot of people’s ire and an artist who deservedly is beloved amongst artists and fans. The reasons why for both of them are similar, as they’re just great storytellers that I connect with very naturally, and as part of Millar’s new shared universe, I can’t tell you how excited I am to have the two of them working together.

On speedsters no less! The best of both worlds, I say!

4. HowToons: [re]ignition

I really love all-ages things. I think there is nothing more impressive than creating a piece of art that works for everyone, no matter the age.

I also love things that help people learn, and given that HowToons [re]ignition is an all-ages comic that helps people of all ages learn about scientific concepts and experiments, this book really covers my bases well. The fact that this is coming from writer Fred Van Lente, artist Tom Fowler and colorist Jordie Bellaire just ensures that this won’t just be a worthwhile comic, but a great one as well, and I truly hope that this book connects with audiences like I think it should.

3. 8HOUSE

Ummm…Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland and Emma Rios and others combining for a sprawling, shared universe fantasy story? What’s the point in writing more words? What else needs to be said? This is certain to at the very least be one of the most fiercely creative and unique books of 2014 and beyond.

Some still aren’t very familiar with these creators because they haven’t done a lot in terms of Big Two books, but you’d be making a massive mistake if you aren’t in on this book from day one. Add this to your pull whenever you can, and be thankful that you did when the first issue blows your mind.

2. Starlight

I previously mentioned that Mark Millar is a favorite of mine, but I’m going to be honest, he isn’t the reason this finishes high at all.

Goran Parlov is.

Parlov is one of the underrated masters in comic art today, and everything we’ve seen this book makes it obvious that this might be his best work yet. It’s like he’s channeling Moebius in bringing a Flash Gordon story to life, and those words cannot not be awesome. This will be a gorgeous, perpetually inviting read from Parlov, with Millar vandalizing the art with his words presumably in a pleasing fashion. I’m all in on this one.

Also, I just may have read the first issue and it just might be a truly wonderful and powerful debut. Just saying.

1. Southern Bastards

Jason Aaron is in a dead head with Brian K. Vaughan as my favorite writer in comics, and the fact that he’s going back to creator-owned, more adult stories like my beloved “Scalped” has me very, very excited. That series is an all-timer, and I love that he has former “Scalped” collaborator Jason Latour onboard with him for “Southern Bastards.”

That said, I’ve read very little about this book, nor do I think I will going in. I would buy a book by Aaron and Latour if it was about Brony superheroes, and the fact that it involves the South, crime and football in some sort of way is way better than that. That’s enough for me, but all I need to be through the roof excited is Aaron and Latour. That’s like a gold star that says “guaranteed quality” for me.

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Matt’s Picks

As a note before we begin: I want it to be known that, given the spirit of the article I’m going to go full hyperbole here. If this weren’t a Countdown article, it might as well be a Hype Machine. So please keep in mind that all objectivity is otherwise out the window here, because all I want to do right now is read comics I don’t have in my hands and celebrate why these comics are assuredly going to be — in technical, scientific terms — the bomb dot com.

5. Shutter

If there’s one thing that I think will be good, it’s Joe Keatinge writing an adventure comic in the style of Tintin. I mean, honestly — I don’t know how familiar you are with Joe Keatinge, but if there is one thing in the world he loves more than just being alive and breathing air, it’s French comics and Tintin and Corto Maltese and things like that. So when he says he wants to do his version of that, you just know that he’s going to be giving it his all. Plus, add in the enormous talent of Leila del Duca, who will be publishing her first major comics work with this book and you’ve got a recipe for success. I’m not particularly sure how familiar you may be with del Duca’s work, but I’ll tell you a secret: if you hop on over to her DeviantArt page, you can see some sneak peeks at “Shutter” already, and let me tell you — they look great.

Honestly, there are times where books just sound like they’ll be labors of love right off the bat, not in that they’ll be a challenge to make but just in that there will be so much care and affection poured into the pages that it’ll be instantly infectious with joy and fun and awesome. To me, that’s what “Shutter’ sounds like, and I can’t wait.

4. Starlight

I have a very rocky relationship with Mark Millar’s work. Earlier in his career I would’ve told you he was one of my favorite creators. Honestly, there are a lot of books that he has done that can be pitched as “What if we tried to make X or Y bad ass and cool?”, and I think the results work (see: the Authority, the Ultimates). But the older I got, the more I read comics, the less enthused on his work I am. There are the stray books that I think are really well done (Superior, for example), but then there’s a lot that just does nothing for me (Nemesis, for example). But Starlight looks different, it feels different — this book seems a lot more thoughtful or insightful. And while parts of it seem to be emblematic of other issues I have with his oeuvre, everything I’ve seen and everything I know about this book sounds like it’ll be really something beautiful.

I mean, at the very least it has Goran Parlov, right? Let it not be said that Millar doesn’t consistently work with some of the best artists around, and Parlov’s Moebius riff on the preview pages of Starlight just look astonishing. Like nothing I’ve ever seen from him before.

So, how could I describe my hopes and expectations? Black holes and revelations. I will be chasing the Starlight until the end of my life. I don’t know if it’s worth it anymore. [Editor’s note: I bet David groaned when he read that.]

3. Stray Bullets: Killers

Stray Bullets is a book I’ve only become acquainted with recently, but my god do I love it. It’s one of those books that I read now and think, jeez, what was wrong with me that it took me so long to discover this brilliant crime series? I mean, honestly — Image putting the first four issues online for free is the equivalent of a crack dealer just handing out four free bags of crack to potential clients; you know they’re going to get hooked, but you might as well get them really hooked. So of course I have the omnibus pre-ordered and of course I can’t wait to see what comes next in the revised, updated, revisited series. I’ve always liked David Lapham’s work, but man…

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Look: if you haven’t tried out Stray Bullets yet, trust me — you don’t know what you’re missing. This is going to be one of the best comebacks of 2014. I can feel it in my bones.

2. The Wicked and the Divine/Phonogram 3

The Wicked and the Divine and Phonogram 3 go very much hand-in-hand for me as a singular entity, because they come from the same mindset — Kieron McKelvie and Jamie Gillen. Or is it the other way around? The Kieramie McKelvin hybrid machine of comic making is one of my favorites in the industry; here are two creators that do so amazingly well together that I think for myself and many others, they’ve simply become one great entity who make beautiful comic books — books that touch our hearts and our brains.

True story: I’ve only ever written one fan letter, and it was to Phonogram. I love that book. I can’t wait to see it come back. And after my recent interview with Kieron over his new collaboration with Jamie, I can only expect things just as amazing if not more so than what they’ll produce with the return of Phonogram. Bring it all on!

1. Southern Bastards

Southern Bastards is one of my most highly anticipated series of the year if only because in every way this book sounds perfect. I mean, Jason Aaron and Jason Latour? If there are any two collaborators that have not produced a creator-owned ongoing together more perfect than these pair, then I don’t know them. Aaron and Latour both have these genuine Southern affectations about them that combining their love of deep fried food and gritty crime, I can only expect that this series will be as good (if not better) a perfect fit as, say, Jamie and Kieron on a music-related comic. Plus, I’ve been itching to have a new Aaron-penned creator-owned series in my pull since Scalped ended, so this is an amazing sounding series coming down the pipe to fill that void.

So really, this is like a mathematical equation that just makes sense: Aaron + Latour + Southern + Bastards = awesome. There’s literally nothing about this book that doesn’t tickle my fancy, which is the least Southern bastard way to describe my excitement for the series. So pretend I said something that just sounds like chicken getting fried and that’s the sound of my excitement.


//TAGS | Countdown

David Harper

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Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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