I don’t know if you caught this, but everyone at Multiversity is a big fan of 2011’s Publisher of the Year Image Comics. They had an amazing 2011, and we noted that 2012 – Image’s 20th anniversary – was looking to dwarf their previous greatness.
Then, today at Image Publisher Eric Stephenson’s blog It Sparkles!, he commented on Marvel and DC’s desire to retread previous story beats to promote sales instead of looking to tell forward-thinking, honest-to-god great comic book stories.
He proceeded to tease five 2012 Image titles, giving us a first look at their covers in some cases. Those books include titles from people like Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples, Shawn Martinbrough, Nick Pitarra and a whole lot more – huge talents all – and they are some of the books we are most excited for in the coming year.
To follow up our excitement about Image and those titles, you can find Multiversity EIC Matt Meylikhov and I breaking down each of those titles after the jump, along with their covers.
Fatale
Creative Team: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Why you should be excited (David Harper): This is probably the easiest sell out of all of Image’s 2012 releases because Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are arguably the best comic creator duo in recent memory. They’re the peanut butter & jelly, Redford & Newman, Greenwood & Yorke, and Montana & Rice of writer/artist pairs, and Fatale looks like it should be an absolute blast as it combines femme fatales with Lovecraftian style monsters.
How does that not sound amazing?
If you don’t believe me that this is going to be solid gold Saturday night, please see the following: Criminal. Incognito. Sleeper. If you haven’t read those already, do yourself a favor and get on that and be the envy of Multiversity for being able to read those right now for the first time.
Saga
Creative team: Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Why you should be excited (David Harper): If you put either one of these creators on a title, it would be an absolute must buy for me.
On one hand, you have one of the most underrated artists in the industry in Staples, having earned an Eisner nomination on her first major work (North 40) and won a Shuster Award for Best Canadian Cover Artist. She’s the real deal, and someone who creates her work purely digitally which allows her to be very adventurous (and fast) in her artist endeavors. That means Saga could be one of the most gorgeous books of the year, very easily.
Then you have Vaughan. What else can I say about him? He was my choice for best writer of the previous decade and he’s my all-time favorite comic book writer. He’s like film director Stephen Daldry – ever thing he does is gold (like the Oscars). He’s, in my opinion, one of the best writers inside and outside of comic at bridging the emotional and interpersonal cores of human interaction with elegant sci-fi concepts, and Saga looks to be capable of being his magnum opus (which is saying a lot because the greatness of Y the Last Man).
If I could only read one comic in 2012, it would be Saga, and I highly recommend pre-ordering this title as soon as you can.
Manhattan Projects
Creative team: Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra
Why you should be excited (Matt Meylikhov): Unless you spent a good portion of 2011 under some kind of rock, I would imagine that you heard of the fantastic Image mini the Red Wing. Featuring the same creative team as the Manhattan Projects, it brought Hickman back to the creator-owned world with furious force and introduced the world to the extremely talented (and self-proclaimed Love, Actually fan) Nick Pitarra. The book was universally celebrated from fans of every element of comics, and it has remained one of the strongest showings of talent from 2011 that you can find contained within just four issues.
Continued belowNow, take the same winning formula of the Red Wing, remove the four issue mini aspect, and toss in a nuclear bomb. What do you get? You get The Manhattan Projects, and you get one of the single most highly anticipate titles here at Multiversity. The cover for the first issue alone instills great anticipation for the book, and if it is anything like the Red Wing then you’re looking at an immediate contender for Best New Title of 2012 already.
“Infinite Oppenheimers,” people. I don’t know what more you want.
Thief of Thieves
Creative team: Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer and Shawn Martinbrough
Why you should be excited (Matt Meylikhov): After his initial time spent working on the Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman came back to comics with the writer’s room approach fresh in his mind. Eager to employ that on a creator-owned title, Kirkman has assembled his own team for a brand new ongoing, Thief Of Thieves, to hopefully capture the same versatile energy prevalent in television scripting.
Bringing in Image wunderkind Nick Spencer as the first writer and the fantastic Shawn Martinbrough on art, Kirkman has assembled a can’t miss team of talent for this book. The early buzz for this book is intense, and everything we’ve seen so far looks absolutely great. This is assuredly going to be one of the biggest titles of 2012, and you’d be a fool to miss out on it.
Hell Yeah
Creative team: Joe Keatinge and Andre Szymanowicz
Why you should be excited (Matt Meylikhov): When Joe Keatinge was a young lad in high school, he put together the idea for a comic book. The book was a high-octane super-heroic thrill ride, a multiverse spanning ode to music and comics. That book is called Hell Yeah.
Coming out next year from Image, this is a book literally years in the making, drawing upon influences galore to (hopefully) create one of the best comics you’ll have the pleasure of reading throughout the entire year. Keatinge’s history in comic books as an editor and a fan alone should speak volumes of the quality of the title, and Szymanowicz’s kinetic and vibrant art is fantastic. Any fan of the comic medium would be absolutely foolish to skip out on this title, as it looks to be another creative and inspired entry into Image’s creator-owned superheroic line. Hell yeah, indeed!
