Image is never short of new titles, and March and April see a couple of interesting launches from familiar creators, as well as some lesser known creations. Let’s dig in.
10. A peak into an unknown (to me) world
No matter how informed you try to be about comics, or whatever the media of your choice is, there will always be gaps in your knowledge. One of my such gaps is the 7174 publishing house from Ashley Wood and T.P. Louise. So, the fact that they’re taking inspiration from 2000 AD and publishing excerpts of their work in an anthology format is a super fun idea. It’s an unexpected partnership from Image, but I’m here for it.
7174AD #1
WRITER: T.P. Louise, Ashley Wood
ARTIST / COVER A / COVER B / COVER C: Ashley Wood
APRIL 17 / 48 pages / SC/ — / $4.99
SERIES PREMIEREFirst time in (news)print! From the fevered brain and drawing desk of TP LOUISE and ASHLEY WOOD comes an all-new ongoing series collecting bits and bobs from ASH’s storied career. Up first, two full-length tales, “Duostar Racers” and “Miss and Mrs”! Featuring 48 newsprint pages of madness and mayhem!.
9. Feline horror
One of the things that gets overlooked in the larger comics discussion is that while there are certainly lanes that comics tend to fall into, those lanes are porous. “Feral” isn’t exactly an all-ages comic, but it certainly has elements of kid-friendliness. But it also has some scary stuff, and that is why I’m interested in this. We need more comics that appeal to audiences that aren’t so neat and organized.
FERAL #1
WRITER: Tony Fleecs ARTIST: Tone Rodriguez, Trish Forstner COVER A / COVER B / COVER D / COVER F: Trish Forstner, Tony Fleecs
MARCH 27 / 32 pages / FC/ / $3.99SERIES PREMIERE A NEW HORROR FROM THE CREATORS OF STRAY DOGS! Meet Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch, three indoor cats lost in the not-so-great outdoors during a nightmarish rabies outbreak. Without their humans to protect them, the cats rush to find their way home before they’re eaten by the forest full of rabid beasts on their tails. Don’t get bit. Don’t get scratched. Don’t become…FERAL.
8. Rockaby
Rick Remender is, perhaps, the creator that has done the most work for Image over the past decade or so. He’s become a near constant presence in the Image solicits, and is one of the creators who launches a series and sees it through for awhile. In the current atmosphere where series last like six issues, Remender is able to get his stories told at the pace he wants. With Remender again is Bengal, an artist who doesn’t get enough praise. And so the combo of Bengal and a fun premise is enough to get me interested, even though I tend to find Remender’s creator-owned work a little lacking.
NAPALM LULLABY #1
WRITER: Rick Remender ARTIST / COVER A: Bengal COVER B: Daniel Warren Johnson COVER C: JG Jones COVER D: Yanick Paquette COVER E: Jeff Dekal COVER F: Andrew Robinson COVER G: Davi Go COVER H: James Harren COVER I: Sanford Greene
MARCH 13 / 48 pages / FC/ — / $4.99SERIES PREMIERE The bestselling creative duo of RICK REMENDER & BENGAL reteam for NAPALM LULLABY, an all-new, ongoing dystopian epic with a special double-length first issue! A child with unimaginable power is raised to believe he is God by a cult of zealots utterly confident in the moral authority of their religion. The Magnificent Leader has imposed his will on humanity and created the ultimate theocracy. Join them, or be cast out to suffer with the masses.
7. The sewer illuminati
Do I really need to sell you on a book that is about a cabal of witches that operate like the five families of the mafia wit art by Mirka Andolfo? Come on now.
Continued belowUNDER YORK #1 (OF 6)
WRITER: Sylvain Runberg ARTIST / COVER A: Mirka Andolfo
MARCH 27 / 32 pages / FC/ — / $3.99MINISERIES PREMIERE New York’s destiny is written in its depths… Alison Walker is a promising young painter in Manhattan. But she has a secret. She’s also a witch. She and her family belong to the world of Under York, a mysterious, underground New York where five powerful clans of witches have reigned for centuries. These families with their strict codes of life, drawn from the country’s main communities (African, Irish, Chinese, Mexican, and Amerindian) practice magic as powerful as it is dangerous. For generations, they have been hunted and persecuted. Today, they secretly influence life on the surface and its inhabitants. Their revenge is to participate in the destiny of a world that banished them. And this is the universe in which Alison Walker grew up. The universe she fled and doesn’t want to hear about anymore. Until fate catches up with her… Acclaimed French writer SYLVAIN RUNBERG (Watchdogs, Warship: Jolly Roger) and superstar Harvey Award winner MIRKA ANDOLFO deliver a fascinating tale, where urban fantasy takes root in the bowels of the world’s most famous city. Two universes—that of contemporary New York and its dynamism and modernity, and that of the secret, underground magical clans of Under York—collide in the destiny of a young witch on the run.
6. Spawn continues to…spawn I guess?
It is wild to me how the Spawn Universe has actually taken at Image. When the company launched, Todd McFarlane seemed like one of the creators least likely to manage a large, connected universe. Folks like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld went for that almost instantly, but it took McFarlane almost 30 years to really get the shared universe off the ground. “Rat City” is the newest series in that universe, and it brings time travel into the Spawn story. Even if you’re not a huge “Spawn” reader, the ambition McFarlane is finding at this point in his creative life is interesting.
RAT CITY #1
WRITER: Erica Schultz ARTIST / COVER A: Zé Carlos
APRIL 10 / 40 pages / FC/ — / $3.99SERIES PREMIERE The EXTRA-LENGTH first issue of RAT CITY has finally arrived and features the talents of ERICA SCHULTZ (THE DEADLIEST BOUQUET, Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood) and ZÉ CARLOS (Captain America, Strange Academy: Moon Knight). Peter Cairn is an ex-soldier, an amputee, and a Hellspawn in a post-war future. But Peter’s not dead like Al. Peter got his Spawn powers from the nanites in his prosthetic legs—nanites that were affected when Al Simmons initiated his necroplasmic detonation in the present. Al had no clue that the effects would ripple across not just space, and but time as well.
5. An interesting pairing of setting and character
Much like I was saying about “Feral,” I like that this book is taking a classic fantasy character, usually associated with love and beauty and setting it in a terrible post-apocalyptic setting. This is this high on the list because I think my daughter might be really into it, if it doesn’t make her too sad.
THE LAST MERMAID #1
WRITER / ARTIST / COVER A: Derek Kirk Kim
MARCH 06 / 32 pages / FC/ — / $3.99SERIES PREMIERE A lone mermaid roams an endless wasteland on a quest beyond reason. To press ever onward, she must survive the interminable stretches between tiny pockets of water, the roaming bands of cybernetic cannibals, and the fearsome mutant beasts. What propels her forward to take such a risk?
4. Turtle Creator-Owned Power!
Of all the high-profile creators of the 80s, Kevin Eastman and his TMNT partner Peter Laird haven’t really cashed in on their names outside of their most famous creation. Sure, Eastman worked at Heavy Metal for a long time, but this is the first time in recent memory that Eastman’s name is being used as the selling point for a new series. The fact that the series is about a comic creator is even more fun. I really have no idea what an Eastman-led comic will feel like in 2024, so I’m very interested in checking this out.
DRAWING BLOOD #1 (OF 12)
WRITER: Kevin Eastman, David Avallone ARTIST: Kevin Eastman, Troy Little, Ben Bishop COVER A: Kevin Eastman COVER B: Ben Bishop COVER C: Robert Rodriguez, Ben Bishop
APRIL 24 / 32 pages / FC/ — / $3.99SERIES PREMIERE The legendary KEVIN EASTMAN, co-creator of the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and former publisher of the popular Heavy Metal magazine, returns to comic with a look into the roller coaster life of a successful comics creator. When you create a global franchise before you turn twenty…what happens next? Readers will follow the jaw-dropping journey of Shane Bookman—a cartoonist whose real life has become more absurd and action-packed than any comic book story he could dream up!
3. A milestone
Books like “Monstress” are so consistently good that we often times don’t give them their flowers. When I’m looking for a comic to review, I’m drawn to something that will surprise me in its quality, good or bad. I know that Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda are producing work at such a consistent quality that I tend to not write about it. But “Monstress” is a rarity in comics – a 50 issue creator-owned title – and one of the highlights of Image’s publishing line. Here’s to (at least) 50 more.
Continued belowMONSTRESS #50
WRITER: Marjorie Liu ARTIST / COVER A / COVER B: Sana Takeda
MARCH 27 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99In the landmark 50th issue of MONSTRESS, Maika must confront the mysterious Wave Court while Master Ren navigates the politics of the cat world in a time of shifting allegiances and unexpected devastation.
2. Don’t call it the Killing Zone
It seems like a foregone conclusion in the rumor mills that the books coming out as part of Ghost Machine at Image were part of Geoff Johns’s proposed ‘Killing Zone’ imprint at DC that never materialized, with the characters tweaked and shifted into creator-owned territory. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but as a guy who had his second big comics-awakening when Johns was doing his magic at DC, this is an exciting time for a potential new shared universe(s) under Johns’s purview. There are a number of Ghost Machine titles this month, but I figured it made sense to hype the main title, which is returning as an ongoing.
GEIGER #1
WRITER: Geoff Johns ARTIST / COVER A: Gary Frank COVER B / COVER C: Ivan Reis, Danny Miki
APRIL 03 / 32 pages / FC/ — / $3.99SERIES PREMIERE IT ALL STARTS HERE! The critically acclaimed team of storytellers GEOFF JOHNS and GARY FRANK (GEIGER: GROUND ZERO, Doomsday Clock) return to the nuclear wasteland of their bestselling GEIGER for an ALL-NEW ONGOING series starring the violent and unpredictable GLOWING MAN! Leaving his home behind, Tariq Geiger now walks the radioactive roads of the former United States with his two-headed wolf Barney. But as his enemies doggedly pursue him, Geiger discovers salvation from the unlikeliest of foes. But what secrets does this potential ally hold that could help Geiger? And exactly how many people are after The Glowing Man… and why? Don’t miss this vital, action-packed chapter in the shared universe of THE UNNAMED saga and the momentous Ghost Machine rollout!
1. They heard us!
Look, I’m not the kind of guy to say “I told you so,” but our readers voted that they wanted a Gill-Man comic, and now, six months later, it is arriving.
Thanks for reading Multiversity, Skybound staff!
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LIVES! #1 (OF 4)
WRITER: Ram V, Dan Watters ARTIST / COVER A: Matthew Roberts, Dave Stewart COVER B: Joshua Middleton COVER C / COVER D: Joshua Middleton, Dani COVER E: Joshua Middleton, Dani, Joelle Jones COVER F / COVER G: Joshua Middleton, Dani, Alex Ross
APRIL 24 / 32 pages / FC/ — / $4.99MINISERIES PREMIERE A NEW HORROR DREAM TEAM RESURRECTS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC MONSTERS Acclaimed creators DAN WATTERS (HOME SICK PILOTS, Lucifer), RAM V (The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Batman: Detective Comics), and MATTHEW ROBERTS (MANIFEST DESTINY) rise from the depths for an all-new epic. Years after the events of the original film, journalist Kate Marsden hunts for a notorious serial killer in the heart of the Amazon. Hot on the trail of this madman, she soon encounters an unexpected new threat—but is it friend or foe? Or is it simply…THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON?
Find the full solicits by using a search engine of your choice.
