Image Comics has gotten to a really interesting place. When ranking their series, I found myself much more excited about #2 and #4 issues than #1s. Comics (especially comic solicits) are oriented towards the future, towards the next big thing. But Image has a lot of good contemporary series! For the first time in a few years Image has a good number of exciting series all at once. Wanna know about some of the best series in comics? Here you are.
As always, you can get the full solicitations from the Image Comics website.
10. Drink deeply and descend
Brubaker/Phillips comics have become pretty familiar by now. They have a very classical no-frills noir mode, and that’s that. When they were young and hungry, they’d lend that style to different genres- cosmic horror, superhero espionage, Archie parodies. But then they said, “Fuck it,” and now they just do cool, confident crime stories. You like that genre? Then this is probably your favorite comic this month.
FOLLOW ME DOWN: A RECKLESS BOOK HC
WRITER: ED BRUBAKER
ARTISTS: SEAN PHILLIPS & JACOB PHILLIPS
COVER: SEAN PHILLIPS
OCTOBER 12 / 144 PAGES / FC / M / $24.99THE SERIES NOMINATED FOR THREE 2022 EISNER AWARDS!
The fifth book in the bestselling RECKLESS series is here! Crime noir masters ED BRUBAKER & SEAN PHILLIPS present yet another original graphic novel starring troublemaker-for-hire Ethan Reckless.
In the wake of the 1989 earthquake, Ethan takes a trip to San Francisco to search for a missing woman. But almost immediately, he finds himself going down a path of darkness and murder in a case unlike anything he’s faced before.
FOLLOW ME DOWN is the most intense of the RECKLESS books so far and yet another hit from the most acclaimed team in comics, creators of PULP, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, CRIMINAL, THE FADE OUT, and KILL OR BE KILLED. A must-have for all BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS fans!
9. Wisdom of Urdr!
I don’t know when we started getting so many mythology comics, but its great. Like the Brubaker/Phillips noir, these myth comics are no frills telling of classic stories. Not a re-imagining or a subversion, just good executions of ancient stories and ideas. “Beware the Eye of Odin” boasts a mega-troll, and I am 100% confident that if the ancient Norsemen knew the word “mega,” they would be describing everything that way.
BEWARE THE EYE OF ODIN #4 (OF 4)
WRITER: DOUG WAGNER
ARTISTS / COVER: TIM ODLAND & MICHELLE MADSEN
SEPTEMBER 21 / 48 PAGES SELF-COVER / FC / T / $4.99In the series finale, Helgi, Stigr, and Kadlin must face off against the Troll Witch Doctor and his monstrous mega-troll. At stake…the fate of the nine realms.
8. Broken-hip Hunger Games
Chrissy Williams! Comics fans might know her as the editor of “The Wicked + The Divine.” English majors might be familiar with her delightful, playful poetry (seriously English majors, check a book of hers out from your local library). This is the first time she’s writing a comic, and it’s about a geriatric Hunger Games. If this comic is 10% as fun as her poetry, this might be on the shortlist for the years best.
7. Arcane Post Apocalypse
Here’s one where I don’t have a lot to go off of. I haven’t read “A Thing Called Truth,” which is
Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli’s last series of note. But I like the art, and the premise feels mysterious and thus intriguing. It seems like it’s a rebuilding-after-the-end narrative, which I dig. I also dig Romboli’s bright-n-moody art style. And it sounds like it’s got a thread of Post-Brexit politics? This is a #1 to look out for!
Continued belowTHE LEAST WE CAN DO #1
WRITER: IOLANDA ZANFARDINO
ARTIST / COVERS A, B & C: ELISA ROMBOLI
SEPTEMBER 14 / 32 PAGES SELF-COVER/ FC / T / $3.99Mysterious magical power arises from a world nearly destroyed by war. A young woman fights for her ideas of revolution and to build a new society from the debris. Realizing that she can’t do it alone, she has to prove her worth to the Eclipse Rebels to join them against the dreadful Eden Army.
A story of discovering what is right and what love means in a military-occupied and socially oppressed United Kingdom.
6. Go Go Skullface Rangers
I like everyone involved in the wider Radiantiverse (which for some reason they are calling the “MassiveVerse”!?). Despite this, I don’t think that I’ve really loved “Radiant Black” and “Radiant Red” all that much. So call it a testament to the promise of the story and team that I keep coming back again and again to these comics. And maybe this will be the one to realize its full potential.
THE DEAD LUCKY #2
WRITER: MELISSA FLORES
ARTIST / COVER A: FRENCH CARLOMAGNO
COVER B (1:20): LUKE GREY
SEPTEMBER 7 / 32 PAGES SELF-COVER / FC / T+ / $3.99The debut of San Francisco’s newest electric superhero rubs plenty the wrong way, and Bibi struggles to find common ground in her relationships with both the living and the dead. As the Salvation Gang beefs up their army, Morrow takes a quieter approach to unmasking the vigilante.
5. Can’t Check Out
Funny-man Kyle Starks is doing a serious horror series! Serious but not self-serious. That’s how I’d describe the excellent first issue of “I Hate This Place.” Sometimes Starks’ writing can feel a little sweaty, like he’s really focusing on the delivery of a single joke. This series has been smoothing out some of his bad habits, and it’s a slow-burn high-pressure story in no rush to get anywhere. This series feels like the maturation of Starks, who is already crazy talented. I hearby upgrade this recommendation from “if you like this sort of thing” to literally everyone. Everyone should check this series out!
I HATE THIS PLACE #5
WRITER: KYLE STARKS
ARTISTS / COVER A: ARTYOM TOPILIN & LEE LOUGHRIDGE
COVER B F**K THIS PLACE VAR (EXPLICIT): ARTYOM TOPLIN & LEE LOUGHRIDGE
SEPTEMBER 28 / 32 PAGES SELF-COVER / FC / M / $3.99The girls have finally left the woods you’re not supposed to go in, but they’re still not safe. They’ll never be safe on Rutherford Ranch, and they’ll never be able to leave it.
4. More like perfect
“Flawed” is a new series from writer Chuck Brown and… woah. Musta trailed off there. I just saw the name Chuck Brown and I was transported back into the pages of “Bitter Root” the award winning hit series that Brown is most famous for co-writing. Brown comes with a perspective, an aesthetic, and heaps of talent. This solicit reads like nonsense and I don’t even care, it’ll become pointed nonsense nested in some world-class cartooning work.
FLAWED #1 (OF 6)
WRITER: CHUCK BROWN
ARTIST / COVERS A & B: PRENZY
SEPTEMBER 28 / 32 PAGES SELF-COVER / FC / M / $3.99BITTER ROOT cowriter CHUCK BROWN and superstar artist PRENZY (ON THE STUMP) reunite for this ultra-violent, high-octane limited series that’s Frasier meets The Punisher!
Gem Ezz is a psychiatrist in the Kafkaesque city of Setham, where corruption and brutality rule the streets. By day, she uses words to solve her patients’ problems. By night, she takes a more direct—and sometimes deadly—approach. But when her practice puts her in the sights of an immortal serial killer, Gem finds herself embroiled in a power struggle that threatens everything she’s ever known.
3. Cyborg and the City
Not too often you see a one shot on here! But then again, it’s not often that Gabriel Rodriguez draws a new comic. I mean sure, he drew a little comic called “Locke & Key,” one of my favorites of all time. But what has he done for me lately? Here it is, his foray back into mainstream comics, and it’s about a cyborg lady in a collapsing future Nigeria? This issue sounds awesome!
Continued belowONYX (ONE-SHOT)
WRITER / CO-PLOTTER: CHRIS RYALL
ARTIST / CO-PLOTTER / COVER: GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ
SEPTEMBER 28 / 96 PAGES / FC / M / $9.99Locke & Key artist and co-creator GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ, colorist JAY FOTOS, and writer CHRIS RYALL bring you the complete, extra-length tale of a cyborg warrior who calls herself Onyx!
Onyx arrives in a near-future Nigeria beset by overpopulation and food shortages alongside another alien entity that corrupts all lifeforms in its presence. Is Onyx here to save the planet or, in its final throes, help hasten its destruction?
2. Eight Month Marker
Holy shit this book you guys. This book is so fun. It is flawless. It’s the perfect fusion of an insane story idea, a tight script, ludicrous art, and a perfect execution. Five issues in means we are eight months into the story of what happens after every human being was gifted with one magical wish. I uh, can’t even imagine what that planet looks like. But I don’t have to, because Charles Soule and Ryan Browne plan to show me. I won’t miss it and neither should you!
EIGHT BILLION GENIES #5 (OF 8)
WRITER: CHARLES SOULE
ARTIST / COVER A: RYAN BROWNE
COVER B: TRADD MOORE
SEPTEMBER 28 / 32 PAGES SELF-COVER / FC / M / $3.99Witness…the FIRST EIGHT MONTHS!
In the eight months after G-Day, when everyone on Earth acquired a genie and one wish, the world has become a very strange place, full of danger and whimsy and…more danger. We need a hero for these times. We need…THE IDEA MAN!
1. Inverted Electric Chair into an Alabama Slam!?
The first issue of this series blew me away. That’ a little surprising considering Daniel Warren Johnson has proven himself to be one of the most reliable talents in comics. The dude can write, he can draw, and he never has written a bad comic. He also loves wrestling. This is an emotional, supernatural story of a high stakes mortal kombat tournament. But it’s also a story about a family, about passion, and about what drives humans to get out of bed in the morning. Even if this doesn’t feel like something written directly at you- you don’t care about wrestling, or maybe you read and hated “Extremity”- you should check this book out. It’s the most well-drawn and the most human story currently unfolding in comics.
DO A POWERBOMB #4 (OF 7)
WRITER: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON
ARTISTS / COVER A: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON & MIKE SPICER
COVER B: RYAN LEE
SEPTEMBER 14 / 32 PAGES SELF-COVER / FC / T+ / $3.99The Knights of Rhyne have been training in the ring for years to destroy the evil Necroton, and now they have a chance to do it by winning the DEATHLYFE tournament! Only one problem: SUN AND STEEL are in their way!
