Welcome back to another exciting installment of Soliciting Multiversity! In today’s edition, I will be taking a look at the Image Comics solicits for April 2014 — and boy howdy, are there ever some exciting solicits to share with you this month! I mean, if you thought there was good stuff last month, just wait until you see this month’s output.
Seriously. Just wait.
For the full list of solicits be sure to head on over to the Image Comics website.
10. Apparently Robert Kirkman is Writing Invincible?
Image sent out a bunch of press releases for this, but apparently this guy named Robert Kirkman is writing some comic called “Invincible?” I don’t know who wrote it before or whatever, I guess it didn’t really matter, but now this new guy Robert Kirkman is going to be writing it and he’s starting it from #1 even thought it’s #111 but I guess people just like the number one (even though it’s the loneliest number, but I guess it is less lonely now). And this guy Robart Krikmen is also writing “the Walking Dead” which I think is based on the AMC TV show, so that’s got to be a pretty cool gig, right? Translating a TV show into a comic? Congrats to this Kirkman guy on finally making it!
INVINCIBLE #111
story: ROBERT KIRKMAN
art / cover: RYAN OTTLEY
APRIL 16 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $2.99
THE WALKING DEAD CREATOR ROBERT KIRKMAN WRITES INVINCIBLE!!!
A new beginning for INVINCIBLE as things take a turn down a dark path. Everything changes as Invincible is betrayed by one of his own. You won’t want to miss this explosive issue #1… 1… 1! It packs the punch of THREE relaunched number one issues! IN ONE BOOK!
9. One Shot To Live, Part One: Genesis
Image will be releasing two new one-shots this coming April, starting with a book from Nathan Edmondson and Alison Sampson. You might remember Edmondson from his recent engagements at Marvel writing Black Widow and Punisher in their new adventures, but Edmondson got his start at Image putting out some damn fine and visually arrest comics. Honestly; if you ever see Edmondson’s name on the cover of an Image, you can guarantee the artist he’s working with is going to be giving it their all in new and unseen ways — Tonci Zonjic, Christian Ward, Nick Klein, Bret Weldele and now Alison Sampson! I am very excited.
(Now if only we can get the ends of “Jake Ellis” and “Dream Merchant.”)
GENESIS (ONE-SHOT)
story: NATHAN EDMONDSON
art / cover: ALISON SAMPSON
APRIL 16 / 56 PAGES / FC / T / $6.99
A trippy journey of creation and destruction as one man finds himself with the ability to manifest anything by thinking it — only to learn that with seemingly unlimited power comes unstoppable terror.
8. Oh, Now I Can Spotlight Stray Bullets!
So, last month, solicits for March came out, and we all thought that was the end of it. But no — Image went and held a damn press conference announcing that “Stray Bullets” was coming back with a final issue, a new series and an omnibus! And if I’d known about that, I would’ve written about it in this damn column. But, we didn’t and I didn’t!
And now I know! And now I can excitedly tell you that “Stray Bullets” is back and remind you to pre-order the ever loving heck out of this. Because this coming is fucking amazing.
Continued belowSTRAY BULLETS: KILLERS #2
story / art / cover: DAVID LAPHAM
APRIL 16 / 32 PAGES / BW / M / $3.50
When her niece, missing for almost a year, shows up on her doorstep with a horrifying secret, Carol Hogarth will find out that people can be poison…especially if that person is named Virginia Applejack. Find out what best friends, worst enemies, an artificial leg, and a bottle of rum all have to do with “THE KILLER WHO AWOKE BEFORE DAWN.”
7. One Shot To Live, Part Two: Self-Obsessed
Our good friend Sina Grace is releasing a new one-shot, full of “rare and never-before-seen autobiographical strips.” And if that’s not enough to sell you on this, then I don’t know what to tell you — you just have horrible taste in comics.
Sina’s art is great, though, and he’s a very humorous storyteller. With these strips assumedly all being candid work (I’d imagine), it’s hard to not support this one-shot and buy every copy you can. $3.99 for 40 pages? Come on.
SELF-OBSESSED ONE-SHOT
story / art / cover: SINA GRACE
APRIL 2 / 40 PAGES / BW / T+ / $3.99
For fans of his gothic-tinged retail hell graphic novel NOT MY BAG, SINA GRACE (LI’L DEPRESSED BOY, BURN THE ORPHANAGE) presents a collection of rare and never-before-seen autobiographical strips! Packed with new stories for this edition, SELF-OBSESSED is packed with quirky and humorous insights about comics, love, dreams, and, of course, frenemies.
6. One Collection of Three
“Three” is a very good comic by some very talented people that is not getting nearly the amount of praise and attention it deserves. I don’t particularly know why; maybe people don’t like minis, maybe they don’t like Sparta when it doesn’t involve people being kicked down a well. No matter what the case is, this collection of “Three” belongs in just about every home out there, because it’s a wonderfully beautiful and rather interesting take on a culture that has been bombasted with a specific set of iconography in the past few years — and this book is just a bit more real than that.
THREE TP
story: KIERON GILLEN
art / cover: RYAN KELLY & JORDIE BELLAIRE
HISTORICAL CONSULTANT: PROF. STEPHEN HODKINSON
APRIL 9 / 144 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99
Collects THREE #1-5
In ancient Sparta, three Helot slaves run for their lives. Pursuing them are three hundred of their Spartan masters. KIERON GILLEN (PHONOGRAM, Iron Man), RYAN KELLY (Local, Saucer Country), and JORDIE BELLAIRE (THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, NOWHERE MEN) join forces to tell a legend for our times. Includes cover gallery, making of material, and annotations.
5. Glory Gets the Deluxe Treatment
Back at New York Comic Con 2011, I was put in a room with a man I’d never met before as we talked about the upcoming release of a book that hadn’t been officially announced yet. It was a lot of fun! And that man was Joe Keatinge, and that book was “Glory” — and I loved it. And now, for those of you who didn’t buy it while it was coming out like I did, you can get it in one big volume with all kinds of cool stuff! I sort of envy you. I kind of want to buy it for myself. I mean… oversized Ross Campbell art. How can you go wrong?
GLORY: THE COMPLETE SAGA HC
story: JOE KEATINGE
art / cover: ROSS CAMPBELL
APRIL 23 / 352 PAGES / FC / T+ / $34.99
Collects GLORY #23-34
THE ACCLAIMED APOCALYPTIC WAR SAGA COLLECTED IN ITS ENTIRETY!
ROSS CAMPBELL (Wet Moon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and JOE KEATINGE (Marvel Knights: Hulk) finally collect their critically-acclaimed and brutally told saga of one warrior and her family torn apart by a millennia-old intergalactic war. This is the complete story, collected in its entirety for the very first time in a deluxe oversized hardcover edition. Includes never-before-seen sketchbook material, scripts, commentary, and interviews.
4. Nowhere Men Finally Returning?
Popping up in this month’s solicit is “Nowhere Men” #9, which is important for two reasons. One, it lists Moritat as the artist, and I’m all like, whaattt? I mean, we knew Emi Lenox was coming onboard, but now good ol’ crazy lovable Moritat?? And two, if “Nowhere Men” #9 is solicited… surely that means the book is going to be coming back now, yes? I vote yes. YES!
Continued belowNOWHERE MEN #9
story: ERIC STEPHENSON
art: MÖRITAT, JORDIE BELLAIRE, & EMI LENOX
cover: MÖRITAT & FONOGRAFIKS
APRIL 23 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $2.99
The world is changing.
3. And Image Expo Begins to Pay Off!
The first (well, ok, second technically) book announced at Image Expo 2013 is now solicited! And it’s one of the ones I’m most excited for! Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Duca’s new book sounds incredibly fun, and I have it on good authority that the first issue will rock your socks off. Like, all the way off. And with variants by Weaver, Graham and Rios, there’s just so much to be excited about this little book that I don’t even know the proper way to end this sente
SHUTTER #1
story: JOE KEATINGE
art / cover A: LEILA DEL DUCA
cover B: DUSTIN WEAVER
cover C: BRANDON GRAHAM
cover D: EMMA RÍOS
APRIL 9 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.50
INDIANA JONES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY!
Marvel Knights: Hulk and GLORY writer JOE KEATINGE teams up with artist extraordinaire LEILA DEL DUCA for her Image Comics debut in an all-new ongoing series combining the urban fantasy of Fables and the globe-spanning adventure of Y: The Last Man. Kate Kristopher, once the most famous explorer of an Earth far more fantastic than the one we know, is forced to return to the adventurous life she left behind when a family secret threatens to destroy everything she spent her life protecting.
2. Brisson and Roy Get Lost in “The Field”
Oh, look at that! My favorite Ed and the wonderfully talented Simon Roy have a book coming out from Image, and it’s set for April for you to pre-order and enjoy! Ed tells me that it is very good, but Ed has been known to lie to me. Then again, Simon Roy is wonderfully talented… Hmm. Well, maybe if Ed finally gets someone good at lettering to handle his books it’ll be a decent read.
I kid, of course. I am very excited to check this out. It’s my #2 pick after all. Ed’s a talented writer, and I bet Simon’s going to make Ed look like a really talented writer with his art, because that’s the kind of wonderful talent that Simon Roy brings to the table.
THE FIELD #1 (of 4)
story: ED BRISSON
art / cover: SIMON ROY
APRIL 2 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.50
A man wakes in a field wearing nothing but his underwear. He’s got no idea who he is or how he got there. His only connection to the outside world a cell phone on which he receives mysterious texts warning him of impending danger. Danger like Christian, an ex-bible sales-man in the middle of crime spree fueled by Christian Rock, dirty sex, meth, murder and keeping this underwear clad, nameless and pastless man close by his side.
1. Southern Bastards!
I’ve already sort of flailed in excited text over this book already, so probably no real reason to do it again, right? But if you want to check out a preview of the book, we posted one — and it looks damn good.
A personal anecdote: One day a couple years ago, I spent all day sitting in a hospital waiting room, waiting for a phone call that could either be really good news or really bad news. I wasn’t too worried; I’m sort of an optimist, but you never know. Sometimes bad things happen. So to pre-occupy my mind, I sat in the waiting room and I read this book called “Scalped” that I’d been meaning to read, and I just tore through it. It was amazing, and I got absolutely lost in the world, and forgot all about my worries. And everything turned out well for me and my loved one in the end, and we went home the next day and I went and bought the rest of “Scalped” — and now it’s one of my favorite books!
But I’ll always have that associative memory, for better or for worse — that slight feeling of anxiety that I was able to push down and forget thanks to a wonderful comic book with a truly immersive reading experience. That’s my takeaway.
Continued belowSo I’ll read just about anything Jason Aaron writes at this point, even though no one I know needs to go to the hospital on a regular basis. I still have faith in Aaron being able to write incredibly passionate and moving fiction that I can just lose myself in, getting totally sucked into a realistic world of crime like no other.
And with Jason Latour on art, who in my opinion is probably one of the most talented and underrated artists working in comics today? Man. This is going to be fucking great.
So that’s my story, and I am going to pre-order this book and you should too.
SOUTHERN BASTARDS #1
story: JASON AARON
ar / cover: JASON LATOUR
APRIL 30 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.50
Welcome to Craw County, Alabama, home of Boss BBQ, the state champion Runnin’ Rebs football team…and more bastards than you’ve ever seen. When you’re an angry old man like Earl Tubb, the only way to survive a place like this…is to carry a really big stick.
From the acclaimed team of JASON AARON and JASON LATOUR, the same bastards who brought you Scalped and Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted, comes a southern fried crime series that’s like the Dukes of Hazzard meets the Coen Brothers…on meth.
