Tomorrow brings one of our favorite – if not our absolute favorite – event of the year in comics, as Image Expo 2014 brings the awesome in San Francisco once again. With a massive guest list that includes people like Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robert Kirkman, as well as a bevy of unannounced surprise guests (last year, that included Fraction, Jason Aaron and Rick Remender), we know it’s going to blow minds, even though it sounds like Sean Murphy’s TWO books won’t be announced at the event.
We’ve seen some hints at what could be announced, as we’ve heard that guests James Robinson and Nick Spencer will have new books revealed, and Fred Van Lente tweeted something that strongly hinted he’ll be involved (could he and Greg Pak’s next creator-owned collabo be at Image?), but we have no idea ultimately what might be announced. We do know what we’d love to see, and you can find our five biggest wishes below.
5. Information About What’s Next For “Prophet” and “Multiple Warheads”
As sad as it is to write, the last remnant of Image’s Extreme Studios relaunch, “Prophet”, is coming to an end. What Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis et al have done with this book is something wonderful, a very Euro-esque sci-fi comic done on a colossally grand scale. But despite the main “Prophet” ongoing ending, Graham has mentioned that the series will really be wrapped up in “Earth War,” a follow-up series with very little information revealed. Hopefully Image Expo will be the place to share what’s next for Extreme’s Little Book That Could.
Not only that, but at the end of the last “Multiple Warheads” mini, Graham teased a follow-up series continuing the adventures of Sexica, Nikoli and the rest of the book’s wonderful and vast cast. Some information on what’s next for them would be more than welcome!
Though, generally speaking, I’d accept just about any announcement from Image and Brandon Graham, all things considered.
4. Something Digital
At last year’s Image Expo, my personal favorite announcement was that Image would be selling DRM-free digital copies of their books on their new site. It was a very cool and truly unexpected bit of news, and having recently spoken with Image publisher Eric Stephenson, we know digital is something they’re looking to push in innovative new directions. What those directions are I’m truly uncertain – they’re the ones who are supposed to innovate after all – but I think their recent Dropbox Sync announcement was but the tip of the iceberg. Bring the ruckus Image. Help me make my transition to digital all the more easy.
Given the constant innovation we see from them though, I really believe we could see something big in the digital realm this year.
3. “The Last Rock Band on Earth”
Recently, Brian Michael Bendis teased what is coming for him in 2014, and within that tease was a look at the image above. It said “The Last Rock Band on Earth”, and nothing else.
Now, we have no knowledge whatsoever about what this book could be or where it could be being published, but let’s throw this out there: wouldn’t it be cool if Bendis came back to Image? He started “Powers” and published “Torso” and “Jinx” there, and it’s where my favorite work of his – the “Sam and Twitch” arc “Udaku” – was released. He has history, he has this book which really doesn’t feel like an Icon book (although he is pretty much singlehandedly propping up that imprint at this point), and he has connections with many of the creators working at Image now. Could Bendis go back to the “i”?
Perhaps.
2. An Announcement From Completely Unknown Creators
During the last Image Expo, Image tore the roof down with the announcements of comics heavyweights like Rick Remender, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron and more coming to the publisher with new books. Despite the excitement of this, though, a comment thrown around the internet was that Image’s priorities might have changed from focusing on up-and-coming creators to more established names (something we’ve discussed with Eric Stephenson twice now, which he vehemently denies).
Continued belowSo at this Image Expo, I would love to see Eric and Image prove everyone wrong by bringing out whoever is the Next Big Thing. Since a) Eric Stephenson reads all the pitches sent to Image and hand selects which ones they will publish and b) Eric Stephenson has phenomenal taste in comics (I’m not saying that to suck up, either — I really believe this), I would love to see him put a name and a book up on the screen and tell us that this will be our next favorite comic. I’d have no doubt that he’d be right.
1. The Return of Warren Ellis
This is something I feel confident that we will see (especially with “Scatterlands” being sold through Image’s site), as Ellis has been making a big return to comics with “Moon Knight” and “Avengers: Endless Wartime”, but he’s a guy who has always been more interested in creator-owned work seemingly. Plus, you know he’s someone who would be a knockout surprise guest that would blow the audiences minds, and he has a huge reason to come back: “Fell”. It’s a book that was universally well received, and we know that the script to issue #10 was completed a couple years back. My wild hope of a guess? Ellis is coming back to wrap up “Fell” and maybe even announce another book or two.
Here’s hoping this one is correct, because that would be absolutely fantastic.
Update: Ellis is definitely not going to be at Image Expo.
