Image Comics have announced a trio of new high-concept sci-fi and horror series, each of which will debut in summer 2019.
First up is “Sea of Stars,” a sci-fi series from co-writers Jason Aaron (“War of the Realms”) and Dennis Hallum (“Cloak & Dagger”), with art by Stephen Green (“Hellboy and the BPRD”). According to Deadline, the new series leans into the co-writers’ creative differences, as well as their mutual admiration for Green’s art.
“Jason and I talked about co-writing a story for years, but our sensibilities are so different it never clicked,” said Hallum in the announcement at Deadline. “He had an adventure story about a little boy swimming through the stars. I wanted to turn it into an ice-truck driver whose kid goes missing in the arctic. Instead of compromising, we decided Stephen could pull off both stories at the same time.”
“This is a story about a father and son who get separated. In the wildest reaches of outer space. And from there, it becomes very important that the series has two writers,” said Aaron. “Because Dennis and I are basically doing two radically different perspectives on the same sort of deep space journey.”
If the series’s concept or creative process sounds intriguing, you can pick up “Sea of Stars” #1 on July 3.
The next week, you’ll be able to pick up a new horror series from co-writers Cullen Bunn (“Harrow County”) and Kyle Strahm (“Pumpkinhead”), with art by Baldemar Rivas (“Bubba Ho-Tep”). Titled “Unearth,” Image has pitched the series as “The X-Files meets Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, with the mounting terror of a classic Stephen King novel.”
According to the series’s synopsis, “Unearth” will center on a scientific task force that heads to Mexico to investigate a strange, new flesh-warping disease. When the team arrives, they discover not just the disease, but an entirely new ecosystem and “a supernatural revelation from which they may never escape.”
“If you like the idea of beautiful horror, ‘Unearth’ is the book for you,” said Strahm. “Baldemar’s art is as pretty as it is disturbing. And Cullen always gives the creeps.”
To learn more, you can check out Image’s full press release on the new series. Otherwise, you can pick up the first issue of “Unearth” on July 10.
Then, in August, Image will debut another new horror series – one that focuses on high-octane action rather than subtle terror. Writer Dan Watters (“Sandman Universe: Lucifer”) and artist Dani (“2000 A.D.”) are teaming to launch “Coffin Bound,” a series that Image says is full of grindhouse nightmares.
“Chased by an unstoppable killer, Izzy Tyburn has decided that if the world won’t have her in it, it can have nothing of her at all,” reads the series description found at Image’s website. “She’s retreading her life, leaving nothing but burned rubber, ash … and the sun-scorched bones of those who get in her way.”
For his part, Watters says the new series is “all about the inevitability of death, and the choice each of faces between coming to terms with it, or trying to deny it.” If you’re not afraid to look death in the eye, you can grab the first issue of “Coffin Bound” when it drops this August.
