Image Expo is here, and the strongest storytellers of 2013 look set to continue that trend in 2014. Image Comics presented new titles from Matt Fraction, Mark Millar, Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron, Rick Remender and Darren Aronofsky over the next 12 months or so. There’s also news concerning The Walking Dead going bi-weekly, and some updated information about already announced titles such as Kelly Sue DeConnick‘s Pretty Deadly for October.
Thanks to the excellent coverage of Comic Book Resources, who also sourced the images below, we have a list of those new titles, creators and a little bit of art from the forthcoming books.
Velvet
Ed Brubaker teams with his Captain America artist Steve Epting to bring us the tale of Velvet Templeton, a Moneypenny-esque personal assistant to a spy agency. She goes into the field and on the run during the series, which promises to have an espionage/Cold War vibe similar to their previous work.
Black Science
Rick Remender returns to Image for the first time in a decade with this sequel to Fear Agent, which he originally published with Image and artist Tony Moore before it moved to Dark Horse. This new series will be pencilled by Matteo Scalera, with digital paints by Dean White and a cover by Andrew Robinson.
Deadly Class
Remender’s other announcement takes us back to 1987, where he muses on his own experiences growing up in the 80s hardcore scene with punk rock in that era. Art duties on the book will be tackled by Wesley Craig with colourist Lee Loughridge.
Ody-C
Matt Fraction announced another adaptation of The Odyssey, except this one will be set in space! It’s due out in early 2014 with art from Christian Ward. It’s Fraction, so the genders are swapped around as well. Fraction also plugged his new excellent series Satellite Sam (review tomorrow!) and the forthcoming Sex Criminals. This all sounds like a must read pile to me.
MPH
Mark Millar will begin a new integrated line of superhero comics with Image. Together with Duncan Fegredo, the first title will be called MPH. Millar compared it with the Marvel Universe for the 21st century. Calling it his magnum opus, it will launch in 2014.
Southern Bastards
Jason Aaron and Jason Latour. Artist Latour described the book as “The Dukes of Hazard by the Coen Bros on meth”. The official press describes this “southern fried crime comic”: Earl Tubb is an angry old man with a very big stick. Euless Boss is a high school football coach with no more room in his office for trophies and no more room underneath the bleachers for burying bodies. And they’re just two of the folks you’ll meet in Castor County, Alabama, home of Boss BBQ, the state champion Runnin’ Rebs and more bastards than you’ve ever seen.
Alone, Dream Police & Book of Lost Souls
J. Michael Straczynski had a bunch of new titles to announce, including a including a limited series with Bill Sienkiewicz called Alone. We’re already sold, but here he promised to “deconstruct the way a comic book works”. In his column appearing in the back of Ten Grand, JMS said this would not be solicited until all six issues were in hand due to the amount of research involved. He’s reviving The Book of Lost Souls (originally under Marvel’s Icon) with Colleen Doran and the 12-issue relaunch of Dream Police (another former Icon title), now all under the Joe’s Comics banner.
The Walking Dead
Fans sticking with The Walking Dead, now well over 100 issues, will be pleased to learn that for the seven months following #115 (October 9), the book will be going bi-weekly with a new arc called The Walking Dead: All Out War. Stefano Gaudiano will join the series to ink Charlie Adlard’s pencils.
Noah
Long promised to tie-in with Darren Aronofsky’s forthcoming epic film, Niko Henrickson and Darren Arronovsky will bring a graphic novel to Image sometime in 2014.
