SDCC 2012: Image Comics Announces New Books from Rucka & Lark, Matt Fraction and More!

UPDATE – Want to get a glimpse of all of these new projects from Image? Check out all the art from each new title below!

Image Comics had some very exciting new creator owned titles to announce in San Diego this weekend. Let’s take a look at the rundown.

 

First up, how about a little reunion for Greg Rucka and Michael Lark? It’s called Lazarus, and it looks like there may be some blood loss involved. Rucka calls it a mashup of The Godfather and Children of Men, set some time in the future.

Here’s how Rucka describes it over on his Lady Sabre blog:

Set in a near-future dystopian society where the economic woes of the early 21st century continued, then exploded exponentially, resulting in a world where a handful of Families control everything. Having divvied up the world into their own kingdoms, they now spend their days jealously guarding what they have, and coveting what they do not. But for those living without wealth, collectively referred to by the families as “the Waste,” the future is desperate, with day-to-day survival as much the result of the ruling Families as the weather.

Endeavor Carlyle is the youngest daughter of the near-immortal Carlyle Family. She is their Lazarus, a position common to all the Families: part bodyguard to her family, part intelligence director, part military general, she has been genetically modified to defend the Family at all costs, with unwavering loyalty.

But Endeavor Carlyle is beginning to ask questions, and her Family will do everything they can to keep her from finding the answers….

 

Next up, SEX and The Bounce from Joe Casey. They’re to be drawn by Piotr Kowalski and David Messina respectively. Both salacious. Both trippy. It’s everything you want from a Joe Casey comic, twice.

 

Next up, Oliver from Gary Whitta and artist Derick Robertson. Please, sirs, we want some more! Sort of a steampunk Dickensian London vibe, but it’s actually set in a post apocalypse setting and centers on clones forced into slavery. We’re guessing they don’t take kindly to that proposition. For more, check out CBR.

Then there’s Kelly Sue Deconnick and Emma Rios’ spaghetti western, Pretty Deadly. We’re told it involves a female assassin whose physical disfigurement puts her in a very interesting position, given the Old West era she inhabits.

Reign is a new fantasy comic originally designed as a prose saga from Chris Roberson and artist Paul Mayberry.

A young stoner cries wolf in James Robinson and J-Bone’s Savior. Except the wolf isn’t so much a wolf as it’s an alien invasion. We’re looking at a five-issue mini-series to start, though that may not be the end of it.

Howard Chaykin will draw Satellite Sam, written by Matt Fraction. It involves the death of the host of a popular kid’s TV program. The discovery of a box of photographs, including images from some sordid affairs, may hold the key to solving this murder.

Comments

  1. Woaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! How much cool news in one item?

    Rucka and Lark + Godfather x Children of Men = awesome.

    Deconnick and Rios on a spaghetti western – I’m all the way in for that!

  2. Rucka and Lark?!? Whitta and Robertson?!? Deconnick and Rios?!?

    It’s about time I got some awesome announcements out of SDCC. Thanks, Image, my comics lord and master.

  3. Image continue to knock it out of the park. Those guys are on a serious high at the minute.

    • Image is leading a wave right now that will ultimately, I believe, change both comics and the way comics are perceived by the (American) public forever. With an emphasis on storytelling and the ability to have first-class production values on what once were seen to be “fringe” genres, they’re making the big two look silly and putting out both the best comics of their life as a company and most of the best comics right now period. Next step – a spinner rack in every Starbucks in America full of things like Saga, Morning Glories, and The Walking Dead! I know it probably won’t happen, but it’d make my little fanboy heart leap if it did!

    • @thinsafetypin, could not agree more. I have been saying for a while now to my LCS and other comic fans that if they truly want new readers, growth, and a healthy comic industry then they should entirely ignore the big two and support the hell out of Image. There is a place for the big two but the real interest and growth and appeal to non-comic readers is all indie. I really wish comics could beat the stigmas/stereotypes and something like you mention of a small rack/shelf in a trendy chain would do wonders. Japan is very much like this with regard to reading manga in public and I’d kill to have that in the US.

  4. rucka and lark? 😀

  5. Wow. Totally on board for Lazarus. Pretty Deadly and Satellite Sam sound right up my alley as well. Hooray comics!

  6. Pretty Deadly is a pretty cool title.

  7. My god. It’s like Image is trying to put everyone else out of business!

  8. The revolution will not be televised. It will, however, have several press releases and a heavy print run. Viva la Image!

  9. Whoa. Image just pulled out the big guns.

  10. Pretty Deadly and Reign. My future. Collision course set. Rucka and Lark yes, trying to care about the concept, don’t know why it is so hard.

  11. You know, I’ve really been trying to cut back on my stack lately, get everything under control again and then this happens …

    If Image keep up what the way they have been going for the last year, my pull list either going to double or I’m going to have to drop DC and Marvel altogether.

  12. Lazuarus and Oliver have me intrigued…then The Bounce and Sex , salacious and trippy + Joe Casey, I’m checking those out too, just calling a book sex is a little skeevy to me and I’m a freak but those two middle images on the Bounce/Sex spread are sweet. Pretty Deadly is a cool title, then they mention Reign, Savior and Satellite Sam with all good creators, those last 3 could be really cool concepts if done right and Image 1sts are usually worth checking out.

  13. Rucka and Lark is always 5-star material so I’m definitely up for what they’re delivering.

    The rest? Eh, sorry but I find these more trade waits than anything else. Well except for Chaykin and Fraction’s book. I like Chaykin but get Fraction the hell away from that. Also, a Juan Jose Ryp book was announced and I’m looking forward to that as well.

  14. I’ll give some love to James Robinson & J Bone’s Wolf. This is exactly what I was asking for in my review of Shade #10: a Robinson creator-owned project. So thanks James!

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      The book is actually called “Savior.” The lead character is crying wolf. I’ll remove the quotation marks. I can see how that’d be confusing.

  15. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    UPDATED with Greg Rucka’s detailed description of LAZARUS.

  16. Most of these I’m curious enough to try out the first issue. The one that I’m not sure about wanting to try is the Matt fraction one. Since the FEAR ITSELF fiasco, I’ve dropped all of this writer’s books.

  17. Wow, Rucka and Lark together again is going to be great. Will definitely be checking that one out.

  18. That’s good Chaykin!

  19. I can’t wait to get my hands on Pretty Deadly. I love Emma Rios art, and with Kelly Sue Deconnick writing it it could be amazing.

  20. fraction leaves a bad taste in my mouth. like cheap tequila. also he and it can be fun for a while, but i’m usually left with a headache.
    Howard Chaykin is a fine chaser for cleansing the palate, though. could repeal that initial “uck” feeling.
    hmmm…decisions.

  21. Pretty Deadly actually looks pretty good with that cover. Although how she is different from Tallulah Black puzzles me a bit…

  22. Come on Image, give me a BREAK!!! Really, already interested in three titles so far. Lazarus, Oliver and Pretty Deadly have my interst peaked. Image has been on a pretty good roll of late with its new title releases. My weekly pull list is increasing again and my wallet decreasing in size, sigh.

  23. That spaghetti western from Rios and Deconnick looks very interesting. That’ll be the first thing I try, then the Rucka and Lark book.

    Image continues to pull my money away from Marvel and DC and I think thats great.

  24. Looks like some good Chaykin there. Too bad there’s no so thing as good Fraction.

    • His Invincible Iron Man run was Eisner winning, had to be something good there. Didn’t he do a well received run on Iron Fist too? And it seems like most people dig the Defenders current run.

    • His Iron Man bored me. Iron Fist was mostly good, but I blame that on Brubaker. And I have no interest in The Defenders, so I can’t judge that. I’ve given the guy a lot of chances, like with Uncanny, Thor, Casanova, but he just doesn’t click with me, unless he has a co-writer, a la Iron Fist or Uncanny when Gillen started taking over. BTW, it pisses me off that “Uncanny” will no longer suffice to refer to the X-Men comic. Damn Marvel.

    • Brubaker’s gone on record in one of the Word Balloons as saying that Fraction pretty much wrote Iron Fist.

    • @nbcabaniss True, but I think Brubaker tamed Fraction a bit, at least in the early issues, which were my favorites.

    • @lifesend Word.

  25. Thats some of the best drawing I’ve seen from Chaykin.

  26. Casey needs to get back to work on Butcher Baker already.

  27. All looking rosey for Image!

  28. When do the books come out?

  29. Rucka and Lark?

    Very interested.