Image Advance Arrivals: November 2026

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

Transformers vol. 6:  Decepticons Attack!

The war between the Autobots and Decepticons takes unexpected new turns!  What with Elita-1 becoming the new Prime to fight against the Decepticon menace on Cybertron and Optimus now reverting back to Orion Pax and leading the Autobot resistance on Earth as foreshadowed by the events of the final issue of the previous volume.  Were I a betting man, I’d expect to see Elita’s new status take on a violent, authoritarian turn that gets results while inspiring uncertainty in those who follow her.  Meanwhile, Orion’s new underdog status leads to initial losses that quickly turn around as he realizes his innate strengths.  This is all realized by new regular artist Jason Howard, with Ludo Lullabi returning for an issue as Robert Kirkman seeks to build on what he set up from the previous volume.

Yes, it’s a lot easier to talk about my anticipation for reading the latest volume in a revival of a legendary toy line from the 80’s than to discuss the major controversy surrounding the release of a graphic novella in these solicitations…

Ghost Drive Station:  An investigator with no time for the modern world is sent to a research facility in the remote desert to figure out why it went offline.  This is happening on the anniversary of the worst thing that ever happened to him, which I’m sure won’t affect his ability to investigate the matter at hand.  This one-shot is brought to you by artist Lordress Fordue and writer Warren Ellis.

Longtime readers will know that Ellis has been a writer who I had all the time for in the world.  Then 2020 came around and multiple women revealed that he had been gaslighting, grooming, manipulating, and abusing them online over a period of years.  Ellis had been set to move on to a new level of success with the writing he had been doing for the Netflix “Castlevania” series, along with a plum new “Batman” related writing assignment following “The Batman’s Grave” he had been doing for DC.  Nothing came of either of these things and the only significant writing he has been doing for the past few years that didn’t involve reprints of his existing comics work was his Orbital Operations e-newsletter.

I believe the women who have leveled these accusations against Ellis.  That’s not in question when you have so many of them coming forward about something like htis.  If you want to read more about what he did to them then you can do that at https://somanyofus.com/.  As a result, Ellis has suffered a significant loss of stature and prominence in the comics industry that he’ll never gain back, so don’t expect him to be writing any major superhero titles as Marvel or DC in the near future.  The response to Image even publishing this one-shot has been largely negative, so no one should expect that it’ll turn his fortunes around even if it’s “Transmetropolitan”-level good.

So why is Image even publishing this in the first place and risking the ire of the creative community?  Well, they’ve already agreed to reprint “Ocean” from Ellis and artist Chris Sprouse.  It’s possible that was done with a desire to benefit those along with Sprouse who worked with Ellis on that title in accordance with what was stated by So Many of Us to not punish those who worked with the writer.  As for this new work, the most beneficial reading of it is that someone was going to do it then why not them?

Here’s what I think:  There’s the feeling that after everyone came forth about Ellis’ behavior, the writer was canceled within the industry.  Recent years have shown that such an action hasn’t had the desired effect of punishing problematic creators in the way that causes them to reflect and repent on their actions.  If anything, it has had the effect of turning them into martyrs for undesirable parts of society.  There’s also what happened to Ed Piskor.

There’s also the fact that, before these allegations came out, Ellis was a really prolific writer.  You could count on seeing his name behind multiple comics projects in a given year.  Maybe we’d get lucky and one of them would be excellent.  A couple could be counted on to be good.  The rest would be For The Completists.  The man didn’t have the best quality control over his writing and it’s anybody’s guess as to what category “Ghost Drive Station” will fall into.

With that in mind, the most beneficial reading I can see for Image publishing this new one-shot is to show that Ellis has lost it and that new work from him isn’t worth reading.  That would be the quickest way to end any kind of martyrdom for the writer, and if The Beat’s response to this one-shot is any indication (check the comments for that writer’s real opinion), you shouldn’t be expecting the floodgates to open for the writer after this.

I’ll also admit to the fact that fandom, once established, is hard to turn off.  I haven’t stopped wanting to read more comics from Ellis, but that’s a me thing more than anything else.  No one else should feel the need to read “Ghost Drive Station” if they don’t want to.  If you’d rather warn other people away from it, then go do that.  As for me, maybe you’ll read a review of this graphic novella here before the end of this year if my favored vendor solicits it.  Otherwise, this might be the last time I mention a new work from Ellis on this site.

Now it’s back to other, less problematic comics in these solicitations…

Chainkata #1:  Like new series about a chainsaw-wielding warrior queen from outer space by creator Daniel Warren Johnson.  Described as “Princess Mononoke” by way of “Warhammer 40K,” said warrior queen is seeking a great power in the vastness of space that will allow her to find peace, but the universe has other plans in mind for her.  The basic setup sounds like something that Johnson will have no problem drawing the hell out of and I’m totally there for that.  My big concern is that the creator is going to try and insert some high-minded ideas about war and the human condition like he has in his previous works (see “Extremity,” “Do a Powerbomb,” “The Moon is Following Us”) but has only really been able to sell in just one:  “Murder Falcon.”  Buying the eventual collected edition is a no-brainer for me, but this is the rare solicit that elicits excitement and cautious optimism from me at the same time.

The Snail (One-Shot):  This comic aims to answer two of the most pressing questions of our time.  The first is what would you give up to get your heart’s desire?  The second is should you really make a deal with a talking snail?  It’s a one-shot from the “Hitman” creative team of writer Garth Ennis and artist John McCrea and I’ve got this nagging feeling that, based on the writer’s recent creator-owned work, that this might have some relevance to our current political and social climate.  This is also the third offering from Ennis under Image’s Ninth Circle imprint following “Freddie the Fix” with Mike Perkins and “The Kids” with Goran Parlov.  Were I a betting man, I’d guess that you’ll be able to read all three one-shots in a single collected edition from Image sometime next year.

Automatic Kafka:  The title character is an android who was once a celebrated member of the superhero team known as The $tranger$.  Now he’s washed up and drifting through an America saturated in violent media, a pawn in shadowy government schemes, and an unwitting player in weaponized nostalgia.  Billed as a beloved surrealist sci-fi tale that’s finally been collected in its entirety for the first time in the solicitation text, only part of that is true.  This volume does collect all nine issues of this series that was originally published under DC’s Wildstorm imprint when it still had the autonomy to do weird, mature-readers, and creator-owned superhero titles.  However, everything I remember hearing about this series from writer Joe Casey and artist Ashley Wood at the time indicated that it was an inscrutable piece of superhero fiction that no one knew what to make of.  Anyone hoping for something on the level of Casey’s “Wildcats” was SOL.  I imagine that this collected edition will prompt others to give it a modern reappraisal, but after suffering through Casey’s “Junior Baker the Righteous Faker,” I’ve got no inclination to do so myself.

Corpse Knight vol. 1:  As war ravages medieval France, a young girl’s wish is granted.  Her dead father returns to life to protect her.  Now they wander the countryside dealing with murderers, wild animals, and black magic, which gives the girl enough time to wonder if this miracle was really a good thing at all.  This comes to us from writer Michael Chaves who has directed a few films in the universe of “The Conjuring” and artist Matthew Roberts, who illustrated the entirety of “Manifest Destiny.”  It sounds interesting enough, and Roberts has shown that he knows how to draw weird horror, with the setting promising the opportunity for him to be gnarlier than before.  I’d probably be more excited if Chaves’ last film, “The Conjuring:  Last Rites,” had managed to get decent reviews instead of everyone agreeing that it wrapped up this era of the franchise on a low note.

Royals:  Paul and Castor are hustlers who have what they think is an unbeatable edge – the telepathic connection they share as brothers.  Which is why it’s a surprise to them when they’re caught by the most vicious criminal syndicate in Seoul for trying to put one over on them.  Now the brothers have to put their gift to use in a daring heist that’s bigger than anything they’ve tried before.  The telepathic brothers bit and setting help set this heist story apart and I’ve heard enough about writer Derek Kirk Kim to know he does solid work.  I don’t know much about artist Jacob Perez, but he’s got a nice cover on display in these solicitations.  My only concern is whether the telepathy bit is specific to the brothers, or a gateway to a larger avenue of psychic weirdness that’s going to distract from the proceedings.  We’ll see once I pick this up in November.