Image Previews Picks: November 2017
After hitting it big as the writer of “God Country” and “Redneck” for Image, Donny Cates has been busy transitioning his backlist over from Dark Horse to his current publisher. This includes a miniseries which had an unusual route to its collected editions. “The Ghost Fleet” was an eight-issue miniseries about a trucking company that specializes in transporting the most secret and dangerous cargo around. Cates wrote it, and the art was provided by future Image creator Daniel Warren Johnson (writer/artist of “Extremity”). What was noteworthy about its publication history was that it was one of a few titles from Dark Horse that didn’t finish out its print run at the time. The other two being “Sundowners” and “Resurrectionists.” Yet the publisher delivered the final issues digitally, and reprinted the eight-issue miniseries in two $15 trade paperbacks.
Now that Cates and Johnson are known properties at Image, we’re getting a brand new edition of “The Ghost Fleet” from the publisher. The Ghost Fleet: The Whole Goddamned Thing collects the entire eight-issue miniseries for $20. While it was cool of Dark Horse to offer up the final issues or the title’s original run in digital form, all this goes to show is that having a hit comic can make all the difference for a creator’s backlist.
The Gravediggers Union #1: When I saw that this was coming from Wes Craig, the artist of “Deadly Class,” my first thought was, “Well there goes that title’s schedule…” Then I saw that he’s just writing this series and providing its covers. So maybe the schedule for the best-written Rick Remender series won’t go too far off the rails when this makes its debut. As for what “The Gravediggers Union” is about, it focuses on the title organization as they try to rein in an upcoming supernatural apocalypse. Problem is that the daugher of its leader may be the one who has kicked it into motion. That Craig is a fantastic artist isn’t in doubt. Now it’s time to see if he can write just as well.
Dark Fang #1: Now here’s something we haven’t seen yet — a vampire environmentalist. Valla is a vampire who lives on the bottom of the sea, peacefully feeding off the local wildlife. When her home is threatened she journeys to the surface to find that the whole world is headed towards and environmental collapse driven by the fossil fuel industry. Now she’s going to take matters into her own hands to make sure her home remains safe. Could be the corporate-justice story we need or ludicrously preachy. I know nothing about either the writer, Miles Gunter, or the artist, Kelsey Shannon, to make an educated guess as to which way the penny will drop here.
Descender Deluxe Edition vol. 1 HC: Now you can enjoy the first three volumes of Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s really-just-okay sci-fi epic in one hardcover edition. Longtime readers will know that I thought the third volume was a major speed bump for the series as it mostly stopped its momentum cold. Maybe reading the first three volumes in one go will alleviate that somewhat? Or maybe not.
Evolution #1: Here’s a series which posits the idea that after the millions of years it took humanity to get to this point, we suddenly start evolving into something else overnight. Oh, and only three people in the world have noticed this. Okay. Normally I’d say that the premise is strange enough to warrant the benefit of the doubt, except that this is coming from FOUR different writers: Joshua Williamson, James Asmus, Joe Keatinge, and Christopher Sebela. It’s not that teams of writers haven’t been able to deliver a quality series before — see DC’s weekly series “52” — but I’m kind of at a loss as to understanding why four writers would work together on a monthly comic. Assuming they can work together at all. Only one artist, Joe Infurnari, provides the art here.
Port of Earth #1: In which the aliens don’t show up to invade our planet. Instead, they come with a business deal that has them opening a spaceport on our planet in exchange for advanced technology. This sounds like a nice spin on the usual alien invasion story, with the tension coming from tracking down the aliens who escape the port and go on to cause havoc on Earth. I’m not familiar with writer Zack Kaplan, but Andrea Mutti is a capable artist who should deliver some solid visuals for this title.
Shirtless Bear-Fighter: Collecting the five-issue miniseries. It’s all there in the title. What more do you need to know?
Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker: From writer Joe Casey and artist Mike Huddleston comes the long-awaited(?) softcover version of their superhero epic of excess. The title character used to be the biggest superhero in America until he retired for a life of debauchery. Now he’s called back into action by people who look suspiciously like Dick Cheney and Jay Leno and things only get crazier and more explodey from there. Recommended for people who believe in style over substance and that if something is worth doing then it’s worth doing to excess.
Injection vol. 3: As I’ve said before, the previous volume was the best thing Warren Ellis has written in a long while and one of my picks for the Best of 2016. Unfortunately a spin-off series featuring the Injection team’s resident logicist, Vivek Headland, doesn’t appear to be in the cards. What we have coming up for this volume is a focus on its resident techie, Brigid Roth, as she tries to figure out why a ritual murder may have torn a hole in the world and what the Cold House is. According to Ellis newsletter, “Injection” is all about dissecting the pillars of popular English fiction. Vol. 1 was his take on “Quartermass,” and vol. 2 was “Sherlock Holmes.” What’s the subject for vol. 3? “Doctor Who.”
Invincible #142: Part ten of “The End of All Things” is also “Robot War” part one (of one). Cute as the solicitation may be, “Invincible” actually does have a pretty good track record for delivering quality fate-of-the-world stores in extra-sized issues. This does make it seem like the climax of the arc, which means the final two issues will be all epilogue. The only problem with that is I don’t think it’ll be enough epilogue to account for all the drama the series has accrued to this point. Unless most of the cast is dead by this point. Which is also a distinct possibility.