Image Advance Arrivals: July 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Knives: A Criminal Book HC
In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a “Criminal” series premiering on Amazon Prime later this year. So getting a new volume of the Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ crime series that inspired it makes perfect sense from a synergy perspective. Less so if you think that its most recent volume, “Cruel Summer,” brought the series full circle and represented a perfect place to end things.
Still, I wouldn’t bet against these guys if they’re giving us another glimpse into the lives of the compromised, struggling, and broken people that have populated this series for nearly two decades now. We’re actually checking in on three of the series most notable characters here: Cartoonist Jacob Kurtz, special forces veteran Tracy Lawless, and Angie, the little girl who grew up around the Undertow and learned more than a thing or two from the people who frequented it. Their ongoing stories are about to collide and woe be to anyone who gets in their way. It’s a hell of a recipe for getting me invested in the extension of the “Criminal” series after I thought it was done – and hopefully for reminding us how good Brubaker and Phillips can be after a couple of graphic novels that didn’t quite show them at their best.
The Voice Said Kill #1 (of 4): This is pitched as a fever dream of cajun crime as a madman full of shrooms and retribution looks to take out anyone deserving. Or who just looks at him funny. Trying to stop him, on both sides of the law and together, are a very pregnant park ranger and a moonshine-running criminal matriarch. This sounds over-the-top enough to the point where I’m not exactly worried about how culturally accurate Simon Spurrier’s take on the Louisiana bayou is going to be. I’m just going to kick back and see how crazy he’s going to have things get, and how well Vanessa Del Rey captures all of that in her art.
Dread the Hall H: Following last year’s “Dread the Halls” holiday horror-themed one-shot is this holiday horror-themed one-shot… about convention-themed horror stories! Whether or not that’s ordinary stories of panels gone horribly wrong or conventiongoers behaving badly, or supernatural/suspense stories about killer creators and cosplayers remains to be seen. Co-written by Chris Ryall and Jordan Hart with art from Nelson Daniel, Piotr Kowalski, Jimmy Kucaj, and Chris Anderson, this 48-page one-shot will set you back $7. Or $9 if you shell out for the mysterious Cover D from Maria Wolf. Why is it $2 more than the others? Nobody knows. How dreadful.
Ghost Pepper #1: Billed as something for fans of “The Moon is Following Us” and “Battle Chasers” comes this series from writer artist Ludo Lullabi, who stepped in to illustrate the VERY long-awaited final three issues of the latter series. Humanity is getting back on its feet after a cataclysm and those doing the rebuilding need to eat. Good thing they’ve got cooks like Loloi out to serve them, no matter what obstacles get in her way. Until she encounters a mysterious warrior named Ash who, after tasting her food, is ready to either save or destroy the world. This reminds me vaguely of “Crazy Food Truck” a manga series whose first volume was bad enough to get me to stop reading it after that. Lullabi has a low bar to clear, in other words.
This Ends Tonight #1 (of 3): Three interconnected tales of revenge are spotlighted in this new miniseries from writer Gerry Duggan and artist Jae Lee. First up is the story of two sisters being hunted through Vegas for a family secret that will shock you once you find out about it. I picked up the last series Jae Lee illustrated, and while the man is still a great artist, even his work couldn’t prop up a badly-told story about the Second Coming. While I wouldn’t call Duggan a great writer, his hit ratio has been better in recent years to the point that he won’t deliver something as bad as “Seven Sons.”
The Unchosen #1 (of 4): What if “The Last of Us,” but the teenage girl was the cause of humanity’s suffering and not its cure? That’s the setup for this new miniseries from veteran superhero artist David Marquez making his creator-owned debut as a writer and artist. It’s about 13-year-old Aida who wakes up one day at the center of a massive explosion that everyone says she was the cause of. Now she has to figure out who wants to kill her, who wants to save her, and just how she got these powers in the first place. Marquez is a great superhero artist and it looks like he’s trying out a less-detailed, slightly more cartoony style here. I’m curious about that, and whether the art can elevate what sounds like a very familiar setup for this kind of story.
DIE! DIE! DIE! Deluxe HC: Remember a few years back when Robert Kirkman surprise-launched a new series by including copies of it proportional to orders of other series that he was writing at the time in shipments to comic shops one week? This is that series, co-written with former “The Walking Dead” showrunner Scott Gimple and illustrated by Chris Burnham. It had energy, lots of style, and an unapologetic liberal bent that I thought was cute if nothing else. This series lasted sixteen issues and two whole volumes before wrapping up without any fanfare. Whether or not you think that’s worth owning in a $50 deluxe hardcover versus picking up the two existing volumes for much cheaper in paperback is a question you’re going to have to answer for yourself. Or not. I’m not your daddy.
Madi: Back at Comic-Con in 2023, I attended a panel with comics writer Alex De Campi where she was joined by director Duncan Jones, best known for “Moon,” “Source Code,” and, uh… the “Warcraft” movie. They said they were working on a graphic novel together that was set in the same universe as “Moon” and its same-universe companion “Mute.” It follows combat veteran Madi Preston who makes her living taking on work as a mercenary for corporate interests. This pays just well enough to keep her perpetually in debt for the upkeep of her cybernetic implants. So when an off-the-books mission that may wipe out that debt comes up, Madi takes it and… you can probably guess how it goes. Still, the hope is that De Campi and Jones will give their protagonist and her world enough character to rise above that familiar setup. That hope is at least partially realized in the murderer’s row of talent they’ve assembled to illustrate this graphic novel, which includes: Duncan Fegredo, Pia Guerra, Glenn Fabry, James Stokoe, Simon Bisley, Chris Weston, Christian Ward, AND MORE!