Image Previews Picks: October 2014
By the time you read this, the third Image Expo will have come and gone at the Hilton Bayfront before Comic-Con’s Preview Night kicks off. If you thought that Comic-Con tickets were hard to get ahold of, just know that the tickets for this sold out a minute after they went on sale. More than anything else, that’s a sign of the excitement that the publisher inspires today with their titles. They should’ve had lots of creators to show off and announcements about ongoing and new titles to make there as well. I may even have to talk about them once I’m back from the con. Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of Image titles to talk about now…
Wytches vol. 1: From “Batman” collaborators Scott Snyder and Jock comes this story about what all of the people who were killed after being accused of witchcraft were really protecting: Real Witches. According to the solicitation text, real witches are ancient, elusive, rarely seen and even more rarely survived. Even though I haven’t read a page from this series, I’m going to bet that the last two qualities are going to be in tatters by the time this series is over. Snyder and Jock have done solid work in the past, but the writer’s last foray into horror at Image “Severed,” with co-writer Scott Tuft, was a major disappointment. He’s going solo here, so maybe that — and what is likely going to be typically stunning work from Jock — will make some difference.
Rasputin #1: Russia’s Mad Monk is back in a confusingly solicited series. While the text references his infamous death, the tagline above it describes the series as, “DRACULA AT DOWNTON ABBEY!” Uh… okay. Is Rasputin going to turn into a vampire? Is he coming back from the dead to fight Dracula himself? What exactly is this series about? Maybe writer Alex Grecian and artist Riley Rossmo will have their story straight once the first volume of this title is solicited.
Cutter #’s 1-4: This is a weekly series about a kid who was picked on when he was young and how he comes back to kill his tormentors. Now, that’s only slightly different than how it was described in the solicitations. The exact wording is, “What if that kid you and your friends picked on in your youth came back with a vengeance…to kill you and your friends?” Yet it’s still fundamentally the same idea. It sounds like writers Robert Napton and Seamus Fahey are trying to build a story around us caring whether or not a bunch of former bullies get what they deserve years after the fact. Reading this, I get the idea that a more interesting approach would be for the bullied kid to try and get his revenge only to fail and be hunted by his tormentors. The same scenario he experienced at school, playing out with deadly circumstances in adulthood. Now that’s a series I’d be interested in reading about.
East of West: The World: Not a regular issue of the series, this sounds like a sourcebook for Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s excellent series. Given how detailed I’ve heard the writer can be in his writing plans, and the information we’ve already seen about the world of “East of West” in the series itself, this sounds like the must-buy they’re pitching it as. My only question is whether I’ll have to get it myself, or if it’ll be collected in the to-be-released-next-year fourth volume. You know, if they’re releasing this digitally then I think I’ve found something I’ll be willing to purchase in that format when it comes out.
Witchblade: Case Files #1: Apparently this is like the “East of West” one-shot, delving into 19 years and 180 issues of this particular title. Which I have never read and plan to keep it that way until it actually becomes good.
The Walking Dead #132 & 133: Subtitled, “Happiness” and “Impending Doom.” Two things that wind up going hand-in-hand a whole lot in this series.
CBLDF Liberty Annual 2014: Given that the stories here were likely all produced prior to my review of the collected edition of the previous Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Liberty Annuals, I’d say it’s highly doubtful that they’ve taken any of my suggestions to heart in this latest one. No matter. They’re all for a good cause and I’ll probably buy the inevitable second collection of annuals for that reason when it comes out.
Burn the Orphanage vol. 2: Reign of Terror: This 90’s arcade brawler-inspired series looks to change things up with its second volume. Instead of three inter-connected stories, we’re getting one long one that has Rock, Bear, Lex and more of their friends teaming up to finally put the evil MannCorp and their army of robots down for good. I’m certainly up for seeing that. More so if they’ve replaced the colorist for the previous volume, John Rauch, with someone who can actually make the colors pop like the arcade games that inspired this title.
Minimum Wage, Book One: Focus on the Strange: Three years after the main story detailed in “Maximum Minimum Wage,” artist Rob Hoffman is divorced, back at home, and working on superhero comics instead of porn. It sounds depressing, yet the original series mined a lot of funny stuff from such things. That said, it’s been well over a decade since writer/artist Bob Fingerman has worked on Rob and his friends. I hope that we get a return to form that’s closer to the first seventeen volumes of “Battle Angel Alita: Last Order” than “Gunsmith Cats: Burst.”
Skullkickers vol. 5: A Dozen Crumpets and a Crumpled Crown: Jim Zub and Edwin Huang’s fantasy comedy/action series has been getting better with each volume. It’s a trend I’m eager to see continue as this volume is said to focus on the Dwarf’s (forced) homecoming. Given what we know of his temperament, and the whole “forced” bit mentioned above, I’m going to guess that this will be one of those awkward homecomings where his people try to figure out what to do with the prodigal son they never wanted back before he winds up destroying the place. Should be good.
Stray Bullets vol. 1: Innocence of Nihilism: In case you missed out on paying $60 for the “Uber Alles” omnibus edition of David Lapham’s excellent crime series, now you can pay $20 for each of the five volumes it collected. What I’m trying to say here is that if you are interested in reading this at a reasonable price, track down the omnibus now before it goes completely out of print.
Thief of Thieves vol. 4: The Hit List: The cover to this volume has master thief Conrad Paulson dual-wielding machine guns while wearing combat armor. It suggests a more action-oriented approach for this title now that Andy Diggle is its sole writer. So much for that whole “writer’s room” approach creator Robert Kirkman talked up when this series debuted. That said, Diggle’s first volume was quite good and left its protagonist in a very interesting place. He has also excelled with action series in the past, so if he wants to infuse more adrenaline into “Thief of Thieves” then I’m willing to go with him on that for now.