Image Comics

ELEPHANTMEN, Richard Starkings’ epic science fiction series exploring the ramifications of genetic experimentation, war, and racism, is reaching a milestone this July: its 50th issue. ELEPHANTMEN debuted in 2006, published by Image Comics, a spin-off of Starkings self-published (and now Image title) HIP FLASK.

Following a group of human/animal hybrid super-soldiers who are struggling to integrate themselves into a society that is often hostile to their very existence, the series has gone on be collected into six hardcovers and trade paperbacks. It has featured art by Ladrönn, Boo Cook, Chris Burnham, Shaky Kane, and Axel Medellin, and the cover of ELEPHANTMEN #43 is among the work that earned Brandon Graham a “Best Cover Artist” Eisner Award nomination.

"Fifty issues! One more and ELEPHANTMEN is as old as I am!” marveled creator and writer Starkings, who also owns the well-respected comics lettering studio Comicraft. “When we launched the series in 2006, I thought maybe I had six issues in me, yet here we are, seven years later and six ELEPHANTMEN collections in stores and another in preparation for release this summer!”

ELEPHANTMEN #50, "Blue Collar Blues," has a cover by renowned comics artist Frank Quitely, and comes after the close of the monumental "Sleeping Partners" story arc. It  brings the story into the intimate sphere of one Elephantman, following his everyday life with its struggles and small triumphs. The issue is illustrated by series regular Axel Medellin and Gabe Bautista and also includes a re-presentation of ELEPHANTMEN #1, with art by Moritat, and a gallery of covers by Brandon Graham, Camilla d’Errico, J. Scott Campbell, Brian Bolland,, Chris Weston, Ladrönn, Ian Churchill, and Ed McGuinness.

ELEPHANTMEN #50 will be in stores on July 17 and is available for pre-order from the May issue of Previews. The revised and expanded ELEPHANTMEN VOLUME 1, which now includes issue #0 with art by Ladrönn and an introduction by Jonathan Ross, will be in stores on May 22. The newest collection, VOLUME 6: EARTHLY DESIRES, due in stores in July 10, is also available for preorder.

Criminal mastermind Jackson T. Winters has spent the last decade languishing in prison after his last heist went horribly wrong. Now, in return for breaking him out, a rich eccentric tasks him with capturing a ghost for the millionaire’s macabre collection in the new Image Comics/Skybound mini-series GHOSTED.

Written by Joshua Williamson and drawn Goran Sdzuka, with Miroslav Mrva on colors and Eisner nominee Sean Phillips (FATALE) providing covers, GHOSTED, set to debut in July, is a dark supernatural mystery crossed with a classic caper. Expert thief Winters must assemble a completely different kind of team than the one he lost ten years before, made up of ghost hunters and paranormal experts. But the haunted house they enter may be more of a match than they’d bargained for.

“For years my obsession has been to do a book that took place in a haunted house; a crime and horror title, one that was fun but went to some dark edgy places,” said writer Williamson.  “‘Gritty’ has become a sort of pop word to describe a certain kind of book but it really is the best way to illustrate Ghosted.”

Williamson isn’t shy about putting his characters’ dark sides on display, either. “One of my favorite things to write are the bad guys. The underbelly of the crime world. Characters that are tortured, and are kind of jerks. Ghosted has plenty of that and has been a blast.”

Williamson spoke about GHOSTED at Comic Book Resources in March, after the title’s announcement at Emerald City Comicon, and at PreviewsWorld. The first issue of the five-issue miniseries is set to go on sale on July 10. It can be pre-ordered now (Diamond Code MAY130405) from the May issue of Previews.

The founders of the survivalist colony Safe Haven are sure that the end of civilization is at hand. Economic collapse, natural disaster, civil war — they’re prepared for it all in their underground compound deep in the woods of America’s northeast. But, in SHELTERED, the new series from Image Comics by Ed Brisson (COMEBACK) and Johnnie Christmas, the threat to their existence comes from a source they never expected: their own children.

Coming in July, SHELTERED follows the consequences after Safe Haven’s younger generation, raised in paranoia and isolation, rebel against their parents and take over the compound. Two leaders emerge from the rebellion: the teenagers Lucas, who led the revolt,  and Victoria, who leads another group of kids in their escape. With Victoria set to expose Safe Haven, Lucas and his faction are determined to hunt her and her group down before they reach the nearest town, forty miles away through dangerous wilderness.

The idea for SHELTERED grew out of Brisson’s interest in end-of-world scenarios. “Initially, I was researching preppers — people who are actively preparing for natural disasters, nuclear war, societal breakdown — to get and idea of how people would be able to survive any of the above,” said the writer. “My initial idea was to do a post-apocalyptic story. Through my research, I started to get obsessed with the culture — from the outside! I don't own a bunker! — and how it would affect children raised in that sort of environment.”

With the art, Christmas strives to capture the isolation of the setting and the individuality of each character. “We're going to be facing down the apocalypse with these people, it's important to really get a sense of who they are and what they're capable of,” he said. “These kids aren't even out of high school, but they are probably the most prepared folks on earth, when it comes to riding out the end of the world.”

SHELTERED is a full-color comic book, with a five-issue first arc. Its first issue can be pre-ordered now (Diamond code MAY130408) and will be in stores on July 10, 2013. A four-page preview is up now at Multiversity Comics.

APHRODITE IX #1, the Free Comic Book Day offering from the Image Comics imprint Top Cow, is being reprinted and will be offered for sale on June 12, the same day as the relaunch’s second issue. The second printing features an all-new cover by Sjepan Sejic and its cover price is $2.99.

Matt Hawkins (THINK TANK) and Stjepan Sejic (RAVINE, ARTIFACTS) have teamed up to bring back the fan-favorite green-haired, amnesiac assassin. Aphrodite IX awakes to find she must navigate an unrecognizable Earth that is being contended over by warring factions of the cybernetically enhanced and genetically enhanced.

Aphrodite IX was originally created by David Wohl and David Finch in the best-selling graphic novel published in 1996, which is being offered again as part of the relaunch in a limited edition APHRODITE RELOADED hardcover edition. The hardcover, set to be in stores this summer, features updates to the script by series co-creator and writer David Wohl.

APHRODITE IX #1’s second printing (APR138007), APHRODITE IX #2 (APR130429) and APHRODITE IX: Reloaded (APR130445) are available now for pre-order.

This July, acclaimed comic book creators Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Casanova, Iron Man) and Howard Chaykin (BLACK KISS, AMERICAN FLAGG) will take readers back to the Golden Age of Television, a time when innocence was as manufactured a fiction as the perfect families in the comedies that captivated audiences at home. Their new Image Comics series SATELLITE SAM, debuting in July, takes a look at the darkness behind the small screen when, in 1951, Carlyle Bishop, the star of the beloved serial “Satellite Sam” turns up dead in a filthy flophouse.

Carlyle’s son Michael has a hunch that his father’s death was anything but natural, but the only clue is a box full of photographs of women in various states of undress — and Mike can’t bring himself to stay sober long enough to make any sense of it.

For Fraction and Chaykin, SATELLITE SAM is a chance to tell a murder mystery while simultaneously divesting the 1950s of its mantle of moral purity.

“It's a detective story, a history of television, and a record of addiction, sex, and depravity during a time when the antiseptic shine off Ozzie and Harriet obscure what was really happening in the world,” said writer Fraction. “And these are just a few of the many joys that come from telling a story about television while it was being invented as a mass medium in New York City.”

The creative team researched television’s early days in preparation for the series, getting a feel for the era and for the people who lived real lives while inventing an idealized — and fictionalized — image of families and relationships.

“We’d been talking about SATELLITE SAM for a while, but what really got it going was a long Winter’s day Matt and I spent wandering New York, feeling the city’s ghosts, its lost and found architecture, ending up at the Paley Center, where we watched kinescopes of long dead men and women, acting out children’s fantasies, while living complex lives off-camera,” said Chaykin. “To say that I’m both having the time of my life collaborating on this project, and getting my ass kicked in the process, is to grossly understate the case.”

SATELLITE SAM is an ongoing black-and-white series. Its first issue can be pre-ordered now from the May issue of Previews and will be in stores on July 3.

Saturday, May 4 is Free Comic Book Day! Here is a by-no-means-definitive list of Image Comics creator signings. Ask your local comic book store what's going on in your town!

CALIFORNIA

Matt Hawkins (APHRODITE IX, THINK TANK)

11 am - 2 pm, Treasure Island Comics, 5018 Mowry Ave., Fremont, CA
4 - 7 pm, Flying Colors Comics, 2980 Treat Blvd., Concord, CA

Jim Zub (SKULLKICKERS)

10 am - 3 pm, Superheroes in Training, 945 W. Valley Pkwy, Ste D, Escondido, CA

MK Perker and Ken Kristensen (TODD, THE UGLIEST KID ON EARTH)

5 - 7 pm, Superheroes in Training, 945 W. Valley Pkwy, Ste D, Escondido, CA

Whilce Portacio and Glen Brunswick (NON-HUMANS)

2  - 5 pm, Collector's Paradise, 319 S. Arroyo Parkway, Unit 4, Pasadena CA

FLORIDA

Joe Eisma

Heroes Landing, 12348 Roper Blvd., Clermont, FL

MASSACHUSETTS

Ming Doyle (MARA)

11 am - 3 pm Newbury Comics, 101 Independence Mall Way, Kingston, MA

MARYLAND

Joe Keatinge (GLORY, HELL YEAH)

Brandon Seifert (WITCH DOCTOR)

Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley (HOAX HUNTERS)

Collectors Corner, 7911 Harford Rd., Baltimore, MD

Charles Soule (27)

Third Eye Comics, 2027A West St., Annapolis, MD

NEW JERSEY

Andre Szymanowicz and Fabio Redivo (HELL YEAH)

Dewey's Comic City, 13 Park Ave., Madison NJ 07940

NEW YORK

Ron Marz (ARTIFACTS)

12 - 2 pm Comic Depot, 3065 Route 50, Saratoga Springs NY

NORTH CAROLINA

Nathan Edmondson and Mitch Gerads (THE ACTIVITY)

Jake's Memory Lane Comics, 5725 Oleander Dr. B-5, Wilmington, NC

OREGON

Ales Kot (CHANGE, WILD CHILDREN)

Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St., Portland, OR

WASHINGTON

Duffy Boudreau (BLACKACRE)

U-District Comic Stop, 1307 NE 45th St. Seattle, WA 98105

And don't forget to pick up the two Image Comics FCBD titles:

    

C2E2 is underway in Chicago, and on Saturday, April 27, attendees of the PETER PANZERFAUST panel (at 3:15 pm in room W470b) will be the exclusive audience of a three-minute teaser for the PETER PANZERFAUST animated comic. The teaser for the motion comic, which is produced by Adjacent Productions and Quality Transmedia, will not be shown elsewhere. But that’s not the only exclusive that  panel attendees will be privy to — they’ll also be the first to get a look at PETER PANZERFAUST writer Wiebe’s new series RAT QUEENS.

RAT QUEENS, drawn by Roc Upchurch and to be published by Jim Valentino’s Image Comics imprint, Shadowline, follows the exploits of four monster-hunting women whose love of partying is outweighed only by their love of exacting sweet, brutal revenge on their enemies. Wiebe describes it as “Tank Girl meets Bridesmaids by way of a Lord of the Rings fantasy world on crack.”

RAT QUEENS will be Wiebe’s first comic book series to debut after BBC Worldwide’s release of the PETER PANZERFAUST motion comic trailer on May 14. Featuring the voice talents of Elijah Wood (Peter), Summer Glau (Wendy), Ron Perlman (Kapitan Haken), and Dante Basco (Alain), the motion comic fully animates the Image Comics/Shadowline comic book by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins.

Readers will get a chance to start reading APHRODITE IX for free this May 4, as Top Cow debuts the re-launched Top Cow series on Free Comic Book Day.

THINK TANK writer and Top Cow President Matt Hawkins teams up with fan-favorite artist Stjepan Sejic (ARTIFACTS, RAVINE) to bring Aphrodite IX, the green-haired, memory-challenged assassin to a new generation of readers. In a dystopian future populated by warring factions of the genetically modified and the cybernetically enhanced, Aphrodite IX awakes to world where the sky is scorched, humanity as it was known is gone and two disparate groups fight for survival and dominance of the very scarce resources left on what's left of Earth. 

"Aphrodite IX has always been my favorite character at Top Cow,” said Hawkins. “She’s interesting visually, combined with a personality that's sort of out of control of her own experiences and lost in the tangled web of her own mind. Combining my love of real futuristic tech and genetics with Stjepan Sejic's insane visuals we're hoping the readers enjoy the ride."

Aphrodite IX was originally created by David Wohl and David Finch in the best-selling graphic novel published in 1996, which is being offered again as part of the relaunch in a limited edition APHRODITE RELOADED hardcover edition this summer. The hardcover features updates to the script by series co-creator and writer David Wohl.

After May’s first, free issue, APHRODITE IX will continue on a monthly schedule, with issue #2 in stores on June 12. The full-color, eye-popping issues will be $2.99.

At the Diamond Comics Retailer summit in Chicago today, Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson announced Image Expo 2013, a unique media event that will take place in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on July 2, 2013.

Image Expo 2013 will be an all-day event featuring announcements from Image Comics, the publisher of the best-selling comic book titles THE WALKING DEAD, SAGA, FATALE, EAST OF WEST and JUPITER’S LEGACY, as well as appearances by superstar creators, including Image partner and THE WALKING DEAD creator Robert Kirkman and Ed Brubaker, co-creator of the Eisner-nominated FATALE, revealing panels, and autograph sessions. Tickets for this exciting event will available to the general public for purchase on May 3, 2013.

Image Expo 2013 follows the publisher’s successful 2012 Image Expo convention, which was held in Oakland, California. Image Expo 2013 will be be the most intimate comics event of its kind, offering unprecedented access to creators, exclusive swag, and the first chance to hear what the publisher that has been taking the comics industry by storm has planned for the future.

Image Comics fans can keep on top of all the latest Image Expo 2013 developments at www.imagecomics.com/expo for ticket information and guest announcements.

Image Comics is thrilled to congratulate the creators of comic books who received 18 nominations in nine categories for the 2012 Will Eisner Comic Book Industry Awards, which were announced by Comic-Con International on April 16.

Leading the pack of all series nominated is the stylish horror noir FATALE by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, with six nods, including Best Continuing Series, Best New Series, Best Writer for Brubaker, Best Penciller/Inker and Best Cover Art for Phillips, and Best Coloring for Dave Stewart (shared nomination).

SAGA, the space opera phenomenon by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, racked up three nominations, in the Best Continuing Series, Best New Series, and Best Writer categories. The exuberant alternate history THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra received nods for Best Continuing Series and Best Writer. In all, Image Comics titles captured four of the five nominations for Best Continuing series, with the relaunch of Rob Liefeld’s Extreme title PROPHET rounding out that number.

PROPHET writer Brandon Graham is the Eisners' Renaissance Man of nominations, receiving a Best Writer nod for his writing on PROPHET and his own miniseries MULTIPLE WARHEADS, a showing in the Best Graphic Novel - Reprint category for KING CITY, a Best Cover Art nomination for KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS and Richard Starkings' ELEPHANTMEN #43 covers, and a Best Coloring nomination for MULTIPLE WARHEADS.

The winners of the Eisner Awards are chosen by comic book industry professionals and will be announced at a ceremony at the Comic-Con International convention in San Diego on July 19. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the awards.





A complete list of Image Comics’ Eisner Award nominations:

Best Continuing Series
FATALE, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra
PROPHET, by Brandon Graham and Simon Roy
SAGA, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Best New Series
FATALE, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
SAGA, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Best Graphic Novel - Reprint
KING CITY, by Brandon Graham

Best Writer
Ed Brubaker, FATALE
Brandon Graham, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, PROPHET
Jonathan Hickman, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS
Brian K. Vaughan, SAGA

Best Penciller/Inker
Sean Phillips, FATALE

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist
Teddy Kristiansen, THE RED DIARY/The RE[A]D Diary (MAN OF ACTION/Image)

Best Cover Art
Brandon Graham, KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, ELEPHANTMEN #43
Sean Phillips, FATALE

Best Colorist
Brandon Graham, MULTIPLE WARHEADS
Dave Stewart, Batwoman (DC); FATALE (Image); BPRD, Conan the Barbarian, Hellboy in Hell, Lobster Johnson, The Massive (Dark Horse)

Best Lettering
Paul Grist, MUDMAN