Early this afternoon Image Comics hosted a panel with it’s current superstars as well it’s tenured making some announcements for what the next year holds for it’s funny books. Frank Cho, Ben Temple Smith, Robert Kirkman, newcomer Tyrese Gibson (of Transformers fame), Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane were joined by surprise guest Jim Lee.
Some of the highlights include the new Ben Templesmith book, Choke, a demented redemption story in a crime noir fashion. Not much to say other than it’s being penned by UK hailing writer Ben McCool. A few slides were shown with captions with true Templesmith-esque humor “I once got an erection at a brothel… There were no survivors.” The artist described the book as
“Fell with it’s face ripped off and a bad case of gonorrhea. Speaking of Fell it was announced that the book will be coming back, fans just need to be patient.
Frank Cho announced that he will be writing 50 Girls 50 and Image will be hosting a talent search starting at the Baltimore Comic Con. As of the plot? Cho remarked “It’s Star Trek in a strip show!”
Actor turned comics neophyte writer will be heading Mayhem; a vigilante due of machine gun toting siblings fighting a crime boss under the moniker of Big X. Jim Lee will be covers for both issue 2 and the graphic novel. I’m waiting to be impressed. The book will be ongoing (if it sells).
Writer, Robert Kirkman announced that his book, Astounding Wolf-Man, will hit it’s run at issue 25. “We won’t be able to top that arc, the story’s over,” Kirkman told fans. Invincible will be returning to his old colors in a upcoming one shot entitled Invincible Returns. The book will slow itself down from the barrage of intensity the book has had over the past year or so and was said to be “a bold new era”. The most interesting announcement out of Kirkman’s mouth regarded the future of The Walking Dead; “The survivors find civilization, and some aren’t ready to go back.”
Kirkman will also helm Image United; where all the key figures in the Image universe will be teaming up in a 6 issue miniseries. The interesting concept is that each character will be illustrated by it’s creator; Todd McFarlane will draw Spawn, Erik Larsen will draw Savage Dragon, Rob Liefeld will draw Youngblood, etc. ect. Other characters returning will be Badrock, Witchblade and Shadowhawk. Jim Lee popped by to say he will not be contributing his WildC.A.T.S. to the comics orgy, but wishes he could (yeah right).
Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman will also be collaborating on a project called Haunt, an undead secret agent who has to fight evil by possessing the body of his estranged, strung out, catholic priest brother. Sounds interesting enough, especially since Kirkman is a master at writing dynamic characters and building dysfunctional relationships between them.
Keep your eyes peeled throughout 2009 into 2010.