Image Comics has added five new titles to its "Image
Firsts" line, printings of first issues of the independent publisher's
most popular titles that sell for only $1.00. The Image Firsts editions of the
phenomenally popular FATALE, SAGA, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, THIEF OF THIEVES,
and REVIVAL will arrive in stores on December 12. In addition, new printings of
the Image Firsts editions of THE WALKING DEAD and CHEW will be in stores on the
same day.
FATALE is the newest title in the fruitful collaboration
between writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips (Criminal, Incognito).
Colored by Dave Stewart, FATALE tells the story of Josephine, an immortal femme
fatale who unwillingly entrances men and ensnares them in a deadly,
decades-long battle with unfathomable evil. Melding noir and horror, FATALE is
called an "addictive page-turner" in a starred review of its first
collection, DEATH CHASES ME, in Publishers Weekly.
SAGA, an ongoing series by Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last
Man, Runaways, Ex Machina) and Fiona Staples, has been the comics break-out hit
of the year, garnering near-universal praise and a dedicated fan following. A
space-opera-style science fiction adventure, SAGA follows a family on the run —
Alana, Marko, and their baby Hazel — as they try to escape the ingrained
hostilities that have kept their two worlds at war for centuries and threaten
their lives. The first volume is currently number four on the New York Times
Paperback Graphic Books Best Seller list. Publishers Weekly's starred review
called SAGA a "human story that will leave readers desperately awaiting
the next volume."
THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS by Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic
Four, Avengers), Nick Pitarra (THE RED WING, also with Hickman), and Jordie
Bellaire tackles Cold War-era science like no comic has before — imagining a
history where the group of geniuses who brought us the atomic bomb also worked
on secret occult experiments. Comics Alliance called the series "pure mad science
in comic book form." Its first trade paperback hit stores in September.
THIEF OF THIEVES is a crime series created by Robert
Kirkman (THE WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE) and published under his Image Comics
imprint, Skybound. Redmond, a world-class thief, wants to leave behind his life
of crime and rebuild his family, but it isn't going to be so easy to resist the
call of one last caper and escape his past. The first story arc of THIEF OF
THIEVES, "I QUIT!", written by Nick Spencer and with art by Shawn
Martinbrough and Felix Serrano, was collected in September. A Booklist review
says that Redmond's "redemption, headed off at every corner, makes for a
classic emotional stake, and the complexity of the plot, often flashing back to
the past to explain the present, holds steady interest."
REVIVAL is a completely new take on the undead genre that
creators Tim Seeley (HACK/SLASH, WITCHBLADE) and Mike Norton (Battle Pug, IT
GIRL AND THE ATOMICS) call "rural noir." When, for one day, the dead
rise in a small town in Wisconsin, it changes their quiet world forever.
Officer Dana Cypress is tapped to investigate the phenomenon, only to discover
it's hit closer to home than she imagined. In a September article, FearNet
writer Alison Nastasi wrote, "Revival peers at its readers from the
underbelly of America's heartland, embracing the moodiness and isolation of the
rural landscape." The collection of the first five issues, YOU'RE AMONG
FRIENDS, will be in stores on December 12.
Diamond order codes for the Image Firsts issues:
Image Firsts CHEW #1: OCT128200
Image Firsts FATALE #1: OCT128196
Image Firsts THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS #1: OCT128197
Image Firsts REVIVAL #1: OCT128211
Image Firsts SAGA #1: OCT128195
Image Firsts THIEF OF THIEVES: OCT128198
Image Firsts THE WALKING DEAD #1 OCT128199