10 Comic Announcements From Comic-Con 2014 You Need To Know‏

4. So Many New Image Books

Independent publishers Image have come a long way, from being the epitome of everything wrong with nineties comic books to putting out some of the most exciting, entertaining and daring titles available right now. Not ones to rest on their laurels, they once again previewed their presence at Comic-Con with their own mini Image Expo in San Diego a couple of days beforehand, during which time they evaluated the current state of the comics industry, their place in it, and managed to squeeze in a good dozen announcements of new series. All of which we wanna add to our pull lists. Gotta save up those pennies... It's not really an announcement, but publisher Eric Stephenson's keynote speech set out Image's stall pretty effectively. He decried the tendency of Image's competitors to "grave rob the past", either returning to the same tired old characters and storylines or else licensing properties from other media and using their same old tired characters and storylines. He noted the importance of originality, creativity and diversity in what he sees as an increasingly staid comic book landscape. Thankfully Stephenson's the sort to put his money where his mouth is, since this speech was followed by the announcement of 12 new series that fit that bill. Most of the titles have a sci-fi bent, from Rick Remender, Sean Gordon Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth's dystopian Tokyo Ghost to Becky Cloonan and Andy Belanger's thriller Southern Cross to the celebrated team behind Marvel's Moon Knight relaunch, Declan Shalvey and Warren Ellis, coming back together for the mysterious Injection. Rounding out the announcements were Kurt Busiek and Ben Dewey's new fantasy book Tooth & Claw alongside the more magical Valhalla Mad by Joe Casey and Paul Maybury, and From Under The Mountains by Marian Churchland, Claire Gibson, Sloane Leong. The full list is a sight to behold - all of these look like must-read comics. Now that's an announcement.