Image and Top Cow Solicitations: November Highlights

My highlights from November's Image and Top Cow solicitations are once again dominated by the annual Pilot Season initiative. Now in its fifth year Pilot Season gives readers the chance to vote for their favourite one-shot with the winning title getting its own series at a later date.

Last year over a million votes were cast for the winning title - 39 Minutes - written and created by William Harms featuring art by Jerry Lando. Four of the 2011 Pilot Season titles were released in October - details here - with a further four being released in November.

Aside from Pilot Season other titles to catch my eye this month include a 68-page Giant-Size Elephantmen #1, the 2011 Hack/Slash annual, the oversized Thought Bubble Anthology and a second anthology of short stories set in the Carbon Grey universe.

Full details from Image Comics, Top Cow and Newsarama.

PILOT SEASON: MISDIRECTION #1
story FILIP SABLIK
art CHRIS DiBARI
cover MICHAEL GAYDOS
November 2, 32 pages, FC, T+, $3.99
PILOT SEASON RETURNS! TAKE CONTROL!
Vince Martinez raced cars for a living, now he can’t even drive. A tragic mistake took Vince from the height of success to losing his career, his family & his freedom. When he is unwittingly made the getaway driver for a bank robbery gone wrong, will Vince head back to jail or show the world why he was NASCAR’s hottest driver in one of the heaviest trafficked cities in the US.
Writer FILIP SABLIK (LAST MORTAL, PILOT SEASON: ASSET) teams with artist CHRIS DIBARI (Pale Horse, The Warriors) hit the gas on a high-speed fugitive tale with a twist!

PILOT SEASON: THEORY OF EVERYTHING #1
story DAN CASEY
art THOMAS NACHLIK
cover ERIK JONES
November 9, 32 pages, FC, T+, $3.99
PILOT SEASON RETURNS! TAKE CONTROL!
Charles Witten is a brilliant scientist capable of inventing devices that will change our world. Unfortunately, most of the scientific community thinks he’s a crackpot. As does the government, until... a precision team of heist men rob a bank in Switzerland using what appears to be Witten’s dimension hopping technology. Technology that Witten designed, but never completed...
Writer/director DAN CASEY and artist THOMAS NACHLIK (LAST MORTAL) deliver fast-paced, action-packed science fiction that will keep you guessing.

PILOT SEASON: ANONYMOUS #1
story ALAN McELROY
art MICHAEL MONTENAT
cover ERIK JONES
November 16, 32 pages, FC, T+, $3.99
PILOT SEASON RETURNS! TAKE CONTROL!
Marcus Walsh was an elite Special Forces soldier involved in black ops all over the world. Wet work like this takes its toll and Marcus wanted out, but this wasn’t a job you quit. There was only one way out. Now believed dead and completely anonymous, Walsh struggles to use his black ops skills to atone for his past sins.
Screenwriter ALAN McELROY (SPAWN, Tekken) newcomer MICHAEL MONTENAT delivers a hard-hitting adventure of redemption and conspiracy!

PILOT SEASON: SERAPH #1
story LANCE BRIGGS & PHIL HESTER
art & cover JOSE LUIS
November 23, 32 pages, FC, T+, $3.99
PILOT SEASON RETURNS! TAKE CONTROL!
The angelic warrior now known only as Seraph was once a sinner. After living a life of selfishness and sin, personal tragedy drove him to kill himself. Plucked on his way to Hell by Heaven, the man was made Heaven’s soldier in an endless battle. Charged with fighting an ancient war, but bound by God’s law, can Seraph triumph over opponents not restricted in the same way and regain his faith in the process?
Creator LANCE BRIGGS (Chicago Bears) and writer PHIL HESTER (THE DARKNESS, Wonder Woman) are joined by artist JOSE LUIS (Justice League of America) deliver a story of personal loss and redemption wrapped in a rich supernatural mythos.


SHAKY KANE'S MONSTER TRUCK
story/art/cover SHAKY KANE
November 23, 108 pages/ FC, LANDSCAPE, T+, $14.99
GET YOUR MOTOR ROLLING AND HEAD OUT ALONG COMIC BOOK ROUTE 666!
Taking it's stylistic cues from the silver age of comics, this graphic road movie by comics legend SHAKY KANE, pans out over 50 continuous panels, taking the reader on a hallucinogenic journey into the very hinterland of popular culture. Deluxe, recolored, remastered second printing of the WISHBONE STUDIO cult classic.
"The world in a blender, all the tastiest parts shaken, rattled, and rolled into a Technicolor mind-warp!"
Matt Seneca, Death To The Universe.

GIANT-SIZE ELEPHANTMEN #1
story RICHARD STARKINGS
art AXEL MEDELLIN
cover A J. SCOTT CAMPBELL & NEI RUFFINO
cover B AXEL MEDELLIN
November 2, 68 pages, FC, M, $5.99
COMPLETE THIS ISSUE: “MAN AND ELEPHANTMAN”
J. SCOTT CAMPBELL’s beautiful tri-fold cover art wraps around the complete, sold out ELEPHANTMEN: MAN AND ELEPHANTMAN story arc, previewed in THE WALKING DEAD #86. Read the whole story and see what everyone was talking about!

HACK/SLASH ANNUAL 2011: HATCHET/SLASH
story BENITO CERENO
art ARIEL ZUCKER-BRULL
cover A TIM SEELEY & MARK ENGLERT
cover B ARIEL ZUCKER-BRULL
November 2, 48 pages, FC, T+, $4.99
The biggest stars in comic book horror meet the biggest star in independent horror films as Cassie and Vlad meet HATCHET's Victor Crowley!
In the Louisiana Bayou, the murderous ghost of Victor Crowley is maiming tourists in creatively horrible ways. But in his blind murderous rampage, he may have created something worse than himself! Now, Cassie and Vlad are back in New Orleans, and it won't be long before baseball bat meets hatchet and deformed mutant meets deformed mutant! GUARDING THE GLOBE writer BENITO CERENO teams with star-in-the-making ARIEL ZUCKER-BRULL for this momentous mash-up!

ARTIFACTS #14
story RON MARZ
art & cover STJEPAN SEJIC
November 2, 32 pages, FC, T, $3.99
NOW ONGOING!
The Top Cow Universe irrevocably changed by the event of ARTIFACTS #13, and while the event is over, the story continues. Tom Judge, bearer of the Rapture, can’t get the feeling out of his head that something is horribly wrong... with everything. The longtime WITCHBLADE team of RON MARZ (MAGDALENA, SHINKU) and STJEPAN SEJIC (ANGELUS) reunite to tell the ongoing saga of the Top Cow Universe itself.

MUDMAN #1
story/art/cover PAUL GRIST
November 16, 32 pages, FC, TEEN, $3.50
A BRAND-NEW SUPERHERO COMIC BY PAUL GRIST!
It’s the first day back at school for Owen Craig, and it’s not going too well. He’s been run over, got detention, and his police officer father has been taken prisoner by armed bank robbers.
And now his body seems to be turning into mud...

THOUGHT BUBBLE ANTHOLOGY #1
story ANDY DIGGLE, STUART GORDON & ANTONY JOHNSTON
art CHARLIE ADLARD, DUNCAN FEGREDO & D'ISRAELI
cover BECKY CLOONAN
November 9, 24 pages, FC, E, OVERSIZED, $2.99
Top names come together to celebrate Thought Bubble's fifth year with an anthology of new short comics. This collection will also print the winners of the first ever Northern Sequential Art Competition. All profits from this comic will go to the charity Banardos.
www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

ELEPHANTMEN, VOL. 0 HC
story RICHARD STARKINGS
art MORITAT, BOO COOK, AXEL MEDELLIN & LADR÷NN
cover BOO COOK
November 9, 312 pages, FC, M, $34.99
Collecting the sold out WAR TOYS trade paperback, now in full color for the first time, and the sequel, ENEMY SPECIES, this highly anticipated ELEPHANTMEN, VOL. 0 is packed with extras, including MORITAT and BOO COOK sketchbooks and unseen work by LADR÷NN, MARIAN CHURCHLAND, MARLEY ZARCONE and a new prologue by AXEL MEDELLIN!
Collects ELEPHANTMEN: WAR TOYS, VOL. 1: NO SURRENDER; ELEPHANTMEN: YVETTE ONE SHOT and ELEPHANTMEN #34-35

THE COMPLETE INVINCIBLE LIBRARY, VOL. 3 HC
story ROBERT KIRKMAN
art RYAN OTTLEY & BILL CRABTREE
cover RYAN OTTLEY
November 23, 688 pages, FC, $125.00
S&N EDITION LIMITED TO 150 COPIES $175.00
Collecting the INVINCIBLE ULTIMATE COLLECTION, VOL. 5-6 into one massive slip cased volume just in time for Christmas! Almost 700 pages of pure INVINCIBLE goodness. This is a can't-miss for any INVINCIBLE fan and a perfect addition to any reinforced, sturdy bookshelf.
Collects INVINCIBLE #48-70

THE MISSION TP
story JON HOEBER & ERICH HOEBER
art & cover WERTHER DELL'EDERA & ARIANNA FLOREAN
November 9, 144 pages, FC, $14.99
Paul Haskell's average suburban life is upended when a mysterious figure claiming to be an angel taps him as a foot-soldier in the hidden war between Good and Evil. As Paul descends into a dark disturbing world of covert missions and murder, he struggles to discern reality from illusion, good from evil, and sanity from madness.

TOP COW: WE CREATE... HC
story TOP COW’S FINEST
art & cover TOP COW’S FINEST
November 30, 224 pages, FC, T, OVER-SIZED, $34.99
THE PERFECT GIFT!
Over it’s almost 20-year history, Top Cow has established itself as both a legendary breeding ground for great artists, and a hot bed of creativity and new ideas. Celebrate the full library of Top Cow properties and characters with overviews, profiles, and insights in this deluxe hard cover reference guide. Collecting material previously found in the Top Cow Bible and Bible Addendum along with new entries and content, Top Cow: We Create... makes the perfect holiday gift for the diehard Top Cow fan in your life. Plus be the first to find out about what Top Cow has planned for the future with sneak peeks at upcoming concepts and properties!

WITCHBLADE: REDEMPTION, VOL. 4 TP
story RON MARZ
art STJEPAN SEJIC
cover STJEPAN SEJIC
November 30, 160 pages, FC, T, STANDARD SIZE, $19.99
END OF AN ERA!
Longtime scribe RON MARZ (ARTIFACTS, MAGDALENA) and artistic partner STJEPAN SEJIC (BROKEN TRINITY) conclude their critically acclaimed run on WITCHBLADE. In this volume, Sara Pezzini must defeat the ancient Babylonian goddess-queen Tiamat, who has returned after centuries with an ax to grind with the Witchblade bearer. Also in this volume, the over-sized landmark 150th issue of Witchblade where Internal Affairs closes in on Sara’s mystical secret, forcing her to choose between her role as Witchblade bearer and detective.
Collects WITCHBLADE #145-150

CARBON GREY ORIGINS #2 (of 2)
story PAUL GARDNER, HOANG NGUYEN & KHARI EVANS
art HOANG NGUYEN, KHARI EVANS & KINSUN LOH
cover A HOANG NGUYEN
cover B KHARI EVANS & KINSUN LOH
November 23, 32 pages, FC, M - MATURE, $3.99
“ORIGIN,” Part Two
A second anthology of short stories set in the CARBON GREY universe. A boy becomes a god in “Gottfaust,” mysterious events are investigated by “Marshal and Marshall” and a refugee becomes a queen in the tale of “Raisa.” Legends, secret histories and continuity errors – all will be revealed in CARBON GREY ORIGINS.

THE DARKNESS #97
story PHIL HESTER
art ROMANO MOLENAAR
cover JEREMY HAUN
November 16, 32 pages, FC, M, $2.99
CELEBRATE THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY!
Longtime Darkness bearer, Jackie Estacado, is on a mission to destroy the one enemy that can strike at the core of his life... the Darkness itself. But fighting his way through the Darkness’ home dimension, Estacado will encounter unexpected ghosts from his past. Long time writer PHIL HESTER (Wonder Woman, Green Hornet) and ROMANO MOLENAAR (THE DARKNESS II: CONFESSION) barrel towards the landmark issue #100!
ALSO AVAILABLE: THE DARKNESS #90-#95 Signed Set – issue #90 signed by PHIL HESTER - $19.99

MAGDALENA #11
story RON MARZ
art NELSON BLAKE II, DAVID MARQUEZ, SAL REGLA & DAVE McCAIG
cover NELSON BLAKE II, SAL REGLA & DAVE McCAIG
November 9, 32 pages, FC, T, $3.99
GUEST-STARRING WITCHBLADE!
The hunt for a piece of the One True Cross leads Patience and Kristof to the US, where Patience is reunited with an old friend – Sara Pezzini! Together will the Artifact bearers be able to recover the relic from Patience’s newest adversary? RON MARZ (ARTIFACTS, WITCHBLADE), NELSON BLAKE II (PILOT SEASON: MURDERER) and DAVID MARQUEZ (Secret Warriors, Days Missing) continue the fan favorite series!

SAMURAI’S BLOOD #6 (of 6)
story OWEN WISEMAN
art NAM KIM, MATTHEW DALTON & SAKTI YUMONO
cover JO CHEN
November 9, 32 pages, FC, T, $3.99
MINISERIES CONCLUSION!
It all comes down to this moment... Three teenagers, the last survivors of a brutal betrayal on their clan, face an army with only the support of the Edo Ghost. All willing to die to enact their revenge. It looks like it may come to that.
32 PAGE - NO ADS FINALE!

WITCHBLADE #152
story TIM SEELEY
art DIEGO BERNARD & FRED BENES
cover A JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
cover B DIEGO BERNARD & FRED BENES
November 23, 32 pages, FC, T+, $2.99
“UNBALANCED PIECES”, Part Two
Tracking supernatural killers was a lot easier when Sara Pezzini, bearer of the Witchblade, lived in her hometown of New York and was a police detective. Now she must do it while avoiding butting heads with the Chicago PD and trying to make ends meet as a private detective. The new creative team of TIM SEELEY (HACK/SLASH) and DIEGO BERNARD (The Man With No Name) continue to shake up the status quo of WITCHBLADE!
Featuring two covers by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER (ARTIFACTS) and DIEGO BERNARD!
ALSO AVAILABLE: WTICHBLADE #146 – Comic-Con International Exclusive Variant Cover by KALMAN ANDROSOFSKY - $10.00

Image Firsts: Hack/Slash and Dead@17 - Part 2

Earlier this week our friend and regular correspondent Simon Breeze posted the first part of his two-part look at a couple of 'firsts' from Image Comics. Having explored the first issue of Hack/Slash in some detail Simon now turns his attentions to another title that he describes as 'similar yet very different indeed': Dead@17.

Dead@17 - reviewed by Simon Breeze
Written by Josh Howard with art by Josh Howard
Published by Image Comics

Dead@17 follows the story of Nara Kilday, who, as the books title hints at, is killed (within this first issue) at the age of just 17 only to then, as the title does not elude too, mysteriously return to life at the end of the issue as an axe-swinging zombie killer!

The story starts by following Nara as she returns home after a night out with her friend Hazy Foss. It is a very wordy first page, but I mean that only as a comparison to the following five pages or so where hardly a word is spoken. As I say, I'm not pointing this out as a negative, in fact quite the opposite, the first five or six pages of this comic are brilliantly paced and tell the story of Nara Kilday’s demise fantastically - they are an excellent example of the rest of this comics well-paced story telling.

From this point onwards, the story turns its attentions to Hazy Foss and Elijah (another friend of the departed Nara) and how between them they are coming to terms with the loss of their dear friend.

Through Hazy and Elijah, we discover that Nara was plagued with bizarre and violent dreams where she would act out the nightmares she had experienced. In one such nightmare, she even attacked Elijah to wake later with no recollection of the event ... or did she?

We also discover that the police are taking quite an interest in her death and have uncovered a diary that Nara kept. The diary starts out, as a normal teenage girl’s diary might however, around 16 years of age through the pages of the diary, Nara starts explaining how she is hearing voices and seeing strange things such as demons, visions of hell and she makes references to the occult. All very mysterious indeed. The pages of the diary are also full of strange symbols, random words, and disturbing phrases. As the police officer puts it, ‘... your friend was a seriously disturbed young lady.’

Hazy is more than confused about this turn of events and returns to her home and her mother where after a falling out, which seems quite a common event between her and her mother, she calls her friend Elijah to discuss her discoveries of their mutual friend, Nara. Before Elijah can put in an appearance, zombies randomly appear and break down Hazy’s front door and start to attack her in her home. Just as Hazy is about to become zombie fodder, an axe swinging, schoolgirl uniform clad Nara appears and hacks the zombies to bits. To be continued ...

This comic sounds a bit bonkers, mainly because it is! The good thing about its bonkersness (if that is a word?! [Zaius: I don't think it is Simon!]) is that it is an enjoyable and intriguing bonkers that kept me hooked from the very first page. Throughout the story you are introduced to several characters and situations, all adding to the curiosity of what is going on, because even when you finish this first issue you still don’t really know for sure, you have an idea, but nothing you would put good money on.

That is the key to this comic’s story, it feels like a murder mystery, and teen horror all rolled into one and that is why I enjoyed it so much. In addition, I cannot help but get a ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ vibe about Dead@17, I think it is the suggestion of a teenage girl fighting demons and the occult. This is not a bad thing as Buffy was an inspired and original idea, and I cannot help but get the impression that Dead@17 is going to serve the genre of teenage demon killing girl well.

All-in-all a really solid comic and I have no hesitation in giving it a zombie splatting four out of five and I will be picking up a few more issues.


Thank you to Simon for this weeks contributions - enjoyable, considered and thought provoking as always. On a personal note I've also recently read both of these first issues from Image Comics and likewise found them enjoyable: two very well written stories accompanied by some fantastic art - I particularly appreciated the 'quirky' art style through Dead@17 I must say.

Image Firsts: Hack/Slash and Dead@17 - Part 1

My sincere thanks to our regular correspondent and friend of Escape from Tomorrow Simon Breeze for another insightful comic book review - or in this case two comic book reviews.

Remember you can read more from Simon over on his blog where, of course, you can also enjoy looking over his wonderful art.

Hack/Slash and Dead@17 - reviewed by Simon Breeze

The genius trend of the ‘One-for-One-Dollar’ comic books continues, and long may it do so I say as I genuinely believe that it is bringing new readers to comics that they may otherwise have given a miss. Readers like me in fact, who has happily invested a Dollar or two here and there, a Dollar that I would not normally have spent, and then ended up getting the collected editions of some of these fantastic reads or taking them on as part of my monthly pull list.

The most recent publications from the One-for-One Dollar line that I have dabbled in are from Image Comics, namely Hack/Slash and Dead@17. Both comics fall onto a similar playing field as far as I'm concerned - horror with a female teen protagonist - yet, to their individual credit, are very different reads indeed.

Today I'll talk about Hack/Slash and later in the week Dead@17 ...

Hack/Slash
Written by Tim Seeley with art by Stefand Caselli and Emily Stone
Published by Image Comics

At first, I must admit, I had almost decided that Hack/Slash wasn't for me before I had even picked up a copy. It is a long story, here is the short version:

The covers that I've seen have been, for me at least, somewhat misleading, and at a quick glance I assumed that the comic was little more than a shallow attempt to have an attractive girl as skimpily dressed as possible covered in blood and gore - I genuinely thought that was all the comic had to offer me - how wrong could I have been?! Now for some people this approach would all be great stuff, but for me, not a chance. I like my horror scary and clever, and much to my joy, Hack/Slash has this in buckets!

The comic follows Cassie Hack, who strikes back at the monsters and murderous bad guys known as ‘Slashers’ with the help of a gentle giant known as Vlad, who is mostly always seen within the comic wearing a gas mask to cover his disfigured features. This first issue treats us to two stories told as one with a series of flashbacks that gives us the story of how Cassie Hack’s troubled childhood led her to the interesting life the comic follows, cut throughout the second story where we are shown Cassie and Vlad’s most recent case - 'Gross Anatomy'.

The flashbacks brilliantly tell Cassie Hack’s bizarre childhood and follow that urban myth of the school cook killing, cooking and serving all of the bad children at the school as meals to the good children. In this case, the cook is Cassie’s mum, the bad children are the ones that are picking on her daughter, and it is Cassie herself that brings her mum to justice when she discovers just what is going into those school ‘lunch specials.’ The flashbacks also allow the opportunity to tell the brief story of how Cassie and Vlad met and became the dynamic monster hunting duo that they are today.

In the main story, Cassie has used herself as bait to catch the latest Slasher. The trap appears to have gone wrong and Cassie has the unfortunate turn of events of being captured and severely tortured at the hands of the Slasher, losing more than one of her toes in the process ... and almost her life. The story ends with Vlad finding the captive heroine and saving her and the day by killing the bad guy. But at what cost?

My last comment there is the thing that I loved about this comic - ‘But at what cost?’. Cassie is as hard as nails and watching her being painfully tortured and mutilated panel after panel is gut wrenching, yet cut with the reason as to why she is as hardened as she is and her motives, you cannot help but buy into her as a character and the situation she has found herself in. She has no superpowers, those toes are not growing back, and the brutal beating she receives is not going to heal overnight. It would be easy in a comic to ignore these things, sweep them under the carpet with some thin explanation, and move on. Hack/Slash embraces these things and the consequences that follow them, which is what makes this comic so good. The last few panels when Cassie is dressing her wounds reminded me of a great moment in the film Casino Royal, where James Bond is cradling a broken Eva Green in his arms as she sobs in the shower after the brutal events just prior. This scene gave the film grounding in the real world for me, it made the unbelievable violence and events that preceded it more believable, and it gave me a strong emotional tie to the characters. This is exactly the same feeling I had as I watched Vlad cradle the sobbing Cassie in the bathroom at the end of this first story.

Hack/Slash is probably not for everyone, it is brutal and violent but it has a fun side too, although I would recommend this comic to anyone who reads with that warning. The comic is not about the situations that Cassie Hack finds herself in; it is about the character of Cassie Hack and how she is dealing with them. Now that might sound a little confusing, so I will simply say, if you can buy into the character of Cassie, you will buy into this comic, and Cassie is a very likeable and convincing ‘real’ person, which is the strength behind this comic.

I have read a lot of new titles (well, new to me) over the past year and only one or two have gone onto my ‘must own’ list. Hack/Slash is one of those titles. I give it a blood splattering five out of five!

In the second of this two-part feature I'll be taking a look at another of Image's titles, Dead@17.


As I say, thanks to Simon for another fantastic review - a timely one as well as only last week Image released the Hack/Slash: My First Maniac trade paperback for a bargain $9.99.

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac trade paperback
story by Tim Seeley, art by Dan Leister, cover by Jenny Frison
112 Pages, full colour, $9.99, S&N LTD ED Hardcover $29.99

HACK/SLASH: MY FIRST MANIAC, the sellout Image Comics debut miniseries is collected! This critically acclaimed hit explores Cassie Hack's first case. 16-year-old Cassie has just been forced to kill her mother, the undead murderer known as the Lunch Lady! Now faced with overwhelming guilt, she must decide if she can make a life with her foster parents and at her new school or if she should use her new-found slasher killing skills to save other screaming teenagers! But does the apple fall far from the tree?

Includes never-before-seen sketches and an introduction by Allison Scagliotti, star of SyFy's WAREHOUSE 13.

More details can, of course, be found at Image Comics.