Holiday helpers: Image Comics

Easily our top publishers of 2012, and the perfect holiday companions, Image Comics just keeps coughing up the goods.

Saga #8
We will continue to sing the praises of this series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, and today is no exception! #7 left us knee deep in Marko's parents and hilariously gross intergalactic genitalia, and with #8 it is definitely more of the same.

Finally, and albeit unexpectedly, we get a glimpse into Alana's 'forbidden book' (these scenes are hilarious) but also how Alana and Marko first met. The setting of this first encounter is to be expected, considering their 'occupations', but it's obvious that Vaughan will be doing something more with this, as it's quite clear that it definitely wasn't love at first sight - although Staples panel would have you believe otherwise.

If we're completely honest, this issue seemed like a bit of a filler, we didn't really learn anything new, and even Marko and Alana's first meeting didn't seem like much of a big bang. But Vaughan and Staples can even make filler awesome, and one again they bring the boom at the end, and we finally get an answer to "who the fuck is Gwendolyn?!", and yes, this reveal is definitely worth the wait.

This series is full of serious awesomeness, and the women are really stealing the show. Alana, The Stalk and Marko's mother are some pretty dominant ladies, and by the looks of it, Gwendolyn will also be a major player. Issue #9 please.




Nowhere Men #2
Stephenson and Bellegarde have pretty much struck gold with Nowhere Men as #2 kicks it up a notch.

This series is still a big ball of mystery, with only a few more clues being offered. So what do we know now?

- World Corp now only consists of Emerson Strange
- Emerson Strange (and maybe Dade & Simon?) commissioned the building of a space station that is unknown to the rest of the world, and they are aware that the crew are sick.
- Apparently Dade is ill and now awake?! (had to do a double take on this and make sure this really was issue 2...)
- Simon is planning revenge (due to being ousted from WC?)

Stephenson is completely on point with this issue, and begins to build a really tense story. He is definitely doing an amazing job of keeping readers hanging on (but hopefully not for too long). Although the only pitfall with this issue is the disconnect from #1. Whilst the space-station scenes have continuity, i'm feeling pretty lost with our friendly scientists. How much time has passed since we were first introduced to them? What about the Evangelion looking monster? I'm sure these will all be answered, but at the moment it's a bit confusing.

Bellegarde is killing it with the artwork and colours. He really is dictating these pages and the flow of #2. The pages aren't too busy or messy - which can sometimes happen with lots of characters in a shot - you really can follow the sequences, and the tension flows effortlessly across the panels right to the end. It's almost as if Bellegarde is able to depict various chemical reactions through the characters - a slow build up of kinetic energy resulting in a 'big bang'.

Image Comics own 2012.

What would doom do?
Trade in all his finest Marvel autobiographies, throw in a few dark horses and comics with Superman in them, so he can stock up on a whole bunch of Image.

Science is definitely the new Rock 'n' Roll

Nowhere Men #1

We've been waiting for this bad boy pretty much since it's announcement, why? Not only does it combine 3 of my ultimate favourite things - Art, Comics AND Science, but writer Eric Stephenson has really dominated my comic world this year with all the Ah-mazing releases comin straight outta Image Comics (Saga, Mind the Gap...). But also, the artist- Nate Bellegarde is a comic art babe.

So what the hell is 'Nowhere Men'? As it stands, it is the story of 4 scientists - Simon Grimshaw, Emerson Strange, Dade Allis and Thomas Walker, who are the nations most well regarded sweethearts.They band together to create the ultimate science alliance - World Corp. Whilst this has created some amazing changes, there have definitely been some negative effects.

Simple, unassuming, yet awesome.

In the first half of the story Stephenson and Bellegarde waste no time presenting you with the 4 main characters younger and at the height of their fame, and they work well to present each of their personalities through a simple head shot and some very clever wording. Any more info is displayed perfectly in the first double spread as a faux newspaper article and after that we know pretty much everything we need to know about who these men are on the surface - Simon: the stone cold businessman, Emerson: the calm, chillaxed intellectual, Dade: the uptight but artistic do-gooder, and Simon: the troubled genius stoner.

Fast forward a few years, the guys are older and it's obvious that somewhere down the line it all went wrong and the early pages are just fantastic. Bellegardes work says everything it needs to and these pages work brilliantly without the dialogue.

The second half of the story presents further troubles on the horizon - with the random and un-explainable illness of a team of crew members. Again, I pretty much loved these pages. Seriously, Stephenson is really good at illustrating a persons personality and potential role within the bigger picture in only a few words, but yet retains the perfect element of mystery.

And just went you thought that was over, the final section returns to the faux newspaper article style, but this time it covers an interview with only one of the scientists - Thomas Walker, who we now know has departed from the group, although we're not really sure when and why, all we know is that he's pretty nuts.

None of these sections really seem to make sense yet in regards to how they will fit together. But I feel like all the wheels have been set in motion and that its only a matter of time before all their paths cross and we can start to build the full story. Whatever it is, we're pretty sure it's gonna be awesome, and we're definitely sticking along for the ride

What would doom do?
He'd cower in the corner ruing the day he ever called himself a real scientist with these geeked up Beatles running around. It's time he sat back to see how it's really done.