Comics News Image Expo Announces Over 15 New Titles By Zak Edwards January 9, 2014 - 19:11 Image Expo is going on right now and, while people have been speculating about just what the new Invincible covers mean, it seems like every creator not in an exclusive with Marvel or DC Comics is announcing a new series. Image Comics has long been the home of creator-owned series, and 2014 will be offering the best year yet. Below is a list and summary of each of these new and exciting books, which prove that Image Comics is home to some of the best American comics moving into the new year: First off, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have announced that Fatale will be ending with issue #24, but they will immediately follow the series with The Fade Out, a story about Hollywood in the 70’s. Brubaker and Phillips have signed a five-year contract with Image that will apparently let them do anything they want, a first in the industry, and The Fade Out is just the beginning. Also, all of Brubaker and Phillips’ creator-owned series, from Criminal to Sleeper to Incognito, will be coming under the Image banner as part of their new deal. Scott Snyder and Jock are set to start Wytches, marking Snyder’s return to Image since before he hit it big with Batman and American Vampire. He hopes the new series, which draws on mythology and folklore, will be his scariest horror book yet. Apparently the story will follow a group of primal cannibalistic creatures admired by witches. Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini will be teaming up for Low, a new series that tells the story of humans living underwater after solar radiation makes surface living impossible. The series has a planned 60-issue run, the team has reportedly been working on it for 3 years. Eric Stephenson has described it as “your new favourite book.” Fables writer Bill Willingham has a new story coming out with Barry Kitson about where exactly magic has gone in our world. Apparently it’s being hoarded by Lords of Magic, for what purposes, we do not know. With Willingham wrapping up Fables this year, Restoration may not hit shelves this year, but is eagerly anticipated. Batman and Batman, Inc. superteam Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham are getting together again for a series called Nameless. Details are very, very sparse, but Burnham says he has been researching some of the worst things of the internet for this new horror series. With their run on Young Avengers just wrapping up last week, Jamie McKelvie and Kieron Gillen are set for their newest series. No, it’s not Phonogram 3, but that too is in the works. First, the duo will put out The Wicked and the Divine, a series that follows two gods born in 2014 who will only live for 2 years, then do Phonogram 3, then go back to The Wicked and the Divine with some help from other creators. Kyle Higgins will write his first book for Image in May called C.O.W.L. with art by Rod Reese. The series will be about a Chicago-based superheroes worker’s union, which sounds more than a little interesting. The first issue apparently deals with the end of the age of supervillains as superheroes return to a life more mundane. James Robinson’s series The Saviours has changed from a miniseries to an ongoing, but the big announcement is Airboy with Greg Hinkle. The series is a metafictional exploration of trying to figure out stories for the series and then breaking through into the fictional world. Nick Dragotta will be returning to his educational comic series HowToons with Fred Van Lente, Tom Fowler, and Jordie Bellaire helping with writing, drawing, and colouring. The series will teach kids about energy sources like solar, hydro, and wind. Nick Spencer will be kept busy this year, with 3 new series coming in 2014 alone. The Great Beyond will explore similar themes as the incredible Infinite Vacation, where people can buy better afterlives, and will be drawn by Morgan Jeske. Paradigms will be about warring factions of magic users and paladins that Spencer is comparing to Games of Thrones, but set in modern times. The series will be drawn by Butch Guice. Finally, Cerulean will be about humans starting life on a new planet after millions of years of space travel. “When you want to make a book that no one has seen before, Spencer said, “You call Frazer Irving,” which Spencer did. Matt Fraction and Infinite Vacation's Christian Ward have a new series out later in the year called ODY-C, but the big news is the return of Casanova. The new Casanova will feature art by Fabio Moon, with backup stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon and Moon’s twin brother Gabriel Ba. Plus, new hardcovers are  expected for previous Casanova series. Joshua Williamson has a new series out that explores what you would do if you discovered your best friend is a serial killer. Entitled Nailbiter, the series will look at a small town in Oregon that produces more than its fair share of serial killers, told from the perspective of FBI and NSA agents. Brandon Graham and Emma Rios will be co-writing 8House, a sprawling fantasy series seemingly about everything you can fathom. The anthology series will feature a rotating cast of artists. In April, we will see the launch of the latest from Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Duca, called Shutter. The series will focus on “an explorer and journalist living in a world with ‘astronauts on the subway’, robots and demons, according to Bleeding Cool. © Copyright 2002-2019 by Toon Doctor Inc. - All rights Reserved. All other texts, images, characters and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Use of material in this document (including reproduction, modification, distribution, electronic transmission or republication) without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.