Comics / Comics News

Image Comics SDCCI Panel

By Dan Horn
July 25, 2011 - 10:42

In attendance at Image Comics SDCCI panel were creators John Layman, writer of Chew, Nick Spencer, writer of Morning Glories and Infinite Vacation, Tim Seeley, Hack/Slash scribe, Scott Snyder, renowned author and creator now working on Image's Severed, David Baxter, proprietor of Dave Elliott's new Marksmen title, and Nate Cosby and Ben McCool, who are now collaborating on the upcoming book Pigs.

First announced was a collaboration between Seeley and the maker of the Hatchet movies, short B-Horror film homages in the vein of some of the most ridiculous slasher movies. The team-up will come as a Hack/Slash annual titled Hatchet/Slash, in which Cassie will go toe-to-toe with the mutated Hatchet villain.

John Layman gave us a look at the upcoming issues of Chew, including a giant-sized issue that will sport some gorgeous Rob Guillory splash pages. Expect dead baseball players to pop up in the near future, as chroniclers of major leaguer sexcapades will be force-feeding Tony Chu the remains of the greats to extract information from him concerning their carnal proclivities.

David Baxter was promoting his new series Marksmen, saying, "Maybe one day you'll say, 'Hey, I remember when that guy was begging me to buy his books!'" He described Marksmen as Logan's Run before they put the cap on. The story surrounds a city-state built around San Diego's scientific and military constituents, a last bastion of hope in a post-apocalyptic America. One of the more interesting points Baxter made about his "apocalypse" was that this wasn't due to some cosmic event, natural disaster, or nuclear war, but the result of a prolonged global recession.

Nick Spencer told the audience to expect the next year of Morning Glories to deal mostly with exactly what and where Morning Glory Academy is, whereas the last "season" has dealt mostly with fleshing out the book's ensemble cast. Nick went on to answer questions about pitching Morning Glories as a prolonged monthly title, saying it was a secret he had kept that he did in fact have plans for one-hundred issues. Oddly, there was no news for Infinite Vacation, which I would argue is one of the best books out there today and after only two issues.

Scott Snyder went on to detail his new creator owned series, Severed, scripted with his long-time friend Scott Tuft and with art by Attila Futaki. Snyder explained Severed as a slow burn, a period horror tale that will revolve around industrialization in the early years of the twentieth century. He made it very clear that the title will be more psychological than explicit gore-fest, and it was a story he and Tuft had been wanting to tell for quite a while. Tuft was in attendance, but did not sit in on the panel. Their series will span seven issues, and Snyder hinted at room for expansion in the future. Severed had been written into his DC/Vertigo contract to allow him to pursue this Image series freely.

Nate Cosby said of his and McCool's Pigs that the series aims to be the most controversial comic book ever. I have my doubts. Honesty seems to be the mother of controversy and very rarely does a book that immediately sets its sights on attempting to be edgy actually come across as honest. Even so, Pigs peaked my interest. Cosby describes it as an ultra-violent romp revolving around a second-generation KGB sleeper cell in Cuba that gets bored.

Among other announcements, Ted McKeever's new Golden Age format book Mondo is slated for future release, Kurtis Wiebe of Green Wake and Intrepids fame is working with Tyler Jenkins on a series called Peter Panzerfaust, Small Gods is being adapted into a film, of which attendees were given an impromptu glimpse of via an enthusiastic fan, and a MacGyver comic book series is in the works.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12