Missing Image Books

[wwise03]

While I was excited about the new Image books recently announced at SDCC, I am slightly disappointed we did not get any updates about Image books announced at the Image Expo back in January.

When is Restoration (Bill Willingham) coming out? Are the three Nick Spencer books (Cerulean, Great Beyond, Paradigms) still coming out? I think I caught by accident that Ody-C is coming out in November. What about Nameless by Grant Morrison? 8House by Brandon Graham?

Are these books being cancelled and swept under the rug? There is not a whole lot more time to announce release dates of these books if they are coming out in 2014...we've already seen the October solicitations.

[cc008]

I had the same thought a few days ago... I'm thinking we'll see them in upcoming solicitations in the next month or 2.

[Dorktron]

I'm glad you heard ODY-C is coming out in November because I am really looking forward to that one. As for the others you mentioned, I doubt any of them have been cancelled and we will see them in the November and December solicits. But yeah, it would be nice to have an update on those series.

[wwise03]

I'm glad you heard ODY-C is coming out in November because I am really looking forward to that one. As for the others you mentioned, I doubt any of them have been cancelled and we will see them in the November and December solicits. But yeah, it would be nice to have an update on those series.

Yea I saw new preview pages for Ody-C after a quick online research. On those pages, you see "Coming in November."

[TotalSnorefest]

Well the only one I can kinda answer is 8House... At this SDCC Image Expo they announced the 'From Under Mountains' series, by Gibson/Leong/Churchland. That's part of the 8House universe, and currently planned to run about 12 issues it looks like.
Then we know some of the creators who will work on 8House from what Brandon Graham said on Tumblr:

The first series is going to be a series of mini series starting with:

8house Arclight (#1 to #4) written by me and drawn by Marian Churchland. about a women whose mind is trapped in the body of a monster that she projected herself into years ago.

8house Kiem (#5 to 8) by me and Xurxo Penalta is about a soldier who is asked to fake her death in order to transport a mysterious box to an enemy house.

in issue #9 (to 12) Emma Rios and Hwei Lim take over with 8house Mirror

and then issue 13 will be the start of 8house: Yorris story by Fil Barlow.

and at SDCC From under mountains was just announced. It’s an 8house series by Marian Churchland Sloane Leong and Claire Gibson

That 8House: Yorris story will last for at least 4 issues, possibly more, written & drawn by Barlow it seems right now.

Got a feeling a lot of this is still in flux right now, for instance I'm not sure why From Under Mountains doesn't (yet?) seem to carry the 8House name, but is still involved. Also Graham likes to not announce dates until they're certain that means they can catch several deadlines in a row, so that's probably why we haven't gotten a date for this yet. Did see some drawings float by on Tumblr that mentioned 2014, but could also just be that those sketches were simply drawn this year, rather than being a release date.

EDIT: Cool to see an estimated release date for ODY-C though! Also I would like to hear if/when The Great Beyond is happening, since Morgan Jeske was attached to draw that right? However Spencer is fairly busy over at Marvel with Avengers World, Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Think he's also involved with Spider-Verse... Plus are Morning Glories and/or Bedlam still ongoing? So that might be pushing those back.

[capuga]

Plus are Morning Glories and/or Bedlam still ongoing? So that might be pushing those back.

Morning Glories, yes. Bedlam, no.

[wwise03]

EDIT: Cool to see an estimated release date for ODY-C though! Also I would like to hear if/when The Great Beyond is happening, since Morgan Jeske was attached to draw that right? However Spencer is fairly busy over at Marvel with Avengers World, Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Think he's also involved with Spider-Verse... Plus are Morning Glories and/or Bedlam still ongoing? So that might be pushing those back.

Great questions that I would have loved to seen addressed in some way at SDCC. My understanding from a January 2014 interview is that Spencer thought The Great Beyond would release first, and would be a mini between 4-6 issues. Then I believe Paradigms is next and Cerulean last. No doubt Paradigms and Cerulean are 2015 at the earliest. Hopefully The Great Beyond starts in November or December.

Restoration is the book I am most excited about from the rest of the Image Expo announcements. I'd love to get in on the ground floor on a potential Fables-like book from Bill Willingham.

[TotalSnorefest]

Morning Glories, yes. Bedlam, no.

Thanks! Just have to wait it out I guess.

Great questions that I would have loved to seen addressed in some way at SDCC. My understanding from a January 2014 interview is that Spencer thought The Great Beyond would release first, and would be a mini between 4-6 issues. Then I believe Paradigms is next and Cerulean last. No doubt Paradigms and Cerulean are 2015 at the earliest. Hopefully The Great Beyond starts in November or December.

Restoration is the book I am most excited about from the rest of the Image Expo announcements. I'd love to get in on the ground floor on a potential Fables-like book from Bill Willingham.

Awesome good to hear! I love mini's so that's even better. The info on it was pretty confusing last time, like one place mentioned something about a commercialism-saturated place whilst another spoke of something in the afterlife. But yeah if they're indeed still shooting for this year to start we'll probably get info in a month or two to build hype before the pre-order deadline passes. But yeah agreed it's slightly irritating that Image announced a lot of titles and then didn't even mention them at the next Expo. A simple "creators are still hard at work on the follow series..." would've sufficed I think.

[FiveGhosts]

I don't know why they couldn't wait until closer to the actual release date to announce the series.

[Sharkey]

I too was disappointed by the lack of news on Nameless.

I can't wait to see Morisson and Burnham working together on a project again!

[King's_Gambit]

While I was excited about the new Image books recently announced at SDCC, I am slightly disappointed we did not get any updates about Image books announced at the Image Expo back in January.

When is Restoration (Bill Willingham) coming out? Are the three Nick Spencer books (Cerulean, Great Beyond, Paradigms) still coming out? I think I caught by accident that Ody-C is coming out in November. What about Nameless by Grant Morrison? 8House by Brandon Graham?

Are these books being cancelled and swept under the rug? There is not a whole lot more time to announce release dates of these books if they are coming out in 2014...we've already seen the October solicitations.

I'm too lazy to go and find the interview (think it was with Newsarama?) but I believe that Willingham has stated that Restoration wouldn't be out until AFTER Fables has wrapped.

That means Restoration won't debut until March 2015 at the earliest.

So yeah.....Willingham, Kitson, and Image decided to announce the book over a year before it actually comes out. I think he said that he just wanted to let people know early what the plan was post-Fables. Which makes sense I guess: get some press out early and, the moment he announced that Fables was ending with #150, he probably knew he was going to be asked "what's next?" in basically every interview on Fables from there on out. So it's no coincidence that Restoration was announced right around the same time as Fables' ending was announced.

[wwise03]

I'm too lazy to go and find the interview (think it was with Newsarama?) but I believe that Willingham has stated that Restoration wouldn't be out until AFTER Fables has wrapped.

That means Restoration won't debut until March 2015 at the earliest.

So yeah.....Willingham, Kitson, and Image decided to announce the book over a year before it actually comes out. I think he said that he just wanted to let people know early what the plan was post-Fables. Which makes sense I guess: get some press out early and, the moment he announced that Fables was ending with #150, he probably knew he was going to be asked "what's next?" in basically every interview on Fables from there on out. So it's no coincidence that Restoration was announced right around the same time as Fables' ending was announced.

I read an interview from newsarama that he did in April. The Artie suggested that the first issue of Restoration (which will be 40 pages by the way) will hit before Fables ends. He also said that the real work on Restoration would begin when he finished writing Fables, which he said would be a few weeks from the date of the interview. If that is still his plan, we could still get it this year...I'm hoping at least

[King's_Gambit]

I read an interview from newsarama that he did in April. The Artie suggested that the first issue of Restoration (which will be 40 pages by the way) will hit before Fables ends. He also said that the real work on Restoration would begin when he finished writing Fables, which he said would be a few weeks from the date of the interview. If that is still his plan, we could still get it this year...I'm hoping at least

ah right. Clearly my memory had turned "real work" with "first issue comes out." I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same interview.

Honestly, at this point, Image Expo announcements really only get tempered excitement from me now given how freaking long in advance they're announced. I mean, the way things are, I'm just hoping we get Tokyo Ghost and Descender in summer 2015 but would totally be unsurprised if both came out in Fall 2015.

[wwise03]

ah right. Clearly my memory had turned "real work" with "first issue comes out." I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same interview.

Honestly, at this point, Image Expo announcements really only get tempered excitement from me now given how freaking long in advance they're announced. I mean, the way things are, I'm just hoping we get Tokyo Ghost and Descender in summer 2015 but would totally be unsurprised if both came out in Fall 2015.

Fall 2015? I just hope I, and Sean Murphy, make it that long in life. Seriously, what is the point of announcing a book over a year away from seeing the light of day? Why not focus on what is coming out in the coming months?

[MRP]

Fall 2015? I just hope I, and Sean Murphy, make it that long in life. Seriously, what is the point of announcing a book over a year away from seeing the light of day? Why not focus on what is coming out in the coming months?

A large part of it is, I believe, that creator-owned books do not have as large a built in audience, and need good launch numbers to be able to survive in a market that has almost guaranteed attrition after launch, so you need a long cycle for hype and marketing to build initial numbers. Another factor is that the creators get paid on the back end, so many will have to take paying comic gigs to make ends meet while they work on these launches that are announced, and god forbid they miss a month of an issue once they are launched, the comic forum fans will crucify them, so they have to get a number of issues in the can ahead of time to meet the monthly publishing schedule, so they need longer lead times. But while they are working they need to crank up the hype and marketing, and since Image Expos are designed to do just that, they are announced at the beginning of that process, not when the initial work has been completed and they are ready to hit the printing press.

-M