The artwork has a nice noir feel and does a good job depicting emotion and action. My only issue is with using words like “slash” to depict the sound made from a knife wound, or “kck” to depict a kick to the head. TBH, though, I’m not exactly sure what sound it makes when you stab someone with a knife. The worst I’ve ever done is remove a layer of skin with a vegetable peeler, which really didn’t make much noise at all until I started cursing the potato, the vegetable peeler, and every vegetable within a three-block radius.
There are some unanswered questions (who is Sonny to Xavier and how did they end up together?) and some backstory that was most likely explained in Issues 1-6 (what happened that they’re in a work camp in Hemlock Valley, BC?) but this is definitely not the authors’ fault--I’m the one who chose to jump in with issue 7. I was hooked, though, and I'm Really looking forward to #8. Is Xavier in danger or not? And who wanted him taken? Will Sonny find him before it’s too late, and should Xavier even be with Sonny? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see.
TV Series (2018– ) First episode date: January 16, 2019
Creators: Miles Orion Feldsott, Rick Remender Stars: Benedict Wong, Benjamin Wadsworth, Lana Condor Network: Syfy Based on: Deadly Class; by Rick Remender & Wesley Craig Production location(s): Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada TV-MA | 1h | Action, Crime, Drama Based on the graphic novel of the same name comes an unlikely coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of unsanitized 1980s counterculture. A homeless, disillusioned teen named Marcus is recruited into Kings Dominion, a secret academy for the Deadly Arts, where he struggles to find his place among a community of the deadliest characters in the world -- literally fighting every day for survival. It is in this struggle he tries to find purpose and family in an unlikely group of outcast misfits who plan to use their skills to really change the world for the better... by breaking every rule there is.
I hadn't read Deadly Class from Image Comics before. Unfortunately, I decided to jump in at issue #36 which just released...DON'T DO THAT! I spoiled the big ending of the first story arc. And it's a big one...smh. But if you've read all the issues up to #36 then you're gonna love it.
Back to the TV show... I absolutely love this show for many reasons. First, I'm an 80s child. As in I graduated from high school and college in the 80s. You don't get any eightier than me. Deadly Class is set in the 80s and they got it right. So they got me with the nostalgia angle.
Bonus, the creators of the comic have made sure the TV show stays as true to the story as possible. As we all know, most adaptations, while still entertaining, are barely recognizable to the original material. Ask any Venom fan. Not only do they keep to the story, but they also do flashbacks in the show in animation with the same artwork used in the comic. Cool creative decision.
The story is pretty simple. Assassin school for kids. This is where parents who are part of mafia organizations, cartels, syndicates, white supremacy groups, CIA send their kids. Each year Head Master Lin recruits some street kids with no ties to a group or family if they seem like they could do well in the program.
I don't know why they show has grabbed my attention so quickly, but the dark humor mixed with drama is definitely part of it. There are many themes and social issues addressed as a group of misfit rejects try to survive in this school.
My husband and 17 year-old-daughter are also hooked. There have been three episodes so far (airs Wed. 10pm on SyFy) so there is plenty of time to catch up.
Black Science (Issues 1-3) Story By: Rick Remender Art By: Matteo Scalera Art By: Dean White Cover By: Andrew Robinson Image Comics
Join writer RICK REMENDER and the superstar art team of MATTEO SCALERA & DEAN WHITE for this face-melting science fiction epic spanning the lifetimes of a cast of dimensional castaways lead by the man who caused it all.
Published: November 27, 2013 Grant McKay, former member of The Anarchistic Order of Scientists, has finally done the impossible: He has deciphered Black Science and punched through the barriers of reality. But what lies beyond the veil is not epiphany, but chaos. Now Grant and his team are lost, living ghosts shipwrecked on an infinite ocean of alien worlds, barreling through the long-forgotten, ancient, and unimaginable dark realms. The only way is forward. The only question is how far are they willing to go, and how much can they endure, to get home again?
Issue #2 Published: December 18, 2013 Run-amok reality! Grant and his crew escape the madness of the lightning sea-swamp only to be flung into a futurepast trenchworld, where the Sons of the Wakan Tech-Tanka wage never-ending war on the savages of Europe! How did the Anarchist League of Scientists end up this deep in the onion? Who among them sabotaged the Pillar?
Issue #3 Published: January 29, 2014 Shell-shocked and battered, Grant McKay and his team are stranded on the front lines of the European savages' final standoff against the Sons of the Wakan Tech-Tanka. Will this inverse manifest destiny claim the life of a member of the Anarchist League of Scientists? Or will they be betrayed by one of their own?
One of the treasures of my childhood was Star Trek, the classic reruns airing on Saturday afternoons. I couldn't tell you when I first saw the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, but I can say that I was captivated from the get-go. Swashbuckling in space became one of my earliest genre loves. Black Science, the brainchild of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera, taps into that childhood wonder and then some. The series begins with a cannon-blast of action, immediately immersing me in an alien world, in mid-chase no less as a pair of scientists are pursued by sabre-toothed amphibians with spears and riding giant salamanders. It sets the stakes very early and basically tells readers that if this is not the kind of stuff that interests them, they need to go find another comic book. Me, I was hooked.
Grant McKay, a philandering husband and brilliant scientist, has led a small team of scientists into creating the Pillar, a machine that can transport them into alternate dimensions. Backed financially by an avarice corporation headed by Kadir, a man eager to exploit the spoils of what these new worlds have to offer, there's a lot at stake, but the initial test run goes awry. Grant, Kadir, the team, and even Grant's kids who were only at the lab to see their dad, are all whisked away to a terrifying and inhospitable world. Their escape, sadly, sends them via the Pillar into an even more dangerous and war-torn world.
The rising tensions among Grant and his team amplify what is otherwise an already captivating journey. Remender deftly portrays Grant simultaneously as a caring man and one ruled by his selfishness, both professionally and personally. Scalera meanwhile renders the characters and especially the landscapes with awe-inspiring fidelity. Each page feels electric, constantly pushing the story forward with taut action and gorgeously rendered visuals.
Imagine a TV show like Lost in Space or Quantum Leap, presented as a thriller on HBO or AMC and you might have an idea of what this comic book series is like.
After three issues, things have ramped up to the point where Grant's wife is killed, Grant is wounded, the team's captive threatens to lure his fellow soldiers to their location before they can make their escape, and even if they do manage to use the Pillar to escape, the machine is busted to the point they have no idea which universe they'll cross into next.
Gah, this series is like a hug drug for your inner child!
Remender and Scalera have me and many more roped in with this new offering through Image, and I see boundless opportunities to lure even more unsuspecting readers into their clutches as the series continues. Please. Let it continue. 4 1/2 stars
The Last Christmas HC Story By: Gerry Duggan Art By: Rick Remender Story By: Brian Posehn Price: $24.99 Diamond ID: SEP130533 Published: November 20, 2013 Image Comics
The writers behind the hit series Deadpool present the sad, funny, and true story of Santa Claus after the apocalypse. After tragedy strikes the North Pole, Santa turns his back on humanity and gives up on Christmas. Even though the world has been completely overrun by naughty men, there's still one boy that believes in Santa. But could that be the biggest mistake of his life?
Enjoy this modern action-comedy Christmas classic in hardcover for the first time. It's illustrated with love by comic star RICK REMENDER and inked in a wonderful style reminiscent of Mad magazine by HILARY BARTA. This edition has a foreword from PATTON OSWALT and new commentary from the creators, plus the original covers from GEOF DARROW, RICK REMENDER, KIERON DWYER, and TONY MOORE.
Collects THE LAST CHRISTMAS #1-5- See more at: https://www.imagecomics.com/comics/releases/the-last-christmas-hc#sthash.fPj8xpRx.dpufIt shouldn't take much more than the poetic stylings of Patton Oswalt in the introduction to this book for you to realize this is going to be a pretty wild ride. Heck, the cover alone should hammer that home.
If your image of Santa Claus is that jolly old fella you see in the Coca-Cola ads each year, prepare to be mentally scarred for life. From the irreverent--and most likely deranged--minds of Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn comes an anti-Christmas Carol.
The premise starts off easy enough. What would happen to Christmas after the apocalypse? I'd qualify it as a zombie apocalypse, but the baddies roaming the wastelands of Earth aren't strictly zombies, but more the mutated flesh-eaters spawned by a rainfall of toxic waste on the population. Well, the answer comes in a rather inspirational form ... at least at first. The good little boys and girls all over the world still get their presents on Christmas Day, although the gifts may sometimes be weapons to help fight off the mutant scourge.
Christmas is safe for a while, but calamity strikes the north pole, and Santa's workshop lays in ruins. And Mrs. Claus is murdered by a roaving band of Mad Max wannabes. Santa isn't just despondant, he's more than devastated. Santa has given up. Trouble is Santa can't die--not while at least one little boy still believes in him.
So what's Santa's plan? Kill the boy.
Oh my lord, this book was a cross between a bad acid trip and one of those glorious Christmas claymation specials. This is the kind of comicly subversive story I would have gobbled up as a little boy, exploding reindeer and all, and likely would have had to hide it under my pillow lest my parents take it from me for corrupting the mind.
The story moves briskly and with a bag full of lowbrow humor all along the way. And the artwork from Rick Remender is just a delight, making me wish some panels could be handed out as Christmas cards this year. Some might want an Uzi-toting Santa or an elf stabbed in the eye with a candy cane for their card, but me, I'd probably go for a near-psychotic Santa chasing a white bunny down the streets of San Francisco chanting, "Pretend it's chocolate, pretend it's chocolate."
While I'm not so sure this book will do much to fill you with holiday cheer, it is definitely good for a laugh, and the sicker your sense of humor, the better.
At Image Expo in San Francisco, Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson revealed the much-anticipated new projects from the independent comics publisher, as well as the identity of Image Expo’s “surprise guests.”
A crowd of more than 500 Image Expo attendees in the Lam Research Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts were the first to see art from new titles and learn the identity of the latest creators who are coming to Image.
Two of the new projects announced are by creators who have current titles with Image Comics. VELVET is a dark and evocative twist on the spy genre featuring a female protagonist by Image Expo guest Ed Brubaker (FATALE) and his Captain America: The Winter Soldier collaborator Steve Epting. J. Michael Straczynski (TEN GRAND) continues to expand his Joe’s Comics mini-imprint with two former Marvel ICON titles, rescued from oblivion with new issues from Image Comics: DREAM POLICE and THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS, drawn by Colleen Doran. With these additions all of Straczynski’s creator-owned titles are now published by Image Comics under the Joe’s Comics line.
The surprise guests announced by Stephenson included another current Image creator, Matt Fraction, creator SATELLITE SAM with Howard Chaykin (BLACK KISS II) and SEX CRIMINALS with Chip Zdarsky, who is announcing ODY-C, a psychedelic science fiction comic created with artist Christian Ward (INFINITE VACATION). The first issue of SEX CRIMINALS is scheduled to go on sale in September.
Stephenson also revealed the return to Image Comics of Rick Remender after three years of writing exclusively as one of Marvel’s “Architects.” Remender is bringing two new projects to the publisher: BLACK SCIENCE, a classic science fiction story scientists adrift between alien worlds, created with artist Matteo Scalera, and DEADLY CLASS, a 1980s flashback set in a school for budding assassins, created with artist Wesley Craig.
Another former exclusive Marvel writer and Architect coming to Image is surprise guest Jason Aaron, who is collaborating with fellow surprise guest artist Jason Latour (B.P.R.D.) on the series SOUTHERN BASTARDS. Comic Book Resources has more on this landmark new title.
Stephenson capped off the announcements of new projects with the reveal that Image Comics will be publishing the official comic book adaptation of Darren Aronofksy’s upcoming film Noah, which recounts the story of the Biblical patriarch.
“Image Comics was founded by and for creators,” Stephenson said. “Whereas the dominant conversations at other companies are about licenses and franchises and the executives steering their ‘properties’ toward success, the conversation at Image – the only conversation at Image – is about the creators.”
