Give Daniel Warren Johnson’s Beta Ray Bill pages room to breathe and you know the result is going to demand some shelf space. Act 4 Publishing and Skybound have shared a first look at Beta Ray Bill by Daniel Warren Johnson Artist’s Edition, including new artwork and a brand-new direct market exclusive cover. This is the next look at the oversized collection we previously covered, and now we can get into the actual preview pages.

The book collects the complete 2021 Beta Ray Bill miniseries, written and illustrated by the Eisner Award-winning Johnson. It comes with an introduction by Walter Simonson, the legendary Thor writer and artist who created Bill, plus a foreword from Johnson. The new art joins a presentation aimed at readers who want to study the craft as closely as they follow the cosmic warrior’s adventure.

Scott Dunbier’s Act 4 and Skybound list the collection at 12 by 17 inches and 140 pages in this latest announcement, with a $150 suggested retail price. That big format is central to an Artist’s Edition. It gives readers a way to see the artwork at the size it was drawn, with details that can disappear when a page is reduced for an ordinary comic.

Although the pages can look black and white at a glance, Artist’s Editions reproduce the art from color scans. Ink gradients, blue pencil and other marks from the original boards remain visible. For anybody who loves looking at how an artist builds a page, that is a major part of the appeal. You can follow the work on the board while reading the story, and Johnson’s movement and impact are exactly the kind of things I want a closer look at.

Johnson’s creator-owned work includes Do A Powerbomb, Murder Falcon and Extremity, alongside his Eisner-winning Transformers work and Absolute Batman 2026 Annual #1. His Beta Ray Bill miniseries gives Marvel’s cosmic warrior an emotionally charged journey beyond Thor’s shadow. This edition puts that complete story beside the physical evidence of the work that brought it to the page.

The cover lineup is Cover A by Daniel Warren Johnson and Cover B, a direct market exclusive, also by Johnson. Both are shown with the supplied preview art below. If the new exclusive image is the version you want, talk to your comic shop about that specific edition when arranging your order.

Comic shops receive Beta Ray Bill by Daniel Warren Johnson Artist’s Edition on February 3, 2027, followed by booksellers on March 2, 2027. Its ISBN is 978-1-5343-4834-9. That split release schedule gives comic-shop customers the first chance to get their hands on the book before the wider bookstore date.

The collection continues Act 4 and Skybound’s partnership, with other upcoming releases including Jason Pearson’s Body Bags Artist’s Edition, DC Silver Age Covers and Stories Artist’s Edition, Circus of Bones: The Art of Mike Mignola, J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl Artist’s Edition and Marvel Heroes by Gene Colan Artist’s Edition. Dunbier’s publishing work has long centered on the creators and original artwork behind the books, and this lineup keeps that focus front and center.

Follow Act 4 and Skybound’s updates and mailing list for the latest. Owners of original art who want to contribute scans for future Artist’s Editions can contact scans@act4publishing.com. For now, take your time with the covers and preview pages. Bill getting a full-size showcase from the artist who put him through this journey is something worth making room for.

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Connor MacLeod is back, and Titan Comics is taking us into the version of Highlander that existed on the page before the cult classic reached the screen. The publisher has released the official trailer for Highlander: The Original Screenplay #1, giving fans another look at its adaptation of creator and screenwriter Gregory Widen’s original script. Issue #1 reaches comic shops on December 16, 2026, with Szymon Kudranski handling the artwork.

I love when an adaptation gives us a reason to revisit a movie beyond remembering the scenes we already know, fam. Widen’s original vision is the draw here. This comic follows the immortal Connor MacLeod through the centuries as he faces rival immortals in pursuit of the mysterious prize, using the original screenplay as its foundation. Fans get to approach that familiar mythology through the version its creator first put on paper.

The series runs four issues, with the debut offering 32 full-color pages for $4.99. Widen supplies the story and script being adapted, and Kudranski’s illustrated take carries Connor’s centuries-spanning journey onto the comic page. Titan is presenting the project as a chance to experience the story from its original vision, so longtime fans have something specific to dig into when they open this first issue.

Watch Titan Comics’ official Highlander: The Original Screenplay trailer below. The preview and supplied artwork offer a look at the comic before orders land, and the cover lineup gives collectors plenty to consider before December.

Gerardo Zaffino leads the lineup with Cover A. His artwork also appears on Cover G, the inks virgin cardstock edition, and Cover H, the foil edition. Cover B is the Lee Binding photo cover, while Cover C features Szymon Kudranski, whose work returns on Cover I as a virgin cardstock edition.

Claudia Gironi provides Cover D and its Cover J foil edition. Fans of the original film’s poster artwork can look for Brian Bysouth’s original poster on Cover E, with Cover K offering a virgin cardstock version and Cover L offering a foil version. Cover F completes the twelve-cover lineup as a color blank sketch edition. If the classic poster is the image you associate with Highlander, Titan has made sure it has a place in this release.

Highlander: The Original Screenplay #1 of 4 comes from Titan Comics, written by Gregory Widen with art by Szymon Kudranski. It goes on sale December 16, 2026, priced at $4.99 for 32 full-color pages. Preorder through your local comic shop, or visit Forbidden Planet for UK and European orders.

You can also follow Titan Comics, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and YouTube for updates. Connor has a long road and a lot of dangerous company ahead of him. I’m ready to see how Widen’s original take plays across these pages.

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Jackie Estacado has been making a mess of the supernatural world for 30 years, and Top Cow is filling December with reasons to revisit it. The Darkness 30th anniversary celebration brings an art gallery one-shot, an oversized clash with the Magdalena, the release of The Darkness #10 and a limited blind bag. Longtime fans have a few different dates to keep straight, so let’s get into the actual books and what comes with them.

Co-created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis and David Wohl, The Darkness has built three decades around a character capable of being both monster and hero. Silvestri reflected on the creators who have helped shape the world and the fans who kept it alive through its turns. His enthusiasm for continuing to find new stories after 30 years comes through loud and clear, and December’s lineup puts that history beside fresh material.

The Darkness 30th Anniversary Art Gallery #1 arrives December 2, 2026, collecting imagery from across the series’ history. Expect iconic covers, sketches, process material and promotional art, with commentary from Silvestri and Joe Benitez about some of their favorites. If you follow the people making these pages as closely as the characters fighting across them, getting that look at the work behind the work is a proper anniversary offering. Its UPC is 70985304969200111.

Then The Darkness vs. The Magdalena #1 lands December 16. The oversized special explores the Darkness’ influence over the Warriors of the Blood Divine in three stories reaching from the setting described in the announcement as 0 AD Istanbul to the industrial 1990s. The Order of the Magdalena has tangled with Darkness wielders before, and this book digs further into how their histories connect.

The announced creative lineup for the specials includes Silvestri with co-writers Matt Hawkins and Ryan Cady, plus artists Pat Boutin, David Lapham and Zul Kamarrudin. Kamarrudin, Top Cow’s 2026 Talent Hunt winner, gets a chapter in the Magdalena special. Cover A is by Bjorn Barends (UPC 70985304970800111), and Cover B is by Joe Benitez and Richard Isanove (UPC 70985304970800121).

The Darkness (2025) #10 follows on December 23, with Silvestri and artwork from Raymond Gay, Agustin Padilla and Arif Prianto. The Angelus stands between Sonatine and ultimate power, with the odds looking rough. Humanity’s possible hope rests with Jackie, but resurrection comes with another problem: even if he could return, would he choose to? Thirty years in, and the man is still making everybody sweat.

Issue #10 offers Cover A by Raymond Gay and Arif Prianto (UPC 70985304537301011), Cover B by Laura Braga (UPC 70985304537301021), and a 30th anniversary Cover C by Marc Silvestri and Matt Batt Banning (UPC 70985304537301031). Silvestri and Banning’s anniversary image also appears as Cover D, a 1:50 Foil Virgin incentive (UPC 70985304537301041).

The 30th Anniversary Blind Bag also arrives December 23, priced at $15 with 1,996 bags available, a nod to the series’ 1996 launch. Each contains one collectible comic. Possibilities include an exclusive The Darkness vs. Magdalena line-art variant by Joe Benitez and Joe Weems, a random Top Cow Store Spot Foil Exclusive with artists including Silvestri and David Mack, or an archival ratio variant signed by Silvestri with a Top Cow certificate of authenticity. The ratio-variant option is guaranteed to be at least 1:25 and may reach 1:250. The blind bag UPC is 70985305002500111.

Ask your shop about the December 2, 16 and 23 releases and whichever covers you want before the holiday rush gets wild. The Darkness is also available digitally through Amazon Kindle, Google Play, Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Scribd’s Everand, Kobo, Overdrive, Hoopla, Sweet app and Comic Plus. Keep up with the line through Top Cow and Image Comics, and check out the official anniversary artwork below.

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Give readers a whole first issue and let the comic make its case. I can get behind that, Crusaders. Marvel is putting Hulk #1 directly into fans’ hands for Comics Giveaway Day on May 1, 2027, with writer Chris Condon and artist Alessandro Cappuccio launching a new ongoing series. This will be Marvel’s only Comics Giveaway Day title for 2027, and the giveaway is the complete debut issue with Cappuccio’s main cover, available at participating comic shops.

Condon and Cappuccio are coming back together after their best-selling Ultimate Wolverine run. Their Hulk arrives after Hulk War: Infernal Rage, the event bringing Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein’s Infernal Hulk saga to its conclusion. Taking over after that team means inheriting a Bruce Banner who has been put through absolute hell, and the next creative crew is already talking about the price of getting him out.

Banner still carries the curse he has spent his life trying to escape, but he is through running. The new series dangles something almost impossible in front of him: a permanent cure. Getting within reach of that freedom could also drag him closer to damnation, while another monster waits in the shadows. Marvel is promising mystery, monstrous action and a choice that changes everything as Banner searches for a way to bury the Hulk for good. How much of himself is he willing to surrender to get there? That is a nasty question to build a Hulk comic around.

The giveaway also comes with a separate paid collector component. Hulk #1 True Believers Blind Bags go on sale May 1, with the issue’s variant covers available exclusively through those bags. Marvel will offer 20-Bag Display Boxes containing 19 True Believers Blind Bags and one display-box-exclusive Patrick Gleason “Gamma Irradiated” glow-in-the-dark variant. Fans looking to read the new series can pick up the free main-cover edition; the blind bags and display boxes are additional purchases.

Editor-in-Chief Stephen Wacker explained the thinking behind handing out the entire launch issue: “Marvel’s Comic Giveaway Day offering should not only give people a reason to run to their comic shops, but also a reason to come back! That’s why we’re choosing it to launch HULK, giving away the entire first issue of his new ongoing series.” He added, “We believe strongly in what Chris and Alessandro are building here and while PKJ and Nic are definitely a hard act to follow, we want as many people as possible to get their huge green mitts on the Hulk’s next adventure!”

For Condon, the assignment reaches back to childhood, with Hulk editor Mark Paniccia joining him and Cappuccio for the new era. “Dreams do come true, it seems, even if it comes at the suffering of poor Bruce Banner,” Condon said. “I am beyond thrilled to be a part of the team chronicling the next era of the Jade Giant at Marvel, and to be reteamed with my pal Alessandro Cappuccio, as well as legendary Hulk editor Mark Paniccia, makes it all the more exciting.”

Condon continued: “I’ve loved the Hulk since I was a kid and that love has continued to this very day, so I hope people know that what we’re crafting is in tribute to everything from Lee & Kirby’s initial debut to Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, & company’s horrifyingly brilliant Infernal Hulk saga. We are taking things in an exciting new direction for our day and age, but don’t worry, HULK STILL SMASH.” The promise of a cure sounds tempting, but I would never bet on Bruce Banner getting a peaceful retirement.

Cappuccio is drawn to the man underneath all that strength. “There are characters you meet professionally, and others who, in some way, stay with you,” he shared. “The Hulk definitely belongs to the second category. Behind his immense strength lies a universe of fragility, conflicts, and contradictions that continues to fascinate me. He’s a character who seems to have an endless supply of stories to tell, and that’s exactly what makes him so special.”

“Having the opportunity to explore this universe means a great deal to me,” Cappuccio continued. He said working alongside Condon, with whom he shared the Ultimate Wolverine experience and now considers a friend as well as a colleague, makes the assignment even more special. “I can’t wait for readers to discover what we’re working on.”

Hulk #1 is written by Chris Condon, with art and the Comics Giveaway Day main cover by Alessandro Cappuccio. Retailers can order the giveaway edition using 75960621683300111, the True Believers Blind Bag using 75960621683300121, and the True Believers 20-Bag Display Box using 75960628479583411. All three offerings arrive May 1, 2027.

Marvel will reveal the exclusive blind-bag covers and more series details in the months ahead. Check the official Marvel announcement for updates and ask your local shop about participation. A complete first issue gives newcomers room to get into the story and longtime Hulk readers a proper taste of the new team. Now let’s see what kind of trouble they have waiting for Banner.

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WEPAAAA! Barbarella is tearing across lava on a flying ride while Red Sonja is out here walking through a landscape that looks like hope packed its bags and left a forwarding address. Fam, I am already seated. Red Sonja / Barbarella #1 puts two women with very different methods inside a story where somebody clearly should have checked the merchandise before touching it. Homero Rios and Diego Yapur come out with pulp confidence, a sense of mischief and enough ugly scenery to keep the glamour from getting too comfortable. The opening takes its time bringing these personalities together, though. If you bought the ticket strictly for their chemistry, you will spend a chunk of the issue waiting at the gate.

Rios introduces Barbarella with movement, heat and a conversation she is having while doing something dangerous. She is carrying out a mission, trading remarks with Colonel Plate, and making it clear that a superior officer’s anxiety is not going to ruin her style. Her confidence has a playful edge, but the script also lets her question what she is being told. I appreciated that combination. She can be amused by danger without becoming oblivious to it. The lava sequence establishes her approach through action: keep moving, ask questions, and refuse to let somebody else’s stern instructions become the most interesting thing about the day. That is a fun entrance for a character who needs more than a pretty pose.

Sonja’s introduction comes with a different temperature entirely. Her journey moves through wreckage, dead bodies and a landscape full of signs that something has gone terribly wrong. She is looking for answers, but her patience is obviously not available for public use. Rios keeps her dialogue clipped and pointed, letting the surrounding misery provide the context. I like this Sonja’s practical anger. She can recognize a cursed situation without standing around admiring its symbolism. Her exchanges with the figures she meets have that familiar tension between a blade and somebody who thinks they know more than the woman holding it. You can practically feel her deciding how many more words she is willing to tolerate.

Diego Yapur draws the hell out of the contrast. Barbarella’s opening is crowded with motion, machinery and roiling heat, while Sonja’s pages look scraped down to their bones. The ruined landscape has texture everywhere: skulls, broken structures, worn fabric and shapes that turn a distant view into something worth studying. Yapur’s faces can be beautiful without making the surrounding world clean. His characters look capable of sweat, suspicion and sudden violence. The costuming belongs to the pulp vocabulary of these heroines, and the drawing commits to it. Their personalities still come through in posture and expression, so the women remain active presences rather than decorative interruptions to the scenery.

Once the story moves toward the bizarre marketplace material, the design work gets especially delicious. Strange figures, improbable objects and crowded architecture make the place feel like trouble with a vendor permit. The eye has plenty to inspect. The auction environment also gives the crossover a physical mechanism beyond a casual bump across dimensions. An object carries a problem, curiosity does the rest, and suddenly very different lives are colliding. Yapur stages the initial reactions and exchanges with enough energy to make me want more pages of the pair together. A few densely furnished panels demand an extra glance to separate the action from the surrounding detail, but the page flow generally holds steady.

Fares Maese’s colors deserve real love here. Barbarella’s heat and glow arrive in a full blast of orange and gold, while Sonja’s earlier surroundings feel drained and grim. The red hair stays visually forceful against that battered world. When the settings shift, the palette helps your brain change gears before the dialogue has finished identifying the place. Taylor Esposito’s lettering has an equally busy job, from ordinary conversation to communications and those larger bursts of action. The balloons remain navigable through the detailed artwork, and the sound effects belong to the book’s exuberance. Nobody on this team seems embarrassed to be making a loud, strange adventure comic. Good. Commit to the damn meal you are serving.

My biggest complaint is the balance between separate introductions and the actual team-up. Both opening tracks have personality, yet the combined premise is what made me open the book, and that payoff arrives late enough to feel rationed. Some of the marketplace explanation also lands in a cluster, right when I would rather watch these two women argue, improvise and find out whether their methods can coexist. The first issue gives us a solid collision with consequences instead of a complete adventure, which is fair for an opening chapter. Still, I wanted a little more shared breathing room before the next complication tightened around them. These characters have too much potential together to spend all night on introductions.

Rios gives each heroine her own attitude, Yapur supplies a world worth getting lost in, and Maese and Esposito keep the sensory overload readable. The book is richest when its strange environments and blunt personalities are doing the talking. A little less setup and a little more time with both women in the same mess would have pushed this higher for me. As it stands, this is a handsome, mischievous opening with sharp edges and a promisingly crooked destination. Crusaders, if swords, space travel and suspicious magical merchandise sound like your kind of shopping trip, pull up. Just let somebody else test the mirror first, because I am not paying the interdimensional return fee.

Crusaders Score:
4/5

Writer: Homero Rios
Art: Diego Yapur
Colors: Fares Maese
Letters: Taylor Esposito
Editor: Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Joseph Michael Linsner
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

More from Comic Crusaders: our conversation with Homero Rios about Red Sonja / Barbarella.

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A husband walks through the door with a pregnant second wife and expects everybody to cooperate while he heads out on a business trip. Fam, the nerve alone could power a horror movie. The Vile takes that betrayal into a home where something far more dangerous may have come along with the new bride, and Dark Sky Films brings it to select theaters and digital platforms on November 20, 2026.

Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari, whose credits include Zinzana and Netflix’s Paranormal, directs this Arabic-language psychological horror thriller from a screenplay he co-wrote with Johnnie Alward. The release comes with an official poster and trailer, giving horror fans their first invitation into a household already being ripped apart before the supernatural question even enters the room.

Bdoor Mohammad plays Amani, a wife and mother whose husband Khalid returns with Zahra, played by Sarah Taibah. Zahra is carrying his first son. Amani has to process that deception while trying to protect her daughter Noor, and she chooses to stay in the family home rather than surrender her place in it. Khalid refuses to leave and then goes away on business, leaving the women to live with the situation he created. Tell me that setup doesn’t make you want to yell at the screen.

The pressure reaches Noor too. Rumors about the woman living in her house turn into bullying at school, while her mother becomes increasingly distant and erratic. Zahra makes herself comfortable and offers Noor the attention she needs, drawing the teenager closer just as Amani starts to suspect something sinister. That puts the mother’s fight to protect her child right inside the relationship she is struggling to hold together.

As disturbing incidents spread through the house, Amani cannot easily separate psychological torment from a supernatural threat. Her investigation into Zahra’s past becomes frantic, and the answers threaten the things she once believed were worth preserving. Al Ansari approaches betrayal, motherhood, trauma and power within the home through a Gulf perspective, with the family conflict driving the terror.

The cast also includes Iman Tarik, Jasem Alkharraz and Samira Al Wahaibi. Produced by Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios, The Vile is the first Arabic-language feature made under that partnership. It premiered at Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Horror Feature, before screening at Sitges, the BFI London Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival.

The producing team brings some serious horror experience: Roy Lee (Weapons, Barbarian), Steven Schneider (Strange Darling, Paranormal Activity), Derek Dauchy (Late Night with the Devil) and Rami Yasin (Hokum, Watcher). Mohamed Hefzy (Voy! Voy! Voy!) and Yasir Al Yasiri (Hwjn) serve as executive producers.

With a 97-minute runtime, The Vile is bringing its household nightmare to theaters and digital on November 20. Check out the official trailer and take a look through the supplied stills. Amani is fighting for her home and her daughter while somebody else is getting comfortable in both their lives, and I’m curious to see how ugly that gets.

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Give me a convention announcement that puts the people making the comics right up front, Crusaders. Portsmouth Comic Con returns to Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday, May 1 and Sunday, May 2, 2027, and its first Artists Alley announcement brings together Nick Abadzis, Angela Watson, M.R. Carey, Dennis Menheere and Dan McDaid. That is a lineup with a lot of different experiences and bodies of work to talk about before the rest of the guest list even arrives.

The event heads into its seventh outing after welcoming more than 9,000 visitors in 2026. The organizers are keeping the focus on a strong comics lineup while preparing a wider weekend of guests, cosplay, discussions, workshops and gaming. Super early-bird tickets are available now through the official Portsmouth Comic Con website, with further announcements still to come.

Nick Abadzis brings forty years of creating books, magazines, comics, animation and stories for adults and children. His work has been published around the world and recognized with international storytelling awards, including the 2008 Eisner Award for Laika. His bibliography also includes Hugo Tate and numerous Doctor Who collections, giving readers several very different places to begin a conversation.

Abadzis also works as an editorial consultant, graphic recorder and visual facilitator, with clients including EY, NASA and ESPN. His new book, My Beloved Other, is a comics memoir co-authored with his wife, Angela Watson, and is available through Macmillan’s 23rd Street Books imprint. Their collaboration brings another side of his storytelling into the convention’s opening guest announcement.

Angela Watson was born and raised in Birmingham, UK, by Jamaican immigrant parents. Before becoming a mental health therapist, she spent years working in the nonprofit sector in London and New York City. Her writing draws on that background through questions of identity, culture, mental wellbeing, migration and personal growth.

My Beloved Other, her first graphic novel, combines Watson’s experiences with the work of connecting those experiences to readers. Having both co-authors in this first guest announcement gives the event a chance to bring the creative partnership behind the memoir into Artists Alley. For readers interested in how personal history becomes a comic, there is a lot of ground there to explore.

M.R. Carey spent fifteen years as a teacher before leaving to write full time, first establishing himself through long comics runs on Lucifer, Hellblazer and X-Men Legacy. He moved into prose with the Felix Castor novels, and his 2014 novel The Girl With All the Gifts has sold more than a million copies worldwide. He also wrote the screenplay for its film adaptation, which premiered at the Locarno festival before an international release.

The announcement highlights Carey’s 2026 Philip K. Dick Award for Outlaw Planet, alongside recent comics work on Ghostbox at Mad Cave, Cul de Sac at Bad Idea and The Lycan at Comixology. His collaborations extend to his family as well: with his wife Linda and daughter Louise, he co-wrote the fantasy novels The City of Silk and Steel and The House of War and Witness.

Dennis Menheere joins the lineup as a Ringo-nominated artist whose credits include Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Little Nightmares and Hello Darkness. Those titles take his work across established science-fiction worlds, familiar characters and horror. The supplied artist material offers a look at the range of work accompanying his appearance.

Dan McDaid, a comics writer and artist from Scotland, followed his work on Panini UK’s Doctor Who Magazine with U.S. projects including Firefly, IDW’s Judge Dredd and Big Trouble in Little China. More recently he wrote and drew DEGA, teamed with Matt Kindt on Dark Horse’s If You Find This I’m Already Dead, and drew Kneel Before Zod for DC.

McDaid is also working on a new horror western for Oni Press, according to the guest announcement. Put his creator-owned work beside the licensed properties in his career and you have another guest with plenty of comics craft to discuss. This opening group gives Portsmouth readers a mix of artists, prose writers and memoir creators, with their work stretching across a broad section of the medium.

The wider weekend promises more comic creators and celebrity guests, cosplay parades, panels and discussions, workshops, gaming zones and a large selection of comics, collectibles and merchandise. The event is produced by The Guildhall Trust, which has operated the historic 2,000-seat Portsmouth Guildhall since 2011 and runs a year-round program spanning live music, comedy, classical performances, dance, family shows and public events.

The Trust also describes the convention as part of a wider community program built around inclusion and opportunities to inspire, entertain and improve lives. Check portsmouthcomiccon.com for the current ticket options and the next announcements. Media enquiries go to Kate Gordon at Bright Spark PR. For now, comic fans have five names to put on that May 1–2, 2027 convention calendar, and more still to be revealed.

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Thirty-five years after a group of artists decided they wanted to own what they created, Image Comics is making 2027 an anniversary year. The publisher’s 35th anniversary celebration begins in February, with a special logo treatment, support for comic shops and a year-long Team-Up variant campaign. There are more announcements to come, but the opening plans already put creators and the characters they own at the center of the party.

Image was established in February 1992 by Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. Their decision to build a publishing company where creators retained ownership and control of their work helped make an independent path visible on a massive scale. For anybody who cares about the people making the comics getting to own their ideas, that history is a reason to pay attention.

The publisher says it has grown into America’s third-largest comics and graphic novel publisher while keeping that creator-owned mission. Its books have reached across horror, fantasy, crime, science fiction, romance and plenty more, giving very different kinds of creators a place in the catalog. The anniversary plans are meant to celebrate both the long-running series that helped establish Image and the newer talent shaping what comes next.

The familiar Image “i” logo, originally designed by Liefeld, will appear with a special 35th anniversary treatment on comics and company branding throughout 2027. Comic-shop retailers will also receive anniversary-branded promotional items, including a wall calendar designed to stay up all year. The supplied images below show the anniversary mark and examples of its use on upcoming covers.

The monthly Team-Up variant campaign runs throughout the year, bringing together Image characters from different generations of the publisher’s history. It kicks off in February with a line-wide D’orc Team-Up cover takeover, celebrating the first anniversary of Brett Bean’s breakout character. Fans will be seeing that character turn up across the line as Image gets the campaign moving.

Eric Stephenson, Image’s Chief Creative Officer and Publisher, reflected on the doubts that surrounded the company at launch and credited its continuing strength to publishing work owned and controlled by its talent. His focus for the anniversary is celebrating creators from the company’s past, present and future. After three and a half decades, the reason the company started is still the reason being put forward for its next year.

Kat Salazar, VP of PR and Marketing, says the celebration will recognize the beloved long-running series alongside the new school of Image talent. She also teased further initiatives, including announcements that have been years in the making and respond to repeated fan requests. No details on those yet, so we will be watching for the actual reveals as they arrive.

The official examples include Radioactive Revolution #1 Cover A with Gary Frank artwork and The Myth of 8-Opus #1 Cover B by Erik Larsen, both forthcoming in February 2027 with the anniversary branding. The publisher is also advising fans and retailers to expect additional anniversary news, events and celebrations as the year approaches.

Keep up with Image Comics as the remaining plans roll out, and check with your local shop about the February Team-Up variants. Crusaders, there are a lot of books and creators wrapped up in 35 years of Image. I’m looking forward to seeing which corners of that history get a spotlight alongside the newer characters joining the shelves.

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