Image Expo 2014 Round-Up: All The New Titles, Kirkman Slams Marvel

Last year was always going to be a hard one to top, but Image Comics was determined that 2014’s Image Expo, rolling out a slate of new comics for the rest of the calendar year, would rock the comics world, and by and large, it seems to have worked.There was quite a bit of conversation about the lack of diversity of gender and race on stage at the Expo, but existing creators from both inside and outside of Image generally stepped up to defend the company, which espouses a philosophy of creator rights and creator ownership. African-American artists who work on Image books took to Twitter to defend their publisher and, generally, the discussion seemed by the end of the day to be back where the publisher wanted it.Except, of course, for some offhand comments The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman made on stage at the Expo, which broke large the next morning after the comics press woke up, had their coffee and had time to realize that, yes, the writer of the top-selling comics and graphic novels in the industry right now just called the top-selling publisher in America “badly run” and bad for comics as a whole.But before that happened, what was the big news coming out of San Francisco this week? Well, here we go:

Invincible will be designed as a jumping-on point for new readers Saga first issue of Kirkman’s new exorcism horror story Outcast with artist Paul Azaceta will be 40 story pages for only $2.99 Black Science will add an aquatic sci-fi fantasy titled LOW to his Image Comics lineup Casanova was confirmed for 2014 Ody-C retells Homer’s The Odyssey, with a twist Bitch Planet takes women-in-prison exploitation films into space, and to the next level Masks & Mobsters bring a new serial killer story called Nailbiter to life Se7en Silence of the Lambs Psycho Twin Peaks Nailbiter Tech Jacket but will also launch a creator-owned series with The Pantheon Project Shutter Howtoons educational comic directed at young readers Howtoons: Reignition bring three new, ongoing titles to Image in 2014 The League make the jump to the printed page C.O.W.L Prophet 8House a number of creators can tell stories in a shared fantasy universe will reunite The Wicked & The Divine announced that he will bring a new series Restoration Restoration bring a new series Airboy return to Image for the first time since he turned into a superstar Wytches Detective Comics Superman Batman along with his Batman & Robin artist Chris Burnham The Nameless Criminal Fatale signed a five-year deal Fatale The Fade Out Criminal,