Image Comics has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive first look at The One Hand, a new series from fan-favorite writer Ram V (The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Swamp Thing) and artist Laurence Campbell (Old Haunts, BPRD: Hell on Earth). First teased at New York Comic Con earlier this month, Image will publish the noir murder mystery with the creators' White Noise Studio. The book teams Ram V and Campbell with colorist Lee Loughridge (Deadly Class), and will premiere its first issue in February, alongside another series called The Six Fingers from writer Dan Watters and pairs artist Sumit Kumar.
There's no word yet on whether The One Hand and The Six Fingers are connected, or whether it's just a coincidence that two books with very similar titles and styles are launching around the same time. If it was a different publisher, it would be easy to just assume it was all part of an interconnected event, but since creators retain their copyrights at Image, that isn't a given in the same way.
"The One Hand stems from one of those 3am, frantically looking for a notebook to make notes, kind of ideas. It took hold of my imagination a couple of years ago and would not let go until the story was made," Ram V said back when the book was announced. "It is ambitious, seeking to do new things in the medium and unlike anything I've made before. I cannot wait for people to experience it."
Here's how Image described the comic when it was announced back in October:
Neo Novena detective, Ari Nasser is about to retire with an enviable record, until a brutal murder occurs, bearing all the hallmarks of the "One Hand Killer" …which should be impossible since Ari already put him away not once but twice in the years before.
What follows is a deadly cat-and-mouse game as Ari pursues his quarry down the rain-soaked streets of Neo Novena. Ari will stop at nothing to unravel the secrets and ciphers of this case, but each revelation only leads further into the dark heart of his future-metropolis and Ari's own beleaguered soul.
The One Hand is written by Ram V, with art from Laurence Campbell and Lee Loughridge, and will premiere this February.
You can see the cover to the first issue, along with a number of preview pages, below.