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Ludocrats from Kieron Gillen, David Lafuente, and Jim Rossignol is Coming Soon, Honest

Published Wed, 17 Jan 2018 13:30:08 -0600

The Ludocrats, by Kieron Gillen, David Lafuente, Jim Rossignol, and Ricardo Venancio was a comic book announced back at Image Expo in January 2015, for that summer.

Today, Image Comics announced THE LUDOCRATS, a new comic by Kieron Gillen (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, PHONOGRAM), David Lafuente (Ultimate Comics: Spider-man), Jim Rossignol, and Ricardo Venancio.

"The Ludocrats is a decade-in-the-making opulent fantastical comedy," said writer of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE and PHONOGRAM, Kieron Gillen, "This is a book which has hyperbole as its baseline, and considers the impossible as an aim only fitting for underachievers. It'll change your life. Primarily by letting you own a comic called The Ludocrats, where BARON OTTO VON SUBERTAN and PROFESSOR HADES ZERO-K are the last defenders of a ludicrous aristocracy against the insipid forces of normalisation."

Artist Lafuente tried to add a few notes on the artistic challenge of drawing truly improbable yet charming beings, but Gillen refused to pass the mic, instead adding: "Imagine The Metabarons as a comedy! Imagine all of Ibiza captured by William Burroughs-trained extraterrestrials, transported to a distant world to spend all eternity throwing impossible shapes to Baron Münchhaus Music! Imagine Doom if you could talk to the monsters, then really hit it off and end up being master of ceremonies at a delightfully hellish wedding!"

Esteemed game developer of Sir, You Are Being Hunted Jim Rossignol was asked for comment, but was lost in the general tumult of Gillen stomping around, shouting "Imagine a story that colonizes the potent liminal space between Ghostbusters and 'Blockbuster' by The Sweet! Imagine The Neverending Story, except instead of an adorable luck dragon you have a Prussian Steam Judge with an enormous mechanical pelvis! Imagine a book as good as Brandon Graham thinks his are!"

Venancio was not asked for comment, because no one asks colorists anything, because the entire industry is broken, but we can safely assume that Gillen would have shouted something akin to "Every generation has a defining moment. We snoozed through ours. Ludocrats is its replacement" over him.

"It's not about Ludo," Gillen added.

"Kieron pitched this to me over burgers in Soho, and it sounds just as insane now as it did then, if not more so," said Eric Stephenson, Publisher at Image Comics. "That is in no way a bad thing." THE LUDOCRATS will be released in Summer 2015.

When asked the following October, he replied:

Well, he has now updated everyone in his newsletter. Ludocrats is now looking like it's planned for 2018.

Ludocrats is a collaboration between David Lafuente, Jim Rossignol and myself. We announced it a few years ago, and (er) stuff happened which meant it didn't happen. It's not exciting stuff. It's boring stuff. This is ironic, because it's a book about the war against boredom. That we were delayed by the grey quicksand of bureaucracy is a bit like that bit in Brazil with De Niro.

Anyway! That stuff has been sorted out, and David's at work now. We'll be having a formal re-announcement at some point, because we want to be pretty certain of when it's dropping before we get people excited again, but until here's some panels of inks for your delectation.

Baron Otto Von Subertan is the larger one. Professor Hades Zero-K is the smaller one. They are Ludocrats and they're here to save us from tedium.

It's not about Ludo.

But it looks like it might have a new colourist. Sign up for Gillen's newsletter here, so you can read it yourself first before I cut and paste the good bit.

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