Posted in: Comics | Tagged: 2017, Comics, eccc, eccc17, embargoed, Emerald City Comicon, emeraldcitycomicon, entertainment, hero denied, image

Sacred Creatures, By Pablo Raimondi And Klaus Janson, Published By Image Comics, Announced At ECCC

Announced by Image Comics at ECCC, a new series by X-Factor's Pablo Raimondi and Dark Knight Returns' Klaus Janson, Sacred Creatures.

Klaus talked to me earlier today, embargoed by Image PR until now, saying,

Rich – Sacred Creatures is a series of mini-series, plotted and written by Pablo Raimondi and myself.

The initial mini will be 6 issues long, the first issue will be double sized, 66 pages of story, the second through the fifth about 35 pages each and the wrap up of the first mini, issue 6 will be double sized also.  Since it's a creator owned property, we didn't feel constrained by printing standards.  The page length was determined by what was best for the story. So lots of great story and lots of great art!

We're doing 3 covers per issue: one by Pablo, one by myself and the third by a guest artist. The first issue will have a variant by Frank Miller, the second variant is done by Sean Murphy, the third by Bill Sienkiewicz.

We can't reveal too much of the story as we want the reader to discover who these  characters are by themselves, but suffice it to say that the Sacred Creatures have been with us for a very long time, they've woven themselves into the fabric of our society and manipulated mankind to further their own agenda.  As we open issue 1, they are about to initiate their ultimate plan to upset the balance of power that humanity has so far been able to maintain.

It's a gripping, fast paced story that barrels to a climax full of twists and surprises.  I know I was certainly surprised and pleased at the turns the story took!

And one of the things that excited me the most about this project is the format of the series. Not only do we allow the story to breathe and find it's own level without worrying about page count, but Pablo does all the art for his timeline, which is the present, and I do all the art for the backstory of these characters.  The first three issues set up the contemporary storyline and then on issue 4, we start to cut back and forth between the present and the past and we get to see the history of these characters and how they evolved into who they currently are.  It's a very unique way of telling their story and I'm looking forward to sharing that with the readers.

While Pablo told me,

Klaus did a great job covering everything in his email, so I don't have that much to add other than saying that we couldn't be more thrilled to be doing this book at Image, which was what we envisioned from the very first day we started working on it.

There was one other aspect that I was hesitant to bring up, but did want to ask if it informed the themes and ideas in the comic, that both Pablo and Klaus are gay men working in the comics industry. Pablo graciously told me,

It would be impossible for our point of view to not be informed by the fact that we're gay, but I think more than anything else Sacred Creatures reflects our shared perspective on serialized storytelling and the power of images, and how we believe it'll have something to contribute to today's comic-book marketplace.

Sacred Creatures will be published later this year.

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