BLACK JACK KETCHUM RIDES INTO TOWN THIS DECEMBER
The fantasy western series will take readers on an all-new adventure

Writer Brian Schirmer and artist Claudia Balboni team up for a fantasy, western adventure in BLACK JACK KETCHUM—coming to Image Comics this December.

BLACK JACK KETCHUM pulls readers into a dreamlike version of the Old West, where one Tom Ketchum struggles to clear his name—and stay alive—when he's mistaken for wanton outlaw "Black Jack" Ketchum. With the aid of his talking sidearm, a secretive gambler, and a mute girl with a Winchester, Tom evades the mysterious Union and its supernatural enforcers, the faceless Dusters, as he's forced to question his identity, his sanity, and his very existence.

"To me, Tom Ketchum is more than a minor historical figure—he's family,” said Schirmer. “My great-grandmother's cousin. So, his name and the stories associated with him have been with me my whole life. That said, I knew we wouldn't be creating a strictly biographical piece, so I pulled in influences from Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Orson Welles' The Trial, just to name a few."

Balboni added: "It's a surreal western, so it’s spiced up with many elements foreign to the classic western comics. I tried to evoke the excitement and atmosphere of the Old West in a darker and distressing visual context, to attract both the lovers of classic Westerns and people who like a more intricate and oneiric narrative style."

The adventure begins with BLACK JACK KETCHUM #1 (Diamond Code OCT150488) which will hit comic book stores on Wednesday, December 2nd. The final order cutoff deadline for comic book retailers is Monday, November 9th.

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.