WELCOME BACK TO BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN

On Sale Now!

Happy December!

One of the other comicbooks I’m currently writing is BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN from Image Comics. Co-owned by myself and artist, Paul Fry, this thing has been a blast from Day One. Yeah, it’s a superhero book… but it’s got some interesting layers to it. Since the first collected edition, VOL. 1: PERILOUS RELAUNCH, is out in the stores now… and the monthly series resumes with issue #5 later this month… I thought I’d do a little promotion for a series that I think more people should be reading.

Below is an edited version of the intro I wrote for the first trade. It should give you a decent idea what the intent of this series is, from a creative point of you. Not to mention, some great Paul Fry art to go along with it…

In the halcyon year of 1992, seven artists banded together to create the mighty publishing entity we now know as Image Comics. It was a big, ballsy move that sent shockwaves throughout the entire industry. They kicked down some goddamn doors. They upset some people. They changed the face of comicbooks.

Not only that... they committed to the idea of a single, shared universe, one in which all of their disparate creations would co-exist, co-mingle and occasionally crossover with each other as part of an ever-growing tapestry that quickly became known as the "Image Universe". That meant Spawn could rub elbows with the Savage Dragon. Cyberforce could share the stage -- and the page -- with Shadowhawk. And so on... and so on... and so on. 

And it worked. An entire generation of rabid young readers rose up to embrace that shared Image Universe. They invested in it. They kept track of it -- just like the first wave of Marvel Zombies did, another thirty years before them. And, of course, they bought tons of comicbooks. It was a gloriously heady time for practically everyone who was there to experience it firsthand. 

So then… what the hell happened?

Shit happened, that's what. After all, being pioneers is no easy task. Creator-ownership can come with many freedoms and those freedoms don't always mix perfectly within a shared universe environment -- especially one that runs primarily on the honor system. Creators fell away and took their creations with them. Studio imprints got bought and sold and some of those creations disappeared, never to return. What was once a robust, evolving continuity was left fractured and confused. And perhaps... largely forgotten. 

But some of us never forgot. 

I've known (Image Comics publisher and partner) Eric Stephenson for nearly all of those very same thirty-two years. And one of the many things that we have in common is a deep appreciation for the creative merits of the shared superhero universe. It's something we both grew up with... something we both loved... something that's a part of our DNA...

Thirty years on, we looked back at those initial years of the Image Universe and we realized what fertile ground was there to launch a new series, one that revisited that shared universe -- but in the present day -- using the original comics as a built-in backstory. For me, the intervening years have given those original Image comics a kind o narrative gravitas they didn't possess when they were brand new... a certain kind of resonance that we could now tap into and tell a very modern story.

To do that, Eric and I both felt that the conceptual key was the original Image Comics launch title (you know the one I'm talking about). And for those first two years of publication, it was the glue that held this new, shared universe together. In fact, they guest-starred in practically every other Image title. One could argue there was no better lens through which to view the Image Universe, even thirty years later.

Small problem with that, though. Remember when I said, "shit happens"? Well, due to an unfortunate sequence of events, mostly related to purely business decisions, some serious shit happened with that particular IP. So serious, in fact, that it was essentially -- and, more importantly, legally -- excised from the Image shared universe continuity. In other words, if you take your continuity at face value, now there's a significant-sized hole in it.

BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN is a series that takes a shot at filling that continuity hole. If you want to think of it as an "alternative history" of the Image Universe, feel free to do so. Any and all perspectives are welcome.

It's been posited that we're in the middle of a 90's nostalgia wave. Who knows if that's actually true... but we've got bigger ambitions. We've got something to say about the superhero concept in 2024. Something that speaks to the world we're living in today. And just like the original Image founders, we're saying it in a way that Marvel and DC aren't allowed to. We're also picking up the challenge laid down by acknowledged classics like Watchmen (1986), Justice League International (1987) and neo-classics like The Authority (2000) and The Ultimates (2002). BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN is the next link in that chain, using past archetypes to create newer, modern archetypes for the Twenty-First Century.

It's also an attempt to redefine the general perceptions of the Image Universe, just as rich in concept and character as the Marvel and DC Universes ever were.

Having said all that, this is about much more than archeology. We're storytellers here. In terms of the actual characters that you’ll meet in this series... we're also telling a generational story. If BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN actually existed in the Image Universe of 1994, what does that mean for the Image Universe in 2024? Thirty years is long enough that we're now talking about the descendants -- the literal sons and daughters -- of those 90's superpeople that have now come of age. And so, the time has come to pass the torch. Of course, in today's world, things are much more complicated than they were three decades ago. Passing the torch isn’t so easy. Not to mention, being a superhero is certainly a much more complex affair than it used to be. This series tackles those complications and complexities head on.

And there it is. I don’t know about you guys -- but I’m convinced…!

Joe Casey

USA