Celebrating Image Comics Birthday — Starting With ‘Manifest Destiny’
by Tony Thornley
It’s April, and a lot of comic fans know what that means — it’s Image Comics’ birthday! And to celebrate the publisher’s thirty-third birthday, the Comicon team is revisiting our favorite Image Comics series from all across their history!
Image has been the home of a variety of different series, creators, styles and more. I thought quite a bit about my favorites, and I came to one I always enjoy recommending- Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts, Owen Gieni and Pat Brousseau.
Most Americans know the story of Merriweather Lewis and William Clark. What they didn’t know is the mission taught in the history books is a cover. The expedition is actually seeking the supernatural horrors of the Louisiana Purchase and eventual Oregon Trail and eliminating it before it spreads into civilization.
I love weird westerns. The blend of familiar western tropes with the supernatural or science fiction always makes for a fun read. So taking a historical event that’s arguably the first western, and mixing the truth with supernatural horror is a great fit. It helps that the actual story has had enough historical distance that it’s not just retelling a familiar story with some monsters thrown in.
Dingess does a great job at capturing the personalities of the characters, making them feel authentic to the era. That especially works well as the horror ramps up- these are rough and tumble soldiers and convicts from what we consider the frontier era. Of course they’re going to be scared out of their minds, and they’re not going to know what they should do. He also does a really good job at making sure not to sand the edges off the nastiness of the era without becoming problematic. The characters are absolutely racists and sexist, but he avoids making it something that dominates the story.
Roberts and Gieni are really the stars here. Roberts’ art is just cartoony enough to emphasize the uniqueness of each character. He makes the monsters and threats grotesque and scary. Gieni gives it a great layer of grime, and makes the world vibrant and real. Both are able to seamlessly blend horror, fantasy and monsters into what we’d expect of this story.
This is a promise of what Image can deliver in the industry- deep and unique storytelling, with a great world built around it. Unique art. And exactly the kind of story that gets its hooks in you.
So what else are we looking at this month? Stay tuned for our next favorite a week from today!
