Skybound X #1

Skybound X #1

Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics 2021

Written by Robert Kirkman, James Harren, Chris Dingess & Tilli Walden

Illustrated by Ryan Ottley, Cliff Rathburn, James Harren, Matthew Roberts

& Tilli Walden

Coloured by Cliff Rathburn & Dave Stewart

Lettered by Rus Wooten, Pat Brosseau & Tillie Walden

Celebrate a sensational 10 years of Skybound with a cavalcade of your favorite creators and all-new stories of your favorite series past, present, and future! Each issue of this oversized, weekly series will kick off with a new chapter of a serialized THE WALKING DEAD story—RICK GRIMES 2000—by ROBERT KIRKMAN & RYAN OTTLEY!

In addition, we’ll be debuting all-new series and characters every issue, starting with the first appearance of the most requested WALKING DEAD character of all-time: Clementine, star of the bestselling Telltale’s The Walking Dead video game series!

Did we mention new ULTRAMEGA and MANIFEST DESTINY stories?! If you want to know what to expect in Skybound’s next 10 years, it all starts here!

If you think you know what to expect out of this you are wrong. There is nothing or normal about the stories that we see here, well except may the Ultramega and Clementine stories those are pretty normal. The point is expect the unexpected because you never know what kind of story you’ll be getting here.

There are four stories in this issue and each one is unique to a franchise from Skybound and each one is as different from the next as you can get. But considering how impressive each of these vignettes are with such a commanding introduction or a complete story as the case may be makes for such an interesting mixture. What I actually love about this is that we see new never before seen stories based on familiar franchises and to start off with Rick Grimes and seeing him in a way we’ve never seen before well that’s just craziness that shouldn’t work but somehow does. Then my favourite Skybound book, Manifest Destiny, and that story well I certainly wasn’t expecting to see this and ya know what, that we’re seeing it here where anything can and will happen is spectacular.

The talent we see on display shows us why they are some of the most sought after creators in comics and if some of them are new names to you then don’t worry because I guarantee you you will be seeing a lot more from them. I love that this is as much a chance to spotlight some of today’s greatest creators with a group of up and comers.

The interiors here are incredible to see as well. Each for a myriad of reasons but I’m really impressed with those that are doing the writing and illustration chores themselves, Tillie i’m looking at you kid. While each one has its own distinctive style to it the way they all seem to follow one another really showcases how an anthology can be so successful and to be honest with interiors so vastly different from one another being so interesting to see on the pages as one story ends and a new one starts makes me excited for what’s yet to come.

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On that note if this does as well as I think it will do then perhaps there should be a regular monthly anthology series that continues to showcase characters and franchises that either have ended or simply should be seen from an entirely new angle, much like we see with said Manifest Destiny story. It is a great way to give new talent a chance at a shot on a story to see if they resonate with audiences or if their sequential work is what you are looking for. Plus the reader gets to benefit from having extra stories told from some of our favourite existing worlds and the chance to see the introduction of new ones before a series launches.