A few years ago I went to bat for a bunch of good books, and against Tokyopop, their publisher who was gonna drop’em all before they even saw print. One of those books was Brandon Graham’s King City, a balls-to-the-wall action adventure comic with goofably lovable lead characters, one of whom used technologically advanced cats to cause crimes. It’s great, and it wasn’t going to come out, then I yelled a bunch, and it did, and it was awesome.
It went out of print last year, with word from Tokyopop that no matter how loud anyone yelled, the concluding Volume 2 wouldn’t be showing up anywhere and don’t hold your breath for a new printing of volume 1. I was resigned to getting one great graphic novel out of Mr. Graham, eager to see his new stuff, and galvanized that creators should never sign shitty work-for-hire contracts on books that they conceive of and create on their own.
Over the last little while behind the scenes, it seems Brandon and Image came to an agreement with Tokyopop to get this series back in print (though only in single-issue form) and this week, King City #1 hit the stands from Image Comics. It’s the serialization of the first trade, so for the few thousand people who bought the book the first time round, it’ll be doubling up what you already own. For everyone else though, you get to jump on board the series at the beginning.
I’m totally happy to see King City #1 hit the stands. Having just finished it (for a second time) I was reminded how much I liked it, how much neat stuff is shoved into the backgrounds, how thoroughly-constructed the sci-fi world Graham created is, and how the whole thing feels like a manga serial intended to run in HEAVY METAL in the 1980s…in the best possible way.
It’s on better comic store shelves everywhere this week. It’s a rare thing to get a good second chance on something like this, so pick it on up.
– Christopher
In case you didn’t know, the series is serializing the first trade, and then continuing with what would have been the second, finishing the entire story. So we will get to see the whole thing, finally.
By the way, I’m not sure if it was your championing of the book that got me to pick it up back when it came out, but if it was, thank you. It’s how I discovered Brandon Graham, and he quickly became one of my favorite creators. He’s awesome, and I’m stoked to finally be able to finish reading this story. And the issue itself is pretty great too, with the large album-size format looking really nice. Rock.