While there's no Image Expo planned this year, Image Comics has made it known that its Thursday afternoon panel at Emerald City Comicon at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle will include an Image Expo-esque amount of new series announcements. In fact, the panel is rather plainly titled "Image Comics Announcements," making no real ambiguity about what's planned.

The presentation started with brief remarks from Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson, who announced that Image Expo will return on Feb. 1, 2018 -- Image Comics Day. He praised the founders of Image for their initiative, and also singled out Robert Kirkman -- pointing out that while the Image founders were some of the biggest names in comics when the company began, Kirkman was a relative unknown when "The Walking Dead" started.

Image's David Brothers then took over the panel, talking his personal affection for Image Comics as a fan, and then bringing out writer Joe Casey.

Joe Casey's new series is titled "New Lieutenants of Metal," with artist Ulises Farinas. Casey said the comic is in the vein of early Image Comics in being "incomprehensible," and stressed that he didn't mean that as pejorative. He joked that readers shouldn't think too much about it while reading it, as he didn't think too much while writing it.

Justin Jordan was the next creator out, and introduced five-issue miniseries "Death of Love" to the crowd, illustrated by Image newcomer Donal DeLay, colored by Felipe Sobreiro and lettered by Rachel Deering. Jordan said the story is about a "Nice Guy," and stressed that's capital N, capital G. "That should be out in the fall," Jordan said.

Artist Morgan Beem joined Jordan on the panel, as did Nikki Ryan, via FaceTime, to talk new series "The Family Trade." "I am a fully traditional media artist," Beem told the crowd. Beem said she's having "so much fun" with the series. "It's in sort of a steampunk world," Jordan said, about a man-made floating city. "God help me for making this type of comparison, but if you like 'Indiana Jones,' or even 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with a lot less Johnny Depp, that's kind of what we're going for here," Jordan said.

Joseph Keatinge and Wook Jin Clark joined the panel to announce "Flavor," a new food-inspired series. Clark told the crowd about how he was excited to draw a comic in more of a monthly format, and that he first met Keatinge at this show six years ago, and they've since become friends, and now collaborators. Culinary scientist Ali Bouzari is a consultant on the series, who Keatinge described as "Food James Bond."

"Flavor" is scheduled for fall. "Just in time for harvest," Keatinge said. "I didn't even think about that!"

Next up: Leia Del Duca and Alissa Sallah to introduce "Sleepless," written by Sarah Vaughn and illustrated by Del Duca and Sallah and lettered by Deron Bennett. It explores a main character who doesn't have to sleep and the effect hat has -- including the downside to it. The series has a "cool romance spin to it," according to Sallah, who is working on the series as a colorist and editor. "It's so good," Del Duca said. "I cried when I read the first issue."

Superstar colorist Jordie Bellaire joined the panel for the announcement of "Redlands." The series is written and colored by Bellaire and illustrated by Vanesa Del Rey, and is about "some corrupt police cops that are also witches." "It's about a town called 'Redlands,' which is somewhat non-fiction, but we're going to say fiction, so we don't get sued," Bellaire said. "Redlands" is basically about "everything [Bellaire is] pissed about," including corruption, misogyny and the patriarchy.

"It's almost a sad story about the rise of the patriarchy after it's fallen," Bellaire said. "This is really about a bunch of antiheroes that hopefully you're going to hate to love." "If you like sex, if you like weirdness, if you like horror, if you're upset about the way the government and criminal justice system works, give it a shot," Bellaire said. Fonografiks will letter the series.

Next up: former Marvel editors Jody LeHeup and Sebastian Girner, who announced a book they're co-writing titled "Shirtless Bear-Fighter!" (Exclamation point theirs.) The duo made it clear that the book will deliver on its title, a "fight book" about a well, shirtless bear-fighter (in fact, his first name is "Shirtless"). "It's very over the top, very bonkers, but very grounded," LeHeup said, which got some snickers from the crowd. "We're very excited," Girner added. "There are a ton of influences -- '80s action flicks, kung-fu, Saturday morning cartoons, for sure, it's very animated. It's about a guy who had to deal with his past to save everybody."

The series is illustrated by Neil Vendrell (guessing on the spelling -- will update if that's incorrect!), colored by Mike Spicer and lettered by Dave Lanphear.

Jeff Lemire and Phil Hester aren't present at the panel due to travel issues, but they've got a new series coming called "Family Tree." Brothers attempted to play a video from Lemire, but the audio didn't work -- though Brothers promised to make sure it'll get played by the end of the panel.

The new next announcement was "The Hard Place," with writer Doug Wagner and editor Keven Gardner introducing the new "gritty crime" series. "One of the main things that was cool was Nick [Rummel]'s art," Gardner said. "I had not seen anything like it." "He's doing some storytelling stuff I haven't even seen people attempt," Wagner said. "The Hard Place" is a five-issue series, with all five already penciled and inked.

Writer Ales Kot joined the panel, pointing out that ECCC 2011 was the first time he met Eric Stephenson, and the last convention he went to before he took a two-year break from publicity. "Now I'm back, and what I'm bringing you are two stories that hopefully have that experience embedded into them," he told the crowd.

His first new series is "Generation Gone," written by him and illustrated by André Lima Araújo. Kot said it shows what happens when disaffected young people, centered on a couple who realize their relationship is extremely toxic, receive superpowers shortly after deciding to rob a bank. "What happens is a lot -- very, very quickly."

Kot praised the "scale" of Araújo's work. "He can do these gut-wrenching things, and action, and space, and love, all of it." It's scheduled for release in July 2017.

Kot and Tradd Moore are teaming on a series titled "The New World," which is set in "New California" a couple decades from now, after a second Civil War -- where some things have gotten better, and some things have gotten "way worse." In the series, a wall is ("still") up between California and Mexico, and Los Angeles is "New Los Angeles," because it's post-"big one" earthquake. Kot said it's a dystopian Romeo and Juliet-type story, which he hopes to have the feeling of the song "Teenage Kicks."

"You meet a person, and you realize you love them just the way they are, and you'd do anything to lift them up," Kot said of "The New World." "And it feels like every mistake you ever made was produced to be with the person, before you ever met them." "The New World" is colored by Jordie Bellaire, lettered by Clayton Cowles and designed by Tom Muller.

"Both 'Generation Gone' and 'The New World' are two sides of the same coin, because they are really about love, fate and action," Kot said.

Veteran comics creator Matt Wagner joined the panel, alongside Dave Lanphear. "It's not lost on me that I started 'Mage' before most of the people who preceded me on this stage was born," Wagner told the crowd. Image Comics will published "Mage: The Hero Denied," the third part in the "Mage" trilogy, scheduled for summer 2017.

"I don't really have any explanation as to why it took me so damn long, other than, sometimes things feel right, sometimes they don't," Wagner said.

"You always hear every story's already been told," Wagner said. "That's maybe true. But it hasn't been told by you." That's how he approached "Mage" -- he "personalized" the myth of King Arthur. "It's taken so long [between 'Mage' installments], that I've been able to breed and raise my own colorist," Wagner said, referring to his son, Brennan Wagner.

"The storyline follows my life, everything in it is a metaphor for my life," Wagner said of the "Mage" saga. "I'm telling the story of my life through a fantasy allegory. This one is a few years down the line. Our hero, Kevin Matchstick, is living a different kind of life. It feels great being back on this series. It feels very natural."

Lanphear credited "Mage" as part of a boom of critically lauded comics in the '80s, and expressed his enthusiasm for working with Wagner. "Mage: The Hero Denied" will be a 15-issue series, with a half-sized #0 at Comic-Con International: San Diego this July, and a double-sized finale.

Declan Shalvey joined the panel to introduce "Savage Town," a graphic novel he's illustrating and co-writing with Philip Barrett, with Jordie Bellaire coloring and Clayton Cowles lettering. "It's a crime story, set in a city called Limerick," Shalvey said. "When I was living there at the time, there was an awful lot of shady shite happening. It's very loosely -- and I say 'loosely' -- based on real events."

"I'm more known for doing superheroes and stuff like that, so moving from work-for-hire books to doing a creator-owned book is a hugely liberating experience," Shalvey said. "You can do whatever the fuck you want. Especially this, because I don't know if anybody will be able to read this, because it's all in Irish slang."

"It's about a gangster called Jimmy Savage," Shalvey told the crowd. "There's a whole cast of weird characters. Shenanigans happen and it all goes crazy." "Savage Town" is out in the fall.

Comics legend Klaus Janson was next to join, to announce "Sacred Creatures," from himself and Pablo Raimondi. "We held absolutely nothing back," Janson said. "It's a six-issue miniseries, will be coming out this summer. The first issue is 66 pages of story. Each one after that is about 35 pages each. So you're getting a lot of story and a lot of good art. We're doing three covers for each issue." Himself, Raimondi and Frank Miller are all doing covers for the first issue; Sean G. Murphy is doing a variant for the second, and Bill Sienkiewicz.

"Sacred Creatures" is about supernatural beings who have insinuated themselves into our society, Janson said, and the series picks up with them "putting their ultimate plan into effect." "I would describe it as a gripping thriller with supernatural and horror overtones." It's Janson's first creator-owned series, and he and Raimondi are sharing art duties -- Raimondi is drawing the present-day sequences, and Janson is illustrating the flashback stories telling the history of the world.

The final two creators from the presentation were "Lumberjanes" co-creator Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle. They introduced "Moonstruck," written by Ellis and illustrated by Beagle. "Moonstruck" is a romance featuring a werewolf protagonist, who embarks on a magical adventure. "It's not like 'magic,' it's like card trick magic," Ellis explained. "'Lumberjanes' energy is very bright, it's like a 10," Ellis said. "This is a little bit different. It's like a 9.75. It's very cute, it's very gay."

"It's very literary, but also mostly silly," Ellis said.

The panel ended with the Lemire video -- audio now working -- talking about "Family Tree," which Brothers called a "touching and harrowing" family drama, which is almost "scary" how real it is.

"It's a new ongoing series, written by me and drawn by the great Phil Hester," Lemire said, adding that it's a horror story about a family going on a "crazy road trip across the backwoods of America, and all the while they're being chased by various factions, including a cult tabloid journalist, and a strange sect of assassins." Lemire said that he sees "Family Tree" as a thematic follow-up to his past works like "Sweet Tooth" and "Animal Man."

"I've followed Phil's work for a lot of years," Lemire said. "Phil and I are super-excited to be working at Image together, and doing a big, ongoing book. It's going to launch in November."

Keep reading CBR for the latest from Emerald City Comicon 2017!