Tom King and Elsa Charretier's Love Everlasting series being published by Image Comics gives readers infinite cycles of a "terrifying" romance.
CBR can exclusively preview King and Charretier's Love Everlasting #1, which is being published in August by Image Comics. The series sees a woman trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of romance she quickly discovers she's unable to break away from. The synopsis for the first issue reads, "From superstar award-winning creators TOM KING and ELSA CHARRETIER, comes a new ONGOING SERIES in the tradition of SANDMAN and SAGA. Joan Peterson discovers that she is trapped in an endless, terrifying cycle of “romance”—a problem to be solved, a man to marry—and every time she falls in love she’s torn from her world and thrust into another teary saga. Her bloody journey to freedom and revelation starts in this breathtaking, groundbreaking FIRST ISSUE."
"Though not strictly a romance comic itself, Love Everlasting uses the forgotten formatting and tropes of romance comics to tell its particular and horrifyingly peculiar story," King said. "The goal is to recapture the power of these techniques, to show how and why they worked for thirty years, and then to harness that power to comment upon the great theme these books once espoused: fulfillment comes through love. Here is a great example of us using those tools: an anthology break, a splash page with a caption leading to a title, five and six-paneled pages setting up a basic conflict, etc."
Love Everlasting was first published on King and Charretier's Substack Page, Everlasting Productions, in January. The monthly series recently released its fourth issue on June 29. The issue's synopsis reads, "France 1915. War wages. Joan sings at a club near the front, watching soldiers march to the trenches. Some return, most don’t. One of them, falls in love. To save him from his inevitable fate, Joan discovers how the trap of love can be turned into an opportunity for power."
In May, Image Comics announced it would publish Love Everlasting in physical format and digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books and Google Play. Love Everlasting #1 features colors by Matt Hollingsworth and letters by Clayton Cowles. Cover art comes from Charretier and variant cover art comes from Jenny Frison, Clay Mann, Mitch Gerads, Tula Lotay, Matias Bergara, Leslie Hung and Charretier. The issue releases Aug. 10 from Image Comics.
Source: Image Comics