Jeff Lemire has announced through his Substack newsletter that a second volume of Royal City will arrive in 2023.
“I have been teasing the return of Royal City for a while now…and I can finally make it official…ROYAL CITY IS COMING BACK in 2023!” he wrote today. “I have started work on a brand new Royal City series, currently titled ROYAL CITY VOLUME 2: The Last Days of Richie Pike, and plan on launching the book in Fall 2023 from Image Comics.”
Royal City debuted back in 2017 and told the story of the Pike family across three decades, including Patrick Pike, a fading literary star who returns to his hometown in the first issue. We meet his two adult siblings, his mom and dad, and the “ghosts” of the youngest brother, Tommy, who drowned decades before. Richie is one of those siblings, and he found his way into some trouble in the first series, so the title is both ominous and a bit unsurprising.
It ran for 14 issues and was collected into a hardcover back in 2020. Lemire wrote and drew the series, which he is also doing for the second volume. If you’re a fan of his more personal works, like Essex County, then this is definitely going to be up your alley.