W. Maxwell Prince has proven himself a master of the one-issue story, between the anthology series Ice Cream Man and Haha. Prince will continue this “one-shot formula” in July with the launch of Swan Songs, which will tell one-issue stories about endings.
The series will be published by Image Comics.
Martin Simmonds, artist of The Department of Truth, will join Prince for the first issue. The series will naturally start with the end of the world. Caspar Wijngaard will draw the second issue, which the artist says is about the end of a marriage. Filipe Andrade will also draw a future issue.
“It’s a shame that everything has to end,” said Prince. “But dem’s the rules.”
As described in the press release, Swan Songs is all about the big finish:
Swan Songs explores the way things END…and also how they never really do. It’s comprised of stories about endings…The End of the World. The End of a Marriage. The End of a Sentence. The End of the End of the World! (Which one supposes might consider the BEGINNING of a new world…)
Here’s a look at some of the interior pages for the first issue:
The first issue will also come with variant covers, by Nimit Malavia as well as Prince’s Ice Cream Man collaborators, Martín Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran:
Finally, Wijngaard shared the cover for his issue on social media:
Look for the first ending to arrive on July 5.