If you’re wondering what Gerry Duggan will be up to once his run on X-Men ends, never fear — he’s teaming up with artist Garry Brown for an ambitious creator-owned series at Image Comics.
Falling in Love on the Path to Hell will start at the end for the two main characters — an Onna-musha warrior and an Old West gunslinger. After being mortally wounded on different continents, the pair “awake together in a purgatory ruled by a ruthless, nightmarish society of damned warriors.”
“We’re inspired by samurai films, grindhouse, westerns, Tarantino, Lone Wolf & Cub and of course all our favorite weird, supernatural comic books,” said Duggan. “This romance is our love letter to creator-owned comics—it’s a story we can only tell at Image Comics.”
Here’s how Image describes the series:
The sun set on samurai and gunslingers at roughly the same time in the 1870s—but Falling in Love on the Path to Hell’s two leads didn’t die off quietly. In Japan, Asami, an Onna-musha warrior and female samurai, would rather die with her weapons than surrender them to a sword hunt. In California, the gunslinger MacRaith follows his revenge to the bitter end and pays the ultimate price.
The unlikely pair are mortally wounded a world apart, but awake together in a purgatory ruled by a ruthless, nightmarish society of damned warriors.
“Garry Brown leads the strongest team I’ve been a part of in comics,” Duggan said about the art team. “Issue one is the most beautiful and violent comic I’ve read. Each issue is more breathtaking than the last. Garry and Chris O’Halloran are a perfect duo, and our letters and designs courtesy of Joe Sabino and Elliott Gray are sublime.”
Take a look for yourself in these preview pages from the first issue:
“My goal is to have a big damn omnibus of Falling in Love on the Path to Hell on shelves in a few years,” Duggan continued. “We’re bringing big, beautiful, violent and crazy fun ideas to comic shops this summer. Thanks for supporting this new ongoing comic that we love. Never code-approved and not for the faint of heart.”
The first issue will feature variant covers by Rian Gonzales and the legendary Klaus Janson:
Look for the first issue on June 5.