Matz – SMASH PAGES

Here’s a preview to get your mind off the midsummer heat: A first look at Snowpiercer: Extinction, the prequel to the original Snowpiercer graphic novel… wait, it’s complicated.

The original Snowpiercer series was published as four volumes in French, with art by Jean-Marc Rochette and scripts from three different writers: The Escape, by Jacques Lob, The Explorers and The Crossing, by Benjamin Legrand, and Terminus, by Olivier Bocquet. When they were published in English by Titan Comics, The Explorers and The Crossing were combined into a single volume.

The series has an absolutely smashing premise: In a post-apocalyptic ice-ridden world, the remnants of humanity travel across the snow-covered landscape in a very, very long train. As in life, there are different classes with different levels of privilege aboard this train: The wealthy ride in luxurious quarters toward the front of the train, while the less well-off travel in squalor at the rear. What’s more, that train can’t run forever, so change is coming no matter what. When some folks from the rear start to move toward the front, the entire equilibrium is upset. The first volume was adapted into a film in 2013.

In the comic news frenzy leading up to Comic-Con International, Titan Comics and book publisher Hard Case Crime have announced a new line of “gritty, sexy, violent” crime comics.

For those not familiar, Hard Case Crime publishes pulp/noir crime fiction of the new and classic varieties. They’ve published books by Stephen King, Donald E. Westlake, Michael Crichton, Jason Starr, Max Allan Collins, Ed McBain and many others.

Coming out first is “Triggerman,” written by Walter Hill, director of the cult classic film “The Warriors,” as well as “The Long Riders,” “Streets of Fire,” “48 Hours” and the more recent “Bullet to the Head.” He’ll work with French comics creators and frequent collaborators Matz and Jef. Arriving in stores Oct. 5, “Triggerman” is a Prohibition-era mini-series set in Chiacgo, where a convict “is thrown headfirst into a life of bloodshed and bullets to save the girl he left behind.” Here are a few preview pages Titan provided:

The following week Peepland arrives, a “semi-autobiographical neo-noir mini-series with a punk edge set in the seedy Times Square peep booths of 1980s New York City.” It’s written by crime novelist and former peep show employee Christa Faust and crime and comic writer Gary Phillips, with art by Andrea Camerini. Here’s a preview page:

Finally, Titan and Hard Case Crime are also teaming up for a new “Quarry” comic series in 2017, based on the novels by Collins. There’s no art for that one yet, but Titan did provide all the varient covers for Triggerman and Peepland, by such folks as Fay Dalton, Mack Chater, Alex Ronald, Caitlin Yarsky, Camerini, Robert Hack, Dennis Calero and Francisco Paronzini. Admittedly I thought the covers looked pretty cool, they’re the main reason I did this post. Check’em out below: