Damn yous Robert Kirkman.  Damn yous to hell.  I wish I could quit you!

Homoerotic movie quotes aside, I have a love/hate relationship with Robert Kirkman.  I’ve quit reading Invincible, Brit, Walking Dead, and Astounding Wolf-Man all at least once.  Of course, now (other than Brit) I’ve managed to start repurchasing all of them on a monthly basis.  In fact, to help me get caught up on Invincible, I picked up the most recent TPB at Local Heroes Comics today (along with a ton of other crap…damn yous Local Heroes!) and I’ll probably pick up the issues between that TPB and the most recent issue at Heroes and Villains in Hampton, VA (I like variety).  It’s a frustrating exercise because they get dropped, then a couple of months later I realize I miss reading them, so I have to scramble to pick up all the crap that I missed.

Now, Todd McFarlane used to be one of my favorite artists when I was younger.  Him and Erik Larsen were like my power duo back in the 90’s, which is probably why I love The Assassin-Nation Plot so much.  That being said, I haven’t read McFarlane’s Spawn in YEARS. In fact, there’s some great stuff being published by Image now, but I’m so broke from all the new titles I’ve been getting into that I’m not picking up a ton of them.

But that’s going to have to change when Haunt comes out this October.  From the dream team of Robert Kirkman, Greg Capullo, Ryan Ottley, and Todd McFarlane, you might as well have called the thing Paul Buy Me, because that’s exactly what I plan to do!

According to solicitations, in Haunt, “Daniel Kilgore is dragged into his estranged brother Kurt’s secret life of murder and espionage… by his ghost. With no training whatsoever, guided by the spirit of his secret-agent brother, Daniel must now solve his brother’s murder and save the world – or die trying! It all starts here, people: Witness the birth of HAUNT!”

Of course the book is going to obviously draw comparisons to Spawn, given the involvement of McFarlane and Capullo, and the murder/espionage angle of the lead character.  Still, I’ve got faith in Kirkman’s abilities to do something unexpected with the character.  Perhaps the thing I’m most looking forward to is the Ottley/McFarlane/Capullo collaboration on art.  Greg Capullo (Spawn) is doing the layouts, to help Ryan Ottley (Invincible) out, since he’s still planning on doing Invincible monthly (which is shocking to me … it’s rare that artists nowadays do two monthlies, unless their name is John Romita, Jr.).  However, this art doesn’t look anything like the art that Ottley does on Invincible, and it’s primarily because Todd McFarlane is supplying the inks!  So it’s weird…if you look at some of the preview art below, it almost looks like McFarlane art, but not.

I’m super excited for this book, and can’t wait to pick it up and share my thoughts with you guys.  Sounds like between this, Mayhem, and Image United, Image is going to definitely be getting a couple of my bucks in these coming months!  Look for Haunt this October!  Check out some more cool preview art below!