A few years back, Jeff Lemire nearly fell from the stage during a DC Comics panel at Emerald City Comicon. Dustin Nguyen caught him -- or as Lemire tells it, "saved his life" -- and next year, the two superstars will team on a new science fiction series from Image Comics called "Descender." No doubt, there were a few more steps along the way, but it looks like Lemire's misstep led to what now becomes one of the most hotly anticipated books of 2015.
"Descender" was officially announced today at Image Expo with Lemire writing the series and Nguyen illustrating. It was also revealed to CBR News that Nguyen would be painting over his own pencils with watercolors giving the space opera an otherworldly, organic look and feel.
Lemire teased that the creator-owned series is about a young robot's struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet looking for anything with artificial intelligence. TIM-21 is the most-wanted robot in the universe because the incredibly life-like artificial boy may hold the secret to the mass death and destruction unleashed by giant robots ten years before the story of the comic begins.
Like Lemire, Nguyen is coming off an exclusive contract with DC Comics but will continue to work on several projects with the publisher. Lemire shared that he will finish his writing duties on the year-long weekly series, "The New 52: Futures End," will write the newly launched "Justice League United" through at least issue #12 will continue to work on a series of "Teen Titans: Earth One" graphic novels, which were announced in March.
Lemire and Nguyen also discussed with CBR the freedom creator-owned projects allow, their fear (or lack thereof) of robots and a number of plot threads and character beats that will be explored in even the first few issues of "Descender."
