Writer Jeff Lemire Clarifies His Exclusive Image Comics Deal

Award winning, bestselling creator Jeff Lemire has inked an exclusive deal with Image Comics—making Image his home publisher for all forthcoming projects launching in 2022 and beyond.

Lemire is a longtime creator with Image with a deep backlist of hit titles, in particular: Descender and Ascender with Dustin Nguyen, Gideon Falls and Primordial with Andrea Sorrentino, A.D.: After Death with Scott Snyder, Family Tree with Phil Hester, Plutona with Emi Lenox, and his solo project Royal City. In 2022 he will re-team with Nugyen for the upcoming Little Monsters in March and then with Sorrentino on The Bone Orchard Mythos of shared horror universe titles.

Lemire has a number of soon-to-be announced projects lined up with Image to round out his catalog in the coming year, some solo projects written and drawn by him and some that will feature his work in collaboration with artists new-to-Image.

“Having worked with Image on so many projects over the last decade, I’ve come to appreciate the complete creative freedom and support that they’ve provided me,” said Lemire. “I’m excited to make Image the exclusive home for all my projects in the years to come, both solo projects that I will draw myself, and my various collaborations. Bone Orchard and Little Monsters are just the start of what I have planned this year and beyond.”

He is also known for the critically acclaimed Sweet Tooth (which has a Netflix adaptation of the same name), Trillium, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Black Hammer, and more.

Following the announcement, many wondered what this meant for the future of his Black Hammer series. Lemire responded to those queries a short time later on his Substack page:

I have an exemption in my Image deal to finish the last few Black Hammer series as planned. So Black Hammer Reborn, Madame Dragonfly (with Dean), and the Black Hammer: The End will continue as planned and come out through Dark Horse across 2022-2023. And all the new Black Hammer comics that I have planned for this Substack will also continue as planned. So, rest east Black Hammer fans, this new deal doesn’t effect my plans for the BH Universe at all.

Likewise, it won’t effect my plans for this Substack either. The Image deal if for print comics only, so I will also continue to publish lots of new comics online here as well.

What this deal really means is that I am done with work-for-hire comics for the foreseeable future, and Image, and this Substack, have provided great homes for my future creator-owned work outside of Black Hammer.

A number of Lemire’s works have caught the attention of Hollywood with Essex County in development at CBC, Underwater Welder at Waypoint Entertainment with Ryan Gosling attached as producer, Snow Angels at AMC, Gideon Falls with Hivemind, Descender at Lark and NBC Universal, and Family Tree with Orion.