A Dark Crop in Harvest

Fun fact. If you run with the folks in the underworld of illegal organ harvesting you get to make heady decisions on a daily basis, like who lives and who dies. It's pretty insane actually. Not that I know firsthand or anything. Nope. All my knowledge about it comes from Image's upcoming five-issue series Harvest, written by A.J. Lieberman and illustrated by Colin Lorimer.

"I'm not really spoiling anything in saying that Noah is really the personification of Ben's subconscious," said Lieberman. "But both characters help keep Ben alive as he stumbles around trying to do something in this world that is larger than himself, something meaningful. And trust me when I say this, most of the time Ben f―s it all up."

The creative duo visit the story of a drug-addicted, ex-surgeon with an interesting notion as to how to fix past wrongs. Framed for murder by Jason Craven, his former boss in the harvesting trade, Dr. Ben decides to exact revenge by making house calls on his former "patients" to take back the organs — and the years of life — their money bought them. Helping Ben are Mariko, a Yakuza enforcer, and a six-year-old boy named Noah.

"The story always dictates the style," said Lorimer. "It's quite a dark tale so I tried to keep it quite muted in tone and in places dirtied up the art to give it a little added texture."

Harvest #1 is slated to debut August 1. Full press release below.

A DARK CROP IN HARVEST

New miniseries from Image/Shadowline in August

Who gets to live? Who has to die? In the underworld of illegal organ harvesting depicted in the new Image Comics/Shadowline miniseries HARVEST, money answers that question — and Dr. Ben Dane is determined to change that. But as writer A.J. Lieberman and artist Colin Lorimer will show in the August 1 release of HARVEST's first of five issues, Dr. Ben's motives aren't entirely pure.

Lieberman (COWBOY NINJA VIKING, TERM LIFE) and Lorimer (Dark Horse Presents) delve into the dark trade with the story of a drug-addicted ex-surgeon with a bent take on how to right past wrongs.  Framed for murder by Jason Craven, his former boss in the harvesting trade, Dr. Ben decides to exact revenge by making house calls on his former "patients" to take back the organs — and the years of life — their money bought them. Helping Ben are Mariko, a Yakuza enforcer, and a six-year-old boy named Noah.

"I'm not really spoiling anything in saying that Noah is really the personification of Ben's subconscious," said Lieberman in a May 29 interview at Comic Book Resources. "But both characters help keep Ben alive as he stumbles around trying to do something in this world that is larger than himself, something meaningful. And trust me when I say this, most of the time Ben f―s it all up."

Lorimer provides visuals for the HARVEST with heavy black shadows, gritty environments, and plenty of dark atmosphere.

"The story always dictates the style," said Lorimer in the CBR interview. "It's quite a dark tale so I tried to keep it quite muted in tone and in places dirtied up the art to give it a little added texture."

HARVEST is a five-issue full-color miniseries, debuting on August 1. Its first issue is available for pre-order now from the June issue of Previews (JUN120439.)

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.