Image Comics is the place where comics’ best creators go to put out their own stories, far from the spandex of the Big Two. Every month, multiple amazing original stories come from the publisher and Image has changed the comic industry completely. Comics are a business of collaboration, writers, artists, and editors working together to create stories, and many of the best teams in comics have went to Image and gave readers some amazing books. Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen have proved to be one of these teams. The two of them have worked together on three amazing books – Descender, Ascender, and Little Monsters – their working relationship leading to some of the best comics you’ve ever written.
Their books often deal with themes of family and growing up, and their latest collab may prove to be one of their best. Crowbound #1 is a ticket to a new world, one that feels a little familiar in 2026, introducing readers to Rose and Ava Lee, a mother and daughter living in the Factory, their lives completely under control of the powers that be. This issue is everything that Lemire and Nguyen do well together, a well-paced, emotional, engrossing read that will hook you from page one.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Image Comics is the home of must-read indies and Lemire has proven to be one of the best working at the publisher. Lemire is a master of every genre in comics, but many of his major works at Image revolve around family. Descender and Ascender were about a family broken by war trying to come back together twice, Little Monsters is all about a group of vampire children living together, and Royal City dealt with a family devastated by the death of the youngest child. Lemire understands how to use family in stories and Crowbound is another example of this.
Emotion has always been an important part of Lemire’s work and right from the beginning, this issue lives and dies by its emotional storytelling. The book starts in media res, opening on a hopeless scene you can feel in the pit of your stomach, with fear and longing practically dripping off the page. The book goes on from there, slamming readers over the head with the despair of the world of the Factory. We get very little about how the world works, but the hopelessness of the comic feels familiar. Lemire digs into the anxieties of the modern world – the lack of power and agency, the poverty, the fascism, and the people in charge abusing everyone for their own aggrandizement, with a little bit of Epstein thrown in to hit home the allegory.
This is an often heartbreaking comic. Memory is a big these of the issue; Rose is remembering how she got to where she is at the beginning of the book, looking back over her life since childhood, since before she came to the Factory. There’s a sense of dread that the issue establishes on the first page and just keep ratcheting up as the book goes on. I was crying by the end of the issue, yelling at a scene that I knew would play out the way it did because of the beginning of the issue. That really says it all about why this issue works so well; even knowing where its going, you’re still shocked by what’s going on. The last scene takes a sci-fi dystopia and sends it in a new direction; if you can get to the end of the issue and not want to get the next one, then you and I like very different things.
Dustin Nguyen is one of the most underrated artists working today. He’s mostly known for his work at DC and Image (last year, he was the artist who revealed how little Marvel paid creators, so don’t bet on him coming back to the House of Ideas any time soon), his style evolving from the American manga look that came to prominence in the ’90s to a gorgeous watercolor style. His work on Descender, Ascender, and Little Monsters show that his style can make any kind of story come to life, really getting to the emotional core of every book he’s on. Crowbound #1 is gorgeous from start to finish, Nguyen perfectly capturing the tone of the book.
To begin with, there’s the colors. This is a depressing book and the color and lighting play into that perfectly. Everything looks old and hopeless, a grayness permeating every scene that is a great example of visual storytelling. His linework is simple, stong, thin lines that give images fantastic detail. The character acting is astounding as well; you know just how everyone is feeling in any scene, the emotional stakes of the panel always hitting you like a ton of bricks. The above image comes from the description of the Factory and is able to give readers a great horror by way of sci-fi scene, tantalizing you with dark realities you know nothing about but ensuring that will want to know more. The page layouts establish an inexorable pace, one leading us to a heartbreak we can’t avoid. Nguyen knows how to work with Lemire better than just about anyone (except maybe Andrea Sorrentino) and this issue shows what makes them such an amazing team.
Jeff Lemire is one of comics’ most versatile writers, able to give readers brilliant superhero, sci-fi, fantasy, and slice of life comics. As an artist himself, he knows how to work with his collaborators and let them shine. He and Nguyen have proven to be one of the best teams out there and Crowbound #1 is another example of what they do so well. This issue takes readers to a new world, establishes a flawless tone, and hooks you right away. It’s a perfect first issue, doing everything it needs to do to get readers in the door and keep them there. If Lemire and Nguyen’s previous works are any indication, Crowbound is going to fantastic.
Crowbound #1 is on sale now.
