The upcoming crime thriller, set in the New York City music scene, features colors by Eisner Award winner Jordie Bellaire, lettering by Aditya Bidikar
Veteran editor Eric Harburn will be making his graphic novel writing debut with the upcoming original graphic novel Humbucker, out in Spring 2027 from Image Comics and James Tynion IV’s production house Tiny Onion. The crime thriller, set in the New York City music scene, is co-created by Eisner Award-nominated artist Simon Gane (Ghost Tree, They’re Not Like Us), and will feature colors by multiple Eisner Award winner Jordie Bellaire (Exquisite Corpses, The Nice House series) and letters by on-the-rise creator Aditya Bidikar (In Your Skin, The Department of Truth).
Fans of offbeat crime thrillers like Uncut Gems and Get Shorty and music-based stories will love this fast-paced, guitar-smashing story.
Humbucker follows Denny, the owner of a new indie record label who is drowning in debt trying to make his music dreams come true. He tracks down the influential underground musician Connor Markes, who fell into obscurity decades ago, and bets all he has left on finally recording the musician’s mythical debut album. He sets up a session at a fabled NYC studio where everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Blondie to The Rolling Stones made hits, but tensions rise quickly as Connor struggles to perform. And when Denny’s loan shark crashes the session, all bets are off, and it’s sink or swim for the two troubled leads.
As announced in Publishers Weekly in last April, Harburn was recently promoted to Director of Narrative & Editor-in-Chief at Tiny Onion to manage the production house’s expansion into multimedia entertainment. Harburn has not only led the development and production of Eisner Award-nominated bestselling series Exquisite Corpses at Tiny Onion, but has also spent the past sixteen years as an editor and curator of the industry’s top original series. Previously an Executive Editor at BOOM! Studios, he has worked on more than one hundred unique comic book properties, shepherding countless titles to critical and commercial acclaim, including Eisner, Harvey, Ringo, Ignatz, and GLAAD Media Award winners such as Something is Killing the Children, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR, and more. Now, Harburn turns a new page in his career by crafting his own graphic novel.
“As an editor, I’ve been lucky enough to work with the best creators in our medium, on incredible projects that have always scratched the creative itch,” said Harburn. “But during a recent visit to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, an idea struck me like a power chord: a pressure cooker of crime and creative ambition, Martin McDonagh meets Elmore Leonard, all set within a legendary recording studio. This was a story I had to tell, and I’m still pinching myself that Simon, Jordie, and Aditya agreed to join the band. Humbucker is a debut album twenty years in the making, and I sincerely hope you’ll give us a spin.”
Gane added: “I’ve wanted to collaborate with Eric for a very long time now. Who knew it would be in his new role as author rather than editor, but as soon as I started reading the script for Humbucker, I knew I wanted in. That I’d also get to link up with Aditya and reunite with my old partner in crime, Jordie, just sealed the deal. The characters were so fleshed out and alive, I just knew—as an artist—that I would feel for them and want to spend time with them. We hope readers will too. Yes, the story moves from coast to coast and there is drama and tension, but it’s also intimate and personal. It covers themes surrounding creativity. Putting your head above the parapet can leave you exposed and vulnerable. As our characters will find out, very, very vulnerable.”
The Humbucker trade paperback (ISBN: 9781534331204) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, April 14, 2027 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, May 11, 2027.
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher