UPCOMING NEO-NOIR BUDDY COMEDY CRIMES AGAINST NATURE LAUNCHING THIS SEPTEMBER

Two best friends. A man and his ape against the world.

Rising stars Eliot Rahal (Bleed Them Dry, Cult Classic) and Mattia Monaco (Eat Your Young, Knock ‘Em Dead) team up for an all-new buddy-crime comedy in the forthcoming, Crimes Against Nature. This neo-noir series packed with secrets, sins, and simians is set to launch this September from Image Comics.

This off-the-wall launch best described as Koko the gorilla meets The Usual Suspects will also boast extra special variant covers by Monaco as well as fan-favorite artists Stipan Morian (20th Century Men), Tyler Boss (You’ll Do Bad Things, What’s the Furthest Place from Here?), and a Witchblade Team-up variant by Gavin Smith.

“This story is about two desperate fathers, one at the end of his rope, with nothing left to lose, shooting their shot—and I’m not talking about the characters in our book,” said Rahal. “I’m talking about Mattia and me. Honestly, working on this book has felt like him and me against the world, with help from the friends we’ve made along the way. It’s a feeling I haven’t had since I first started in comics. It feels like we’re committing a crime together. Like we’re doing something special. It’s exciting. Special. And it’s fitting for our first Image book. I’m just so grateful for Mattia. Every panel and page is lightning in a bottle. It’s one of the greatest partnerships of my life. And I think all of that joy and trust spills out into our book about a guy and his gorilla.”

InCrimes Against Nature, famous Hollywood Animal Trainer, Doctor Kermit Groedan, and his only client/best friend—Amigo the Ape, the first gorilla ever nominated for an Academy Award—are framed for a crime they didn’t commit. Now they’re on the run. And to clear their names and save their lives, Kermit and Amigo will be forced to reveal their darkest secrets and confront each other’s hidden past. Will their friendship be able to survive?

Monaco added: “For me, this book is about coming home. Coming back to traditional art. After nearly six years of working digitally, this was the first project that brought me back to pen and ink and gave me a renewed sense of freedom and experimentation on every page. It’s also a return to where my comics career began. Eliot was the first writer I ever collaborated with in comics on Knock ‘Em Dead. It feels like a lifetime ago, but I’ll never forget the trust he put in me then—or now. At its heart, Crimes Against Nature is a story about the friendship between a man and a gorilla. It’s a story about a friendship that survives against the odds. A friendship forged by fate and challenged by that same fate. In a strange way, it reminds me a lot of Eliot and me. We just haven’t figured out yet which one of us is the gorilla. This book is funny, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and occasionally terrifying. Because no matter how emotional things get, there’s still a six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room.”