Escape #1 Heads Back to Print—Again!

Image Comics is sending Escape #1 back to print for the fourth time, and I’m honestly not surprised. Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña’s new series has been selling out faster than anyone expected, and the buzz around it keeps growing.

This book took some real chances. Remender and Acuña built a fully painted world of anthropomorphic animals and threw them into the middle of a brutal war story that feels like Inglourious Basterds crashed into Blacksad. It’s violent, gorgeous, and doesn’t shy away from showing war for what it really is—messy, ugly, and occasionally punctuated by strange moments of grace.

The story centers on Milton Shaw, a bomber pilot who spends his days dropping bombs on enemy cities from thousands of feet up. Everything changes when his plane gets shot down and he wakes up in the ruins of a place he helped destroy. The kicker? His own military is about to level the entire city with one massive bomb in less than 24 hours. Milton’s stuck behind enemy lines, injured, unarmed, and hunted. His only shot at getting out alive comes from an unlikely alliance with a father and son who’ve suffered under the same fascist government Milton’s been fighting against. These three have every reason to hate each other, but survival doesn’t care about sides. It’s about the damage we cause, the people we try to save despite everything, and finding the guts to keep moving when the world’s on fire.

Critics have been piling on the praise. Monkeys Fighting Robots called it Remender’s best work since F.E.A.R. Agent. AIPT said it’s beautifully written and perfectly paced. Nerd Initiative compared it to Saving Private Ryan and Enemy Lines. Multiple outlets have described it as a masterclass in wartime storytelling, and Acuña’s artwork keeps getting called stunning and detailed. The reception speaks for itself.

Image Comics has the fourth printing of Escape #1 scheduled for December 31, the same day Escape #5 drops. If you’re behind on the series, second printings of issues #2 and #3 just hit shops, and #4 is available now. Digital readers can find the whole series on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.

It’s good to see a book that takes this kind of creative swing actually land with readers. Too many interesting ideas die on the vine because people play it safe. This one didn’t, and now Image keeps having to print more copies. That’s the kind of problem you want to have.