The Image Comics Fantasy Guide

"The fantasy genre is undergoing a startling renaissance as a surge of comics evolve sword-and-steed tropes into brazen new directions. Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans' Die dissects the bones of the genre, questioning whether escaping to far-off lands and rushing into churning battles is chivalrous or paralyzingly traumatic. Likewise, Skottie Young and Jorge Corona's Middlewest tackles the contrast between childhood nostalgia and domestic abuse through a lens of surreal adventure. Even genre hybrids like Mike Norton's Battlepug merge meta hilarity with barbarian excess, while Self/Made shifts tones at a panel's notice.These examples prove how fantasy is one of the most malleable sandboxes to channel old ideas and harsh realities through new perspectives. The following titles show the sheer range and imagination of one of the most fertile genres in fiction."