Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen, the award-winning team behind Descender, Ascender, and Little Monsters, are reuniting at Image Comics for their darkest collaboration yet. Crowbound, a new ongoing series described as a blood-soaked fairytale steeped in Southern Gothic dread, launches September 2, 2026.
Set in a harrowing dystopian world where every child at age thirteen is conscripted into The Factory — a monolithic superstructure where they pull levers and push buttons without ever knowing why — Crowbound follows Rose, a mother shattered by the violent separation from her daughter Ava. When Factory Men mark Ava for “special service,” Rose strikes a desperate bargain with the eerie and otherworldly Scarecrow Queen, then sets out on a nightmarish journey across the lowlands: a haunted, post-apocalyptic dreamscape crawling with strange creatures, forgotten gods, and the twisted remains of the old world. It is a story of fury, grief, and an undying love that flickers fiercely against encroaching shadows.
Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer, Gideon Falls) writes the series with art by Dustin Nguyen (Descender). The collaboration marks the pair’s most ambitious work together in terms of scope, with Lemire comparing it in scale to Descender while promising territory they have never explored before. “This story will break uncharted territory for us creatively,” said Lemire. “If Descender was a sprawling space opera, then Crowbound is a sprawling dark fantasy revenge saga filled with heart, emotion, and rage, all rendered in the way only Dustin Nguyen can.” Nguyen added that the project pushed him toward an exciting new direction for his art.
Crowbound is described as a Neo-Western dark fantasy with surreal horror running through its bones — exactly the kind of book horror fans of literary comics have been waiting for from this team.
Crowbound #1 arrives September 2, 2026. Find it at your local comic shop or order through Image Comics at imagecomics.com.
