Eliot Rahal and Mattia Monaco, the creators of the 2021 horror comedy Knock ‘Em Dead, are reteaming at Image Comics on the comedy thriller Crimes Against Nature. The book follows veteran Hollywood animal trainer Dr. Kermit Groedan, and his client Amigo, an Academy Award-nominated gorilla, as they go on the run after they are framed for a crime they didn’t commit. Along the way, “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?”
Crimes Against Nature #1 cover A, by Mattia Monaco
Rahal says, “Honestly, working on this book has felt like [Monaco] 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.”
Monaco adds, “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.”
He continues, saying, “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.”
Issue #1 will be released on September 23, with covers by Monaco, Stipan Morian, Tyler Boss, and Gavin Smith, the last of which is an unrevealed Witchblade team-up variant coinciding the new Vampirella crossover. You can check out the other variant covers in the meantime below.
Cover B by Stipan Morian
Cover C (1:25 copy incentive) by Tyler Boss
Cover D (1:50 copy incentive) by Mattia Monaco
