Basement X

Stephenson's own relationship with Rob Liefeld is directly responsible for the decision to bring back Liefeld's Extreme Studios creations this year, like "Glory" by Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell and "Prophet" by Brandon Graham and Simon Roy.

Also coming up this year is "The Manhattan Projects" and "Secret," both written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Nick Pitarra and Ryan Bodenheim, respectively. Hickman is another prolific writer who got his start at Image Comics with "The Nightly News". "News" was a blind pitch sent in by Hickman and it ending up leading to several more Image mini-series, as well as launching Hickman's career to lengthy runs on Marvel books like "Fantastic Four" and "Secret Warriors".

Stephenson then spoke about "America's Got Powers," the upcoming series by television presenter Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch. Stephenson mentioned how that book is only happening because of his relationship with Mark Millar, who introduced him to Ross. "Jupiter's Children" is Millar's own upcoming series at Image with art duties going to the legendary Frank Quitely.

Howard Chaykin is another fan-favorite returning to Image Comics this year. His book, "Black Kiss 2" will be a sexually-charged sequel to the original "Black Kiss". "We've covered up the naughty bits," joked Stephenson when he put the "Black Kiss 2" slide up on the screen. The image was of a naked woman crouching down, the book's logo barely covering her breasts.

Ken Garing's "Planetoid" is a brand new Image series beginning this June. Garing takes on both writing and art chores on the title.

Steve Niles also has two new projects at Image this year. Stephenson showed slides of "Crime and Terror" by Niles and Scott Morse and announced "Chin Music" by Niles and Tony Harris.

"Mara" will be a mini-series coming out this year by Brian Wood and Ming Doyle.

"There’s one other thing I wanted to mention," teased Stephenson at the end of his presentation, clearly channeling the late Steve Job's speeches that happened just a few miles away in San Francisco. That 'other thing' was revealed to be "Happy!," a new series by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson.

"Happy!" will come out from Image comics this year. Although Stephenson gave no specific launch date, the image shown, of a single feather against a stark white backdrop, had the year 2012 in bold at the bottom. "Happy!" first began being discussed about after Stephenson went out to dinner with Morrison, Kirkman and Joe Casey last October.

"Just as I wouldn't be here if not for a phone call from Jim Valentino back in 1991, none of us would be here without your enthusiasm and support. You know what, Jim, come up here!"

At this point, Jim Valentino joined Stephenson on stage. Not to be outdone, the rest of Valentino's Image partners, save Todd McFarlene, got up out of the crowd and joined Valentino and Stephenson on stage to pose for fans. Seeing all the founders still together and still smiling after 20 years was a fitting end to the keynote address at the first ever Image Expo.