Thief of Thieves #1

Thief Of Thieves is the new series from Image Comics Skybound imprint. The story is by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer is credited as the writer. Seeing these two gentlemen's names attached to a series immediately caught my eye. Upon hearing the premise I knew I had to pick this up and give it a shot. This may be the year of Image Comics as they have a great lineup of new titles coming out this year, this being one of many.

The story is very fast paced as the setting shifts from present to past as Nick Spencer begins to get you acquainted with these characters. The two main characters are a man named Redmond and a woman named Celia. The story opens up in the middle of a heist the two are attempting to pull off. Afterwards the story transitions to the past to show how these two people met. We find out Redmond took Celia on as his apprentice and we're lead to believe the two have had a very successful "career" as thieves ever since. Once the story transitions back to the present, we find out that a job in Venice is currently in motion. Redmond makes a shocking announcement at a meeting full of other people him and Celia work with. I don't want to ruin what happened but it's definitely unexpected. It's somewhat of an unorthodox way to begin a series but then again it could be exactly what they need to bring in readers. I know I personally want to find out how this cliffhanger plays out.

The artwork is by Shawn Martinbrough whose style reminded me somewhat of Cully Hamner's. I was digging his vibe and found his style very suitable for this heist/thriller series. It should be a lot of fun to see what does with Spencer's scripts in the issues to come.

As an added bonus, this issue includes an article by Robert Kirkman at the end where he talks about comic books. It was a pretty well written piece that I could definitely relate to and agree with wholeheartedly. While this wasn't the most mind-blowing first issue of a series, it's still shows a great deal of potential. I know I'm looking forward to the next issue to see how things play out. Knowing both Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer are involved in this together is a great deal of comfort. I have high hopes for this series going forward.