LANCER #1 cover art by DON AGUILLO
On December 2nd, we unleash LANCER #1, a brutal near-future action thriller.
LANCER is ALIENS meets the gig economy: military veterans use an app to hunt dangerous species for cash, until one job beneath New York City hunts them back.
Recently, we proudly revealed our incredible LANCER #1 “Paul Pope” Cover: the first Paul Pope cover in history to feature Paul Pope himself.
Pope joins New York Times best-selling writer Mike Costa (Netflix’s LUCIFER), superstar-in-the-making Jake Baker, Eisner Award-winning colorist Lee Loughridge (BATMAN), and a can't miss line-up of cover artists that includes Jerome Opeña, Chris Burnham, Manix Abrera, Don Aguillo, and an actual friggin' knife that we turned into a comic and somehow printed LANCER #1 onto.
The response was rapturous!
LANCER #1 "Paul Pope" Cover
So much so that we commissioned legendary artist Jim Steranko to create another special variant cover for LANCER #1.
A photograph of Master Escape Artist Steranko sporting his signature pompadour and a jet-black turtleneck, locked in a pair of German Hamburg Eights handcuffs.
We can without a doubt say that there is no other cover out there like it. That it is a singular comic book experience.
And we refuse to stop there.
LANCER #1 "Jim Steranko" Cover
Today we can finally unveil our latest special variant cover for LANCER #1 commissioned from Eisner Award-nominated legend Esad Ribić.
An Esad cover is a rare thing. Each one requires an extraordinary amount of time, craft, and painstaking work from one of the most singular artists in comics history.
And yet, despite all that effort, a conventional Esad cover contains almost no actual Esad Ribić.
No lush painting of Esad Ribić in gouache or watercolor. No iconic hero shot of
Esad Ribić in all his goateed glory.
Not even a small Esad Ribić somewhere in the background.
Just his art.
Esad Ribić and BAD IDEA agreed: comics readers deserve more.
Today, we proudly reveal the LANCER #1 “Esad Ribić” Cover: the first Ribić cover in history to feature Esad Ribić himself.
LANCER #1 "Esad Ribić" Cover
It is a photograph of Esad Ribić.
To be absolutely clear: this cover does not merely feature artwork created by Esad. It features the man himself. His face. His Hawaiian shirt. His authentic New York Comic Con guest badge. On the cover. Of LANCER #1.
“Technically, I’m responsible for everything you see on this cover,” said Esad Ribić.
Esad Ribić joins Jim Steranko and Paul Pope are part of a growing series of "covers" for LANCER #1.
This is a blazing innovation in comic book publishing from the people who brought you invisible comics, vampiric comics, vampiric comics impaled with a wooden stake, and an actual knife that is also somehow a comic book.
As Andy Warhol famously should have said, “When commerce becomes art, art must become commerce.”
Contact your local comic shop to preorder your copy of Lancer #1 before Final Order Cutoff today, Monday, November 2nd.
The "Paul Pope" Cover joins a playable augmented-reality cover, and the world’s first comic book printed on an actual knife.
*** LANCER #1 ***
Written by MIKE COSTA
Art by JAKE BAKER
Colors by LEE LOUGHRIDGE
Covers by JEROME OPEÑA, CHRIS BURNHAM, DON AGUILLO, "PAUL POPE" & more!
$5.99 | 32 PGS. | FULL COLOR
LUNAR CODE: 0626BD0567
FINAL ORDER CUTOFF NOVEMBER 2, 2026 | IN STORES DECEMBER 2, 2026
In the near future, if you need extra cash, you open an app. Accept a hunt. Get paid to exterminate whatever dangerous species is overrunning your part of the world. Coyotes in California. King cobras in Mumbai. Feral camels in Australia. Vampire bats in Brazil. If it threatens people, property, or profit, LANCER puts a bounty on its head.
For military vets like Pete Sanborn, it offers something modern life rarely does anymore: a mission, a paycheck, and the hope that one more job might finally be enough.
Two years after a wild hog hunt in Texas went catastrophically wrong, Sanborn has sworn he is done with the app.
Then an old military buddy shows up with an offer he can’t refuse.
Something enormous is living beneath New York City. The payout is life-changing. But the creatures below are not what anyone thinks they are, and by the time Sanborn understands what they are really hunting, it may already be too late.
Think Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park, and RoboCop.
The Colonial Marines meet DoorDash.
Clock in. Hunt. Survive. Get paid.
It's a living.
LANCER #1 interior art by JAKE BAKER & LEE LOUGHRIDGE
LANCER #1 interior art by Jake Baker & Lee Loughridge
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