X-Men and Iron Man writer Gerry Duggan's new project is a samurai afterlife romance comic, amazingly

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Just as one of the primary architects of the last few years of Marvel’s X-Men is moving on to pastures new with upcoming comic book series The Power Fantasy, so is another — and Gerry Duggan’s new Image Comics series is a genre-busting new take on everything that makes life worth living: action, adventure, and romance.

Launching in June, Falling in Love on the Path to Hell sees Duggan team with artist Garry Brown for what the writer has called “your new favorite ongoing series… about two warriors that find themselves in purgatory.” The high concept is far more complicated (and, honestly, awesome) than that, however — and has its roots in real world history.

The publisher’s official description of the series goes a little something like this: “The sun set on samurai and gunslingers at roughly the same time, but our two leads didn’t die off quietly. In the East, Asami, an Onna-musha warrior and female samurai, would rather die with her weapons than surrender them to a sword hunt. In the West, the gunslinger MacRaith follows his revenge to the bitter end and pays the ultimate price. The future lovers are mortally wounded a world apart and awake together in a purgatory ruled by a ruthless society of damned warriors. This one has it all—action, the dead, the dying, the undead, and of course… romance.”

"We're inspired by samurai films, grindhouse, westerns, Tarantino, Lone Wolf & Cub and of course all our favorite weird, supernatural comic books. This romance is our love letter to creator-owned comics - it's a story we can only tell at Image Comics," Duggan told Popverse about the series. "Garry Brown leads the strongest team I've been a part of in comics. Issue one is the most beautiful and violent comic I've read. Each issue is more breathtaking than the last. Garry and Chris O'Halloran are a perfect duo, and our letters and designs courtesy of Joe Sabino and Elliott Gray are sublime. This is the first appearance of your new favorite characters. My goal is to have a big damn omnibus of Falling in Love on the Path to Hell on shelves in a few years. We're bringing big, beautiful, violent and crazy fun ideas to comic shops this summer. Thanks for supporting this new ongoing comic that we love. Never code-approved and not for the faint of heart."

"What Gerry said," added Brown.

The first issue of the series will be double-length — because who doesn’t love more story upfront? — and release June 5. That sure seems like a long time to wait, though, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be so much better if you could take a look at some of the lovely pages by Duggan, Brown, and color artist Chris O’Halloran right now? Along with the covers for the first issue? I think so too; click through the gallery below to see for yourself.

Falling in Love on the Path to Hell #1 goes on sale this June.

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