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Preview: Crowbound #1

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Crowbound #1

(W) Jeff Lemire (A) Dustin Nguyen

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road with echoes of Kill Bill and Pan’s Labyrinth when a noncompliant mother makes a dark pact with an ancient, violent Scarecrow Queen to stop a totalitarian government from taking her daughter.

Rose isn’t special. She works in the Factory just like everyone else — a dark, sprawling monolithic structure that runs along the coast and cuts the world in two. All that’s left now are desolate settlements that exist in its shadow, made up of submerged villages, derelict woods, and deadly swamps. No one knows what’s left of the world on the other side…

But when Rose’s young daughter Ava is violently taken from their shanty town home a year before she is meant to join the work force, Rose will come face-to-face with the surreal, harrowing forces outside the Factory’s walls — including a terrifying figure called the Scarecrow Queen, who has an offer: one last chance to save her daughter, in exchange for her soul.

Crowbound #1

Early Review: Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s Crowbound #1 has the Vibe of 80s Twisted Children’s Films

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Crowbound #1

Rose isn’t special. She works in the Factory just like everyone else — a dark, sprawling monolithic structure that runs along the coast and cuts the world in two. All that’s left now are desolate settlements that exist in its shadow, made up of submerged villages, derelict woods, and deadly swamps. No one knows what’s left of the world on the other side… But when Rose’s young daughter Ava is violently taken from their shanty town home a year before she is meant to join the work force, Rose will come face-to-face with the surreal, harrowing forces outside the Factory’s walls… Crowbound #1 is another fantastic debut from Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen that’d fit right into the traumatic children’s films of the 80s.

When it comes to creative teams in comics, Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen is one where if you see they’re working on a comic together, you buy it. The combination of the two always results in entertaining stories that feature amazing art. Someone needs to back up the truck of money and just lock them in to do whatever they want. Crowbound is a new series that features the creative duo, and you better believe I read the first issue as soon as I could.

Crowbound #1 is the kind of story and debut you’d expect. It teases the grand picture, focusing on an emotional hook of a mother whose daughter has been taken away by those that rule. Interspersed, the issue has a dreamlike aspect to it as Rose and Ava dream, picturing what might be and remembering what was. There’s a haunting feel of it all and the mix between Lemire’s narrative and Nguyen’s art the comic has a feel of the 80s “children’s” movies I grew up with and delivered fantasy and a dose of trauma.

And there’s absolutely trauma here. Violence against women is present and while it’s not over the top in its depiction, it still got me to wince. But, it’s all a set up for what seems like a fantasy revenge tale, where Rose rises up against her oppressive rules to get her daughter back.

Nguyen’s art is his distinctive style and with the narrative, it takes an almost melancholy feel about it. The visuals are interesting telling us so much about the world and the characters, but there’s also a sadness to it all as well. And that feeling extends to the lettering by Steve Wands. It feels like there’s a choice in the lettering to deliver a style that matches the struggling society depicted as well as work with the dreamlike sequences.

Crowbound #1 opens up a lot of questions and the first issue doesn’t give a lot of answers. What it does give is a very focused story with an emotional core many can relate to. It’s a story of a mother who fights to get back her daughter. It’s a story of a parent protecting their child. How that plays out will be the big question and with Lemire and Nguyen at the helm, it’s one I can’t wait to find out the answer to.

Crowbound #1 comes to shops September 2, 2026.

Story: Jeff Lemire Art: Dustin Nguyen Letterer: Steve Wands
Story: 8.5 Art: 10 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Get a First Look at Crowbound from Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

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The bestselling, award winning creative team behind such sales chart toppers as Descender, Ascender, and Little Monsters—Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen—will re-team with an all-new ongoing series in the upcoming Crowbound. This dark fantasy epic was first teased at NYCC last year, is set to launch this September from Image Comics.

Rose isn’t special. She works in the Factory just like everyone else—a dark, sprawling monolithic structure that runs along the coast and cuts the world in two. All that’s left now are desolate settlements that exist in its shadow, made up of submerged villages, derelict woods, and deadly swamps. No one knows what’s left of the world on the other side…

But when Rose’s young daughter Ava is violently taken from their shanty town home a year before she is meant to join the work force, Rose will come face-to-face with the surreal, harrowing forces outside the Factory’s walls.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road with echoes of Kill Bill and Pan’s Labyrinth when a noncompliant mother makes a dark pact with an ancient, violent Scarecrow Queen to stop a totalitarian government from taking her daughter.

Crowbound #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, September 2.

Crowbound #1
  • Cover A by Nguyen – UPC: 70985304586100111
  • Cover B by Jeffrey Alan Love – UPC: 70985304586100121
  • Cover C by Nguyen wraparound variant – UPC: 70985304586100131
  • Cover D Blank Sketch variant – UPC: 70985304586100141
  • Cover E virgin 1:25 copy incentive by Martin Simmonds – UPC: 70985304586100151
  • Cover F virgin 1:50 copy incentive by Peach Momoko – UPC: 70985304586100161
  • Cover G 1:100 copy incentive by Nguyen Signed CGC variant – UPC: 70985304586100171
  • Cover H 1:1000 copy incentive by Nguyen Original Sketch variant – UPC: 70985304586100181

NYCC 2025: Jeff Lemire Dustin Nguyen reunite for Crowbound at Image

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Crowbound

The bestselling, award winning creative team behind such sales chart toppers as Descender, Ascender, and Little Monsters—Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen—will re-team with an all-new ongoing series in the upcoming Crowbound. This dark fantasy epic was announced last night at New York Comic Con to a packed room of comic shop retailers at the Lunar Distribution retailer event. Crowbound is set to launch from Image Comics in March 2026.

At thirteen, every child begins their life inside The Factory—a vast, monolithic superstructure that cleaves the world in two—pulling levers, pushing buttons, and never knowing why. But Ava is a beautiful girl and the sinister Factory Men decide hers will be a fate of “special service” up the coast. Left reeling from their violent separation, her mother, Rose, embarks on a desperate rescue attempt when she strikes an uncertain bargain with the eerie, otherworldly Scarecrow Queen…

Fueled by fury, grief, and an undying love, Rose sets out on a nightmarish journey across the lowlands—a haunted, post-apocalyptic dreamscape crawling with strange creatures, forgotten gods, and the twisted remains of the old world—to find her daughter at any cost. 

Crowbound is a blood-soaked fairytale, steeped in Southern Gothic dread and Neo-Western grit, where one woman’s hope flickers fiercely against the encroaching shadows.