Ain't No Grave #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAin't No Grave #1 marks the third full creative collaboration between writer Skottie Young and artist Jorge Corona at Image Comics — following Middlewest and The Me You Love In The Dark — and stands as the most genre-ambitious entry in that partnership, fusing Old West gunfighter mythology with dark fantasy and supernatural horror in a single unified narrative. The issue introduces Ryder, a retired outlaw-turned-mother whose central dramatic engine — a mortal confrontation with Death itself — places her squarely in the tradition of grief-driven, mythologically-charged female protagonists that Young had been building toward across his Image output. As a double-sized, ad-free debut that sold out at the distributor level on its release day and required three printings within roughly ten weeks, it demonstrated that mature, creator-owned Western/fantasy hybrids could generate immediate, sustained reader demand in the direct market. The series also deepened the case, alongside its predecessor The Me You Love In The Dark, that Young and Corona's collaboration had become one of the more consistent critical and commercial forces in Image's 2020s lineup.
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The series was formally announced by Image Comics on February 6, 2024, with Young describing on his Substack that the story grew from a desire to explore the experience of someone who had lived a destructive life and was transformed by the love of a family — themes he had not yet approached from an adult perspective after several works centered on childhood. The full creative team reunited from their prior books: Corona on interior art, colorist Jean-François Beaulieu, and letterer Nate Piekos. Corona noted in the announcement press release that the project drew on his favorite elements from Middlewest and The Me You Love In The Dark and merged them into a dark fantasy Western, calling it a natural continuation of what the team had been building together. Young had initially planned not to draw variant covers for the series due to competing commitments, but reversed that decision after the first issue's enthusiastic reception prompted him to contribute 1:25 retailer-incentive covers for subsequent issues.
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- Published May 8, 2024 by Image Comics; written by Skottie Young, art and cover by Jorge Corona, colors by Jean-François Beaulieu, letters by Nate Piekos.
- First appearance of Ryder, a reformed outlaw and mother who takes up arms again to confront Death after learning her life will be taken from her.
- Double-sized premiere issue: 40 pages of story with no advertisements, in a 48-page physical package, rated M for Mature.
- The third Young/Corona collaboration at Image, following Eisner Award–nominated Middlewest and Bram Stoker Award–nominated The Me You Love In The Dark.
- Issue #1 sold out at the distributor level on its release day, prompting a second printing (June 2024) and a third printing (July 17, 2024); the third printing features a black-and-white version of the original cover art.
- The second printing cover used Corona's original, unused first-pass design for the cover — an alternate composition that had been set aside during production.
- A five-issue limited series, collected in a trade paperback (Ain't No Grave TP, Vol. 1) released December 4, 2024.
- Multiple retailer-exclusive variant covers were produced for the first issue, including a gold foil variant (Nirvana Comics), a Stephanie Hans virgin variant (The Comic Corner), and a Morgan Beem variant (Hall of Justice Comics), among others.
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