Strange Girl (comics)

Strange Girl
	Cover of the first issue
Publication information
Publisher	Image Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Series
Publication date	June 2005 – October 2007
No. of issues	18
Main character(s)	Strange Girl
Creative team
Written by	Rick Remender
Artist(s)	Eric Nguyen

Last updated February 25, 2019

Strange Girl is a monthly comic series published by Image Comics. The author of the comic is Rick Remender, with art by Eric Nguyen.

Image Comics is an American comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-owned properties, in which comics creators could publish material of their own creation without giving up the copyrights to those properties, as is normally the case in the work for hire-dominated American comics industry, in which the legal author is a publisher, such as Marvel Comics or DC Comics, and the creator is an employee of that publisher. Image Comics was immediately successful, and remains one of the largest comic book publishers in North America. Its output was originally dominated by superhero and fantasy series from the studios of the founding Image partners, but now includes comics in many genres by numerous independent creators. Its best-known series include The Walking Dead, Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, The Darkness, Invincible, Saga, Chew, and Bone.

Rick Remender is an American comic book writer and artist who resides in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his work on Image Comics such as Deadly Class, Fear Agent, Black Science as well as Marvel Comics' Uncanny X-Force.

Plot

Bethany Black is the black sheep of her deeply religious family. While her mother, father, and brother sit down to study the Bible, she is off skating, smoking, and doing other things her family considers wicked. One day, while being chastised for her behavior, the rapture occurs. Her pious family, along with all of the other righteous humans, ascends to Heaven, while everyone else is left behind on Earth. God sends a message that he will now forsake Earth, and Satan and his demons rise from Hell to take over the planet. Ten years later, Bethany is working for the demon Lord Belial. She works for him in a bar and serves as a pet. She in turn has a pet demon named Bloato. Bloato is a "half-breed" demon, meaning that his mother and father are of two different species of demon. Earth has become Hell, with demons, giant insects, and fire reigning. Humans exist as slaves, used for labor and sex. In her years in Belial's servitude, Bethany has begun learning magic, and often uses protect spells to shield herself from the violent demons. One day, Bethany gets fed up and incurs Belial's wrath. While trying to escape her enraged master, Bloato tells her about the one remaining gate to Heaven, and that if Bethany can get to it, she may be able to sneak into Heaven. The gate is located in Vatican City.

The rapture is an eschatological concept of certain Christians, particularly within branches of North American evangelicalism, consisting of an end time event when all Christian believers who are alive will rise along with the resurrected dead believers into Heaven and join Christ. Some adherents believe this event is predicted and described in Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Bible, where he uses the Greek harpazo (ἁρπάζω), meaning to snatch away or seize. Though it has been used differently in the past, the term is now often used by certain believers to distinguish this particular event from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Earth mentioned in Second Thessalonians, Gospel of Matthew, First Corinthians, and Revelation, usually viewing it as preceding the Second Coming and followed by a thousand year millennial kingdom. Adherents of this perspective are sometimes referred to as premillenialist dispensationalists, but amongst them there are differing viewpoints about the exact timing of the event.

Characters

Bethany Black: The main character. Bethany was not taken into Heaven along with the rest of her family during the rapture. 10 years later, she is the servant of Belial, and she has learned magic. Her relationship with Bloato is strange; he seems to be her pet, but it is unknown how they came to be together. Bethany is sarcastic, but is also a good person. She became an atheist because she believed in logic as opposed to faith, a dilemma which she discusses with Bloato. Despite her strained relationship with her family, she misses them very much and wants to see them after reaching the gate.
Bloato: Bethany's half-breed "pet". His father was a Red demon and his mother a blue. He has a lot of contempt for Reds, seeing them as having no redeeming qualities (Blues at least have a sense of humor). He is vulgar and sarcastic, and often makes derogatory comments about humans, but he truly cares for Bethany.
Tim: Tim is Bethany's childhood neighbor. Right after the rapture, Bethany helped shelter Tim in her parents' fallout shelter. When a homeless man tried to attack the pair, Tim stabbed the man through the heart with a fire poker. When Belial's demons found them, they were ordered to kill Tim, but his actions with the bum won him their respect. Ten years later, he was still hanging around his and Bethany's houses when Bethany and Bloato found them. He told them about Dead Western, a refuge that might take the three of them in. When the trio was stopped by a group of insane hillbillies, he slaughtered them despite Bethany's request to merely tie them up.

Collections

The series has been collected into four trade paperbacks:

In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme, or an earlier mini-series.

Girl Afraid
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Paint a Vulgar Picture
Golden Lights

In January 2010, Image Comics released the Strange Girl Limited Edition Slipcase Collection, presenting the complete series in a single set of four softcover volumes boxed in an illustrated slipcase with a Strange Girl print illustrated by artist Michael Kaluta, and reportedly signed by series creator Rick Remender in all 1,000 copies of the edition.

A slipcase is a four or five-sided box, usually made of high-quality cardboard, into which binders, books or book sets are slipped for protection, leaving the spine exposed. Special editions of books are often slipcased. A few publishers, such as the Folio Society, publish all their books in slipcases.

In January 2012, the publisher released the Strange Girl Omnibus hardcover edition, presenting the complete series in a single oversized volume.

A hardcover or hardback book is one bound with rigid protective covers. It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk.

In September 2015, Image Comics released the Strange Girl Omnibus trade paperback edition, a standard sized reprint of the collection.

Related Research Articles

Spawn is a fictional character, a superhero/antihero that appears in a monthly comic book of the same name published by American company Image Comics. Created by Todd McFarlane, Tom DeFalco contributing. The character first appeared in Spawn #1. Spawn was ranked 60th on Wizard magazine's list of the Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time, 50th on Empire magazine's list of The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters, and 36th on IGN's 2011 Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.

John Constantine is a fictional antihero, appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and its alternative imprint Vertigo. The character first appeared in The Saga of Swamp Thing #37, and was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben, Jamie Delano and John Ridgway. He serves as the lead character of the comic books Hellblazer (1988–2013), Constantine (2013–2015), Constantine: The Hellblazer (2015–2016), and The Hellblazer (2016–2018).

The Books of Magic is the title of a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo. Since its original publication, the mini-series has also been published in a single-volume collection under the Vertigo imprint with an introduction by author Roger Zelazny. It tells the story of a young boy who has the potential to become the world's greatest magician.

Dormammu is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Strange Tales #126, and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Battle Pope is an independent comic book created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, which was published by their own small press company under the moniker of Funk-O-Tron originally in 2000. The series was reprinted in color by Image Comics in 2005, with plans to possibly continue it with new stories after collecting the original material.

"Infinite Crisis" is a 2005–2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, and a number of tie-in books. The main miniseries debuted in October 2005, and each issue was released with two variant covers: one by Pérez, and one by Jim Lee and Sandra Hope.

Lady Death is a fictional goddess appearing in American comic books published by Coffin Comics. Created by Brian Pulido, Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection miniseries published by Pulido under his now defunct company Chaos! Comics in 1994. The character was also the subject of a full-length animated feature film released in July 2004 by ADV Films.

Timothy Hunter is a fictional character, a comic book sorcerer published by DC Comics. He first appeared in The Books of Magic #1, and was created by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton.

<i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> comics Wikimedia list article

Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics refer to comic books based on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While many of these comics were published when the television show was on air they are not all considered canonical and often deal with characters who do not appear in the television series, most notably in the Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires mini-series.

Lady Demon is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Chaos! Comics. Her first appearance was in Lady Death: Between Heaven and Hell #3. Lady Demon is Lady Death's much darker and evolved form.

Witches is a supernatural comic book limited series that was published by Marvel Comics in 2004. Plotted by Bronwyn Carlton, with scripts by Brian Walsh, it featured art by Mike Deodato and Will Conrad.

Fear Agent was an American science fiction comic book series written by Rick Remender with art by Tony Moore and Jerome Opena, who alternated on story arcs. The series was published by Dark Horse Comics from 2007 to 2018 and by Image Comics from 2005-2006 and currently from 2018.

The End League is a fictional superhero team appearing in a self-titled bi-monthly comic book series by Dark Horse Comics, which began in January 2008.

Hell (DC Comics) fictional location in publications by DC Comics

Hell is a fictional location, an infernal Underworld utilized in titles published by DC Comics. It is the locational antithesis of the Silver City in Heaven. The DC Comics location known as Hell is based heavily on its depiction in Abrahamic mythology. Aside from a brief appearance in DC Special Series #8 (1978) that was never referred to or even mentioned again, the DC Comics concept of Hell was first mentioned in The Saga of the Swamp Thing #25-27 and was first seen in Swamp Thing Annual #2 (1985), all of which were written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Stephen Bissette and John Totleben.

Merlin (DC Comics) fictional character, a comic book magician published by DC Comics

Merlin is a fictional character, a comic book magician published by DC Comics. Myrddin debuted in New Comics #3,, and was created by Rafael Astarita. The character is based on the mythical wizard Merlin made popular by two of Geoffrey of Monmouth's early works, the Historia Regum Britanniae and the Vita Merlini.

Uncanny X-Force was a comic book ongoing series published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Rick Remender and artist Jerome Opeña, the first volume of the series continued the story of Wolverine and his X-Force team from the series X-Force, vol. 3. The title was relaunched after issue #35 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch event, and the new volume features Psylocke and Storm leading a new team of "outcasts and scoundrels". The second volume was one of two X-Force ongoing titles, along with Cable and X-Force.

Venom is the title of several American comic book series published by Marvel Comics focusing on the various heroic and villainous incarnations of the character Venom, which have usually consisted of a human host and amorphous alien being called a symbiote. The first incarnation of the character was the one created by the third and current human host to the symbiote, Eddie Brock, and—since 2011—its fifth host, Flash Thompson. Beginning with Venom: Lethal Protector, eighteen limited series following Brock's adventures were published monthly between February 1993 and January 1998. A monthly Venom series began publication in 2003, following a new character, Patricia Robertson, and a clone of the original symbiote. The series concluded in 2004 after 18 issues. In 2011 another monthly series, following the adventures of Flash Thompson, was launched. The series concluded in October 2013 with its forty-second issue.

Uncanny Avengers was an ongoing comic book series published by Marvel Comics that debuted in October 2012 with the launch of Marvel NOW!. The series centers on a superhero team composed of members of both the Avengers and X-Men that comes together following the conclusion of the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline. Within the Marvel Universe itself, the team is known as the Avengers Unity Squad.

Seven Mortal Sins, also known as Sin: The 7 Deadly Sins, is a Japanese anime television series produced by Artland and TNK that aired from April 14, 2017 to July 29, 2017. It is an adaptation of Hobby Japan's media franchise The 7 Deadly Sins, which primarily consists of a series of fantasy figures.

References

Strange Girl at the Comic Book DB

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.