Farmhand #1
Written and Illustrated by Rob Guillory (Image Comics, 2018)
Synopsis
Jedidiah Jenkins is a farmer—but his cash crop isn’t corn or soy. Jed grows fast-healing, plug-and-play human organs. Lose a finger? Need a new liver? He’s got you covered. Unfortunately, strange produce isn’t the only thing Jed’s got buried. Deep in the soil of the Jenkins Family Farm, something dark has taken root, and it’s beginning to bloom. (via Image Comics)
Notes
When you collect comics published decades ago it’s ebay to point out key books that have monetary and/or historic value.
Evaluating modern books however can be tricky. It’s hard to know if a book published today will be a standout in the future.
Farmhand #1 by Eisner Award winning artist Rob Guillory has all the ingredients to be considered a modern Black Comic Key. I’ll walk you through them.
1. This book is written and drawn by a Black creator. Books by Black creative teams (Bitter Root, Excellence, Truth, Black) are highly sought after by Black Collectors.
2. Rob Guillory is an award winning creator whose first book Chew (written by John Layman) is one of Image Comics most successful series. (Chew #1, published in 2009 is extremely hard to come by today.) They followed up the success of the series with a board game that raised over $50,000 in pledges of a $6,969 goal on Kickstarter. All that to say, Guillory has a track record of creating content that succeeds in the direct market.
3. Farmhand and Chew are both in some type of TV development limbo. However, I’m confident Farmhand will make it to market eventually. Farmhand has all the story elements that made Walking Dead and LoveCraft Country such a huge hit.
As the streaming wars rage on, I wouldn’t be surprised if an announcement of a Farmhand series will cause this book to spike in value.
Farmhand is currently at issue 18 and Rob is delivering award winning content at this very moment. Don’t let the cartoonish style fool you – he’s executing humor, horror and current events seamlessly.
