The fourth issue of Rook Exodus hit the stands on July 24, 2024, according to Image Comics. A week later, on the 31st of the same month, the fourth printing of the first issue hit the stands again after selling out multiple times. The latest project from Ghost Machine Comics takes place outside the Unnamed Universe but seems to have firmly ensconced itself in readers’ hearts.
Comic Creators Unite to Create Original Universe and Storyline
The making of Rook: Exodus brings together comic creators Jason Fabok, Geoff Johns, Rob Lee, and Brad Anderson, who delve into environmental issues and planetary settlements in Ghost Machine’s latest venture.
“We couldn’t be more excited and humbled by the news that Rook: Exodus #1 has sold out again and gone back to print for a fourth printing. We are excited because our creation is getting out into more and more hands and readers are getting a chance to meet these new characters and explore the world we have created,” said Fabok in a July 5, 2024, Image Comics press release.
What makes Rook’s journey so popular with readers?
“Rook is totally different… Rook is a sci-fi, sprawling sci-fi nature versus technology story about this guy that’s reconciling his own self in life in this big world,” Johns told IGN in a February 1, 2024, interview.
Well-Developed Characters with Understandable Motivations
Rook: Exodus revolves around three central characters – Rook, Dire Wolf, and Swine. The three met when in training to become Wardens on the new planet of Exodus, a machine-created paradise world. Rook, a former Earth farmer, yearns to enjoy agrarian life on Exodus, while his best friend Swine, once a pig farmer, simply wants to maintain his drift of wild boars and pigs. Dire Wolf, a behavioral ecologist, and Rook became close when they first met. Now, she and Rook don’t see eye to eye about what to do about the failed world engine and surviving after the corporation deserted them.
The close cast of characters and failed technology offer a bleak setting for this dystopian science fiction graphic novel series. Although they reside in a different universe than Geiger, Junkyard Joe, and Redcoat, their story remains as richly told and lavishly illustrated as those in The Unnamed Universe.
Rook: Exodus Begins a Series Saga
According to the Image Comics Reddit, Ghost Machine will publish Rook as a series of series. That makes Rook: Exodus, expected to comprise eight issues this year, the opening book, coming to readers chapter by chapter, or rather, issue by issue. Neither the publisher nor the Rook authors have revealed how many issues Rook will run or on how many planets it will take place.
If the title of the first series in the series offers any hint, the story of Rook will span more than Exodus. The creators clarified that Rook’s story takes place in its own universe in the IGN interview. At present, we only know about the planet Exodus, but by the end of July 2024, readers will know more.
