Image Comics is launching Creature Corps, a new ongoing series from writer Curt Pires (Lost Fantasy, Fireborn) and artist Jok (The Body Trade, 51), with lettering by Micah Myers. Issue #1 streets Wednesday, December 2, 2026. Final Order Cutoff is November 9, 2026 — do not swap those dates. Comics Beat’s exclusive covers package and an Image PR reprint at First Comics News both put the book on that December street.
Cover A is a 60-page, $4.99 first issue. The story follows Dusty Gotem — lock that spelling; it is not “Rockem” — a former teenage champion trainer in an unethical creature-battling league that uses time-displaced animals and young handlers for profit. After leaving the trade in disgust, Gotem is pulled back when a personal crisis and old colleagues force him to face the chronological refugees he abandoned.
Pires frames the book as equal parts 16-bit gaming nostalgia, the dark deconstruction of The Boys, and the time-travel chaos of Back to the Future. Jok calls it a continent-spanning, era-hopping sci-fi fantasy packed with monsters in battle. Pires also says they are doing a trading card game — that is a creator statement that a TCG is part of the project, not a claim that a standalone TCG SKU streets with #1 on December 2.
Separate from Cover A’s $4.99 book: Cover B is the Jok Booster Bundle at $6.99. It includes a polybagged secret cover plus one of five random TCG cards, with a chance at a rare full-art holofoil. Do not price the booster bundle as the $4.99 edition.
Beat lists 14 variant covers in addition to Jok’s main cover (names such as Tyler Kirkham appear in the exclusive set). This post does not lock a series designer credit where Beat and First Comics News disagree, does not invent a “15 covers” total as a hard count, and does not confuse Jok with Jock or this series with Creature Commandos.
Primary write-up: Comics Beat’s Creature Corps exclusive preview. Supporting Image PR reprint: First Comics News. For related live Image-imprint coverage on RCG News, see Ghost Machine’s fall 2026 Rook, Geiger, and Hyde Street dates.
What this story is not claiming: Dusty Rockem; December 2 as FOC; the booster bundle priced at $4.99; a standalone TCG product dated December 2; a locked designer between Starkell and Rosales; “15 covers” as official math; Jok equal to Jock; or any tie to Creature Commandos.
