Harvest: A Dark Crop

Who gets to live? Who has to die? In the underworld of illegal organ harvesting depicted in the new Image Comics/Shadowline miniseries HARVEST, money answers that question — and Dr. Ben Dane is determined to change that. But as writer A.J. Lieberman and artist Colin Lorimer will show in the August 1^st release of HARVEST's first of five issues, Dr. Ben's motives aren't entirely pure.

Lieberman (COWBOY NINJA VIKING, TERM LIFE) and Lorimer (Dark Horse Presents) delve into the dark trade with the story of a drug-addicted ex-surgeon with a bent take on how to right past wrongs. Framed for murder by Jason Craven, his former boss in the harvesting trade, Dr. Ben decides to exact revenge by making house calls on his former "patients" to take back the organs — and the years of life — their money bought them. Helping Ben are Mariko, a Yakuza enforcer, and a six-year-old boy named Noah.

"I'm not really spoiling anything in saying that Noah is really the personification of Ben's subconscious," said Lieberman in a May 29^th interview at Comic Book Resources. "But both characters help keep Ben alive as he stumbles around trying to do something in this world that is larger than himself, something meaningful. And trust me when I say this, most of the time Ben f―s it all up."

Lorimer provides visuals for the HARVEST with heavy black shadows, gritty environments, and plenty of dark atmosphere.

"The story always dictates the style," said Lorimer in the CBR interview. "It's quite a dark tale so I tried to keep it quite muted in tone and in places dirtied up the art to give it a little added texture."

HARVEST is a five-issue full-color miniseries, debuting on August 1^st. Its first issue is available for pre-order now from the June issue of Previews (JUN120439.)

© C Harris Lynn, 2012