Editor's Desk 
Curt Pires and Jok unleash time-traveling monsters in ‘Creature Corps’
Curt Pires and Jok are getting back together for Creature Corps, a new monster-battling sci-fi series launching at Image Comics on December 2, 2026.
The 51 collaborators are reuniting for a story that mixes time travel, creature battles, and a decidedly darker spin on the idea of teenage monster trainers. The series kicks off with an oversized 60-page first issue priced at $4.99.
Welcome to the Creature Corps
Creature Corps takes place in a world where fantastical creatures fleeing a broken future begin slipping backward through time and arriving in the present. Rather than helping these chronological refugees, humanity quickly discovers there is money to be made by forcing them to fight.
The creatures become the foundation of a hugely profitable and ethically questionable battling league, with teenage “trainers” tasked with managing the displaced monsters.
Among the league’s greatest stars was Dusty Rockem, who became World Champion at just 14 years old. A devastating event eventually drove him away from the creature-battling business, and he has spent the years since living in the wilderness and trying to leave that part of his life behind.
His escape doesn’t last forever.
Years later, former colleagues track Dusty down with news that forces him to reconsider his self-imposed exile. His mother is critically ill and drowning in medical bills, leaving Dusty with little choice but to return to the world and the creatures he abandoned decades earlier.
For Pires, the series brings together several of his influences while giving him another opportunity to collaborate with Jok.
“I’m excited to be reunited with my dear collaborator Jok and my friends at Image Comics on my biggest launch yet,” Pires said.
The writer describes Creature Corps as “equal parts 16-bit gaming nostalgia, the dark deconstructionism of The Boys, and the time travel insanity of Back to the Future.”
“It’s a chaotic menagerie of comic book magic that feels uniquely its own,” Pires added. “Did I mention we’re doing a trading card game too? This is gonna be fun.”
Monsters across time
Jok, who previously worked with Pires on 51, teased a large-scale adventure that won’t remain confined to a single place or period.
“Since working with him on 51, I’ve loved Curt’s progressive, postmodern take on fiction. Creature Corps is no different,” Jok said. “This is going to be a continent-spanning, era-hopping sci-fi fantasy. Also: so many wildly creative monsters locked in battle.”
The premise gives the creative team plenty of room to play with monsters from across time while digging into the uglier side of an industry built around exploiting them.
And Creature Corps won’t be limited to comics. Pires also revealed that a trading card game is in development, although further details have yet to be announced.
Creature Corps #1 by Curt Pires and Jok launches December 2, 2026, from Image Comics with an oversized 60-page debut for $4.99.
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