An Oscar-Nominated Gorilla Goes on the Run in Image's ‘Crimes Against Nature’
Image Comics revealed Crimes Against Nature, a “neo-noir buddy-crime” comedy from writer Eliot Rahal and artist Mattia Monaco, launching this September.
The story follows Doctor Kermit Groedan, a famous Hollywood animal trainer, and his only client and best friend, Amigo the Ape, the first gorilla ever nominated for an Academy Award. When the two are framed for a crime they didn't commit, they go on the run, and clearing their names means dragging each other's darkest secrets and hidden pasts into the open. The launch carries variant covers from Monaco along with Stipan Morian, Tyler Boss, and a Witchblade Team-Up variant by Gavin Smith.
"This story is about two desperate fathers, one at the end of his rope, with nothing left to lose, shooting their shot—and I'm not talking about the characters in our book," said Rahal. "I'm talking about Mattia and me. Honestly, working on this book has felt like him and me against the world, with help from the friends we've made along the way. It's a feeling I haven't had since I first started in comics. It feels like we're committing a crime together. Like we're doing something special. It's exciting. Special. And it's fitting for our first Image book. I'm just so grateful for Mattia. Every panel and page is lightning in a bottle. It's one of the greatest partnerships of my life. And I think all of that joy and trust spills out into our book about a guy and his gorilla."
"For me, this book is about coming home. Coming back to traditional art. After nearly six years of working digitally, this was the first project that brought me back to pen and ink and gave me a renewed sense of freedom and experimentation on every page," added Monaco. "It's also a return to where my comics career began. Eliot was the first writer I ever collaborated with in comics on Knock 'Em Dead. It feels like a lifetime ago, but I'll never forget the trust he put in me then—or now. At its heart, Crimes Against Nature is a story about the friendship between a man and a gorilla. It's a story about a friendship that survives against the odds. A friendship forged by fate and challenged by that same fate. In a strange way, it reminds me a lot of Eliot and me. We just haven't figured out yet which one of us is the gorilla. This book is funny, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and occasionally terrifying. Because no matter how emotional things get, there's still a six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room."
Crimes Against Nature #1 is on sale Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
