It's been a few months since we heard anything about Chrononauts, Image Comics' forthcoming time travel adventure series from Sean Gordon Murphy and Mark Millar. The pair gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly last November in which they described the series as a buddy time travel comedy, where mankind's exploration of time yields amusingly disastrous results. Since then both creators have had other work land on ComicsAlliance's Best Comics of 2014 -- the startlingly epic The Wake for Murphy, and the return-to-form Starlight for Millar -- so it's quite happily that we received these very appealing first glimpses at the pair's auspicious inaugural collaboration.

Image Comics provided more on Chrononauts in the press release that accompanied these new pages:

 

In CHRONONAUTS, Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly are two buddies who love to have fun. They’re also scientific geniuses. When their research leads them to a time-traveling adventure, will they use their knowledge for the good of all mankind? Or use the space-time continuum for their own ends? CHRONONAUTS is the story of man’s first, televised steps through the time-stream and and everything going wrong in the process.

 

As it's an unlettered preview, Gordon and colorist Matt Hollingsworth obviously take the spotlight here, delivering the same kind of humanity and awe that readers came to associate with their work on The Wake. I'm particularly struck by how mundane (for lack of a better word -- Murphy's mundane is still rad to look at) the office scene looks, and the drama that hits you when you get to the page with the fighter jet.

That's a vehicle we've seen in countless images across all sorts of media, but one of Murphy's trademarks is making machines beautiful. See not just The Wake, with its underwater habitats and post-apocalyptic watercraft, but also the Batmobile action in his contribution to the recent volume of Batman: Black And White.

What's really new here for Murphy fans is the tone, which the artist remarked upon in his EW interview:

 

When Mark first sent me the pitch, I remember showing it to my wife. She looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God—this book is so you!’ I rarely get to work on a script with comedy, so this entire project has been a real treat,” Murphy says. “For the sci-fi designs, I created the suits to be a bit retro—like F1 racing suits from the 1960s. It’s a bit more fun and whimsical, and fits the tone of the characters better.

 

Chrononauts #1 goes on sale March 18 with variant covers by Matteo Scalera, Declan Shalvey, Dan Panosian, Fiona Staples and Ryan Ottley.

 

Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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Chrononauts #1 Preview
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