Copra, the critically acclaimed comic by Michel Fiffe, made headlines last year when it was announced that the series would move to Image Comics. After 31 self-published issues Copra relaunched with a new #1 at Image Comics in October 2019. The first issue sold well enough to merit a second printing, and the series came out in regular monthly installments until the Covid-19 pandemic halted new comics distribution and shuttered comic book shops around the country. As distribution resumed in the Spring, Copra #6 hit store shelves, a prelude to The Ochizon Saga, the storyline that Fiffe has been building towards since the very first issue of Copra in 2012.
But since May, fans have been left wondering when the next issue of Copra would come, and in what form? Would there be an issue #7 of volume 2 or would the book relaunch as a series of miniseries, akin to Mike Mignola‘s Hellboy? What was the status of Round Six, the collection of the first five issues of the Image series, which had been solicited but then removed from the publishing schedule?
This morning, many of those fans woke up to an email from Fiffe with answers to most of those questions. The email announced his return to self-publishing individual issues of Copra under his Copra Press label, as well as the comic’s return to its original numbering with the next issue, #38 (the Image series featured legacy numbering in Fiffe’s signature on each cover). The next two issues, #38 and #39, are currently available for pre-order in his Etsy shop. To the delight of many longtime Copra fans, the series will return to its original thick paper stock with its return to its original home and numbering.
This is not a complete break from Image Comics, however. Fiffe explained in his email that Image will still handle publication of the collected editions of Copra. When Round Six will see publication has yet to be announced at the time of this article’s publication.
