NEW: Guide to Ghost Machine by Geoff Johns

Today I’m back with another new indie guide for Patrons of CK! It’s a guide for an Image Imprint that has created non-stop chatter over the past year, including a constant hum on my Pull List streams. You might be surprised that I devoted a whole guide to it, since I’m historically not a fan of its main author! But, like every guide on the site, this one was borne from me having a question about the comics that no one else on the internet answered to my satisfaction. That’s why I now have my second guide to a creator-centric imprint with my Guide to Ghost Machine – an Image Comics imprint helmed by Geoff Johns!

Guide to Geoff Johns’ Ghost Machine

This guide is available exclusively to Patrons and will be available to the public later this year with the release of the First Ghost (2025) series and an end-of-year wave of collections.

Anyone who has followed me across various videos and message boards in addition to this blog knows I have no great love for Geoff Johns as a scripter. I enjoy him occasionally, especially during DC’s New 52, but often I just don’t vibe with his plot and character choices.

Then why am I making a guide for his Image Comics imprint, launched in 2024 to gather together a pair of existing mini-series and launch a new line of ongoing titles by Johns, Peter Tomasi, letterer Rob Leigh, and their artistic collaborators?

Two words: Shared Multiverse.

Geoff Johns initially launched his primary Ghost Machine story universe with artist Gary Frank on two mini-series – Geiger (2021) #1-6 and Junkyard Joe (2021) #1-6.

Both series existed in the same timeline, but at very different points. Junkyard Joe (2021) began in 1972 with a flashback, but the modern scenes were in 2023. Then, Geiger (2021) began in 2023 with a reference to characters in Junkyard Joe, and then continued to a present day in 2050.

With the launch of the Ghost Machine imprint in 2024 with Ghost Machine (2024) #1, Johns christened this shared story universe “The Unnamed.” These were all tales of American legends – larger-than-life characters like Johnny Appleseed whose myths never grew large enough for folk tales and songs. He retroactively added “The Blizzard” with Andrea Mutti (serialized in Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology (2022) #1-12), announced a new ongoing Geiger (2024) series, and added new series – Redcoat (2024) with Bryan Hitch. Plus, he hinted at another future title – First Ghost by Brad Meltzer.

The peculiar thing about all of these “Unnamed” titles is that almost all of their present day stories existed at different times – and I couldn’t find another guide that explained that clearly! Redcoat (2024) is set in the late 1800s, Junkyard Joe (2021) spanned from 1972 to close to the present day, First Ghost seems like it will be set “the day after tomorrow” in our very near future, and then Geiger (2024) exists in the future.

But, the titles have repeatedly hinted that these Unnamed will be a team together at some point. Will that just be in the future – since various Geiger issues have confirmed two of those Unnamed will still be alive in 2050? Ah, but another title hinted that they might also do some time-traveling together.

And that’s just one story continuity. The Ghost Machine (2024) #1 one-shot also introduced us to a separate sci-fi story in Rook: Exodus (2024) with artist Jason Fabok, a horror universe in Hyde Street (2024) with Ivan Reis, and a separate line of “Family Odyssey” books from Peter Tomasi.

That means we have four total story universes – or maybe five, since it’s not clear if both of Tomasi’s books are in the same story continuity as each other.

But wait… there’s more! Tomasi’s The Rocketfellers (2024) features a time-traveling family who escapes the 25th Century to live in our present day. In the second issue, their time-refugee hunting antagonist scans all timelines for them, and we see her have a canonical vision of all of the Ghost Machine properties!!! (except for “The Blizzard”)

Top Row: Rook: Exodus, Tomasi’s Hornsby & Halo. 2nd Row: Redcoat, First Ghost. 3rd Row: Geiger, Hyde Street’s Devour. Bottom Row: Junkyard Joe, Hyde Street.

Suddenly, things are a lot more interesting. Because, if this antagonist can so easily scan across all of the timelines in this shared multiverse, doesn’t that imply that she might be able to travel back to them as well? And doesn’t that also imply that they may have all started from a single inflection point an then branched from each other?

And isn’t it interesting that she saw this in a time travel book and “The Unnamed” has heavily implied that its team of American legends may time travel at some point?!

As I searched the web for more information after reading The Rocketfellers (2024) #2, I realized no one else was talking about Ghost Machine this way! Any existing guides to it were just lists of issues and collections without addressing the timeline of The Unnamed or the separation (and potential intersection) of the story universes (maybe because they are only reading the Johns books and not the Tomasi books 🤔).

That’s why I sat down and crafted this Ghost Machine Guide. I am obsessed with shared universes and if there is any Big Two refugee who has the imaginative power and sheer scope of storytelling to establish that at Image, it is Geoff Johns. I’m still not in love with his writing, but I’ve got my eye on his Ghost Machine titles to see where he is headed in the longer term.

This guide works a little differently than typical Crushing Comics guide. It has two Tables of Contents to follow Giant Generator’s series – one arranged by story universe, the other alphabetical by title.

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