The ‘Ms. Marvel’ star teams up with Marianna Ignazzi and Jordie Bellaire for an original five-issue neo-noir road-trip mystery

This Aug 5, Iman Vellani, known for her role as Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel in the MCU, is gonna have her solo comics writing debut with ‘Chachu’. Illustrated by Marianna Ignazzi and colored by Jordie Bellaire, this five-part neo-noir road-trip mystery will be released from Image Comics and Tiny Onion.

Set in 1979, we get Leila, a 19-year-old Pakistani-Canadian who loves film and pulp novels, traveling to California to reconnect with her estranged uncle, a semi-retired private eye once celebrated for having married the starlet he was originally hired to find. When that wife vanishes, the uncle and niece duo find themselves on an unplanned road trip investigation, pushing Leila into adulthood into a reckoning with family secrets and the myths built around their lives.

Iman said, “I’ve always been deeply curious about comics as an art form because of their capacity to hold contradiction – arguably better than any other medium. That became especially meaningful to me while writing Chachu, which grew out of this tension between mourning my youth while I still have it, and an incessant urge to come of age already.”

Speaking of Marianna Ignazzi, her prior credits include: Exquisite Corpses, Self Help, Batman, Catwoman, etc., while Jordie Bellaire’s include: Absolute Wonder Woman, W0rldtr33, Vampirella/Red Sonja, etc. 

 Marianna said, “From the very first reading of Iman’s script, I could already picture this 70s world revealing itself through reflections in sunglasses and rearview mirrors, slowly emerging through cigarette smoke and neon lights,”

She also said, “I tried to capture Leila and Chachu’s journey through strong blacks and a graphic style that could still feel emotional and deeply narrative. Seeing my pages come to life through Jordie’s colors has been wonderful – she brought an incredible atmosphere, warmth, and cinematic depth to every scene.”

“It’s been an immense privilege to build my first original series alongside such an accomplished roster of collaborators, all of whom challenged and supported me in ways that made this book far better than anything I could’ve imagined on my own or in therapy,” Iman added.

Co-published with Tiny Onion, a production house founded by James Tynion IV, whose credits include: Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth, Batman, The Nice House on the Lake, W0rldtr33, Exquisite Corpses, and more.

Inspired by her own coming-of-age experiences in the entertainment industry, Iman’s debut solo comic’s first issue will be available at comic book stores and will have five cover variants, including incentive editions by Matías Bergara, Jacob Phillips, and Christian Ward. It will also be available digitally through Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.

Chachu #1 releases on Aug 5, 2026.

^{Pic Credits: IC/TO}