On sale this week from Image Comics is Orc Stain #7, the first new issue of the lavishly illustrated James Stokoe fantasy series since April of 2011. Set against a variously beautiful and bizarre landscape covered in blood, guts and other filth, Orc Stain is the story of One-Eye, a clever young orc with the talent to unlock or open any safe or door or pretty much anything that's hollow. He's pursued relentlessly by the mad orc king, who sees One-Eye as the literal key to a prize he cannot obtain alone. In the latest issue, One-Eye and his bros make a move to avoid the Orctzar only to find themselves facing an entire army of another foe.

As with every issue of this CA favorite from way back, all that time between the last issue went straight into the artwork, which is superlative in every respect. You can see for yourself in the glorious nine-page preview below.

In his appropriately effusive review of Orc Stain #1, CA contributor David Brothers wrote, "Orc Stain's palette is interesting. If I had to put a word, or words, on it, I'd say that the palette is... sickly and visceral, like a half-healed wound. It's evocative of guts and organs -- no, not organs. It's evocative of guts and hearts. The purples, reds, and blues on the rocks in this spread remind me of a beating heart, and the dominance of the purple and blue puts me in mind of a heart that's straining to beat."

You can read the entire Orc Stain #1 for free at ComicsAlliance, and the new issue #7 is on sale now in finer comics shops and digitally from comiXology.