Red Before Black is a violent, hyper kinetic, women-led Florida crime thriller in the tradition of 2000s-era Vertigo from Grim’s superstar writer Stephanie Phillips, the acclaimed and beloved artist Goran Sudžuka (Hellblazer, Y: The Last Man), colourist Ive Svorcina (Thor: God of Thunder, Secret Wars), and letterer Tom Napolitano (Grim, Justice League). Coming to BOOM! Studios in August 2024.
A disgraced army veteran, Val, arrives in everyone’s favorite state: Florida. Her goal? Hunt down an infamous drug runner named Leo. But soon she finds that the pair have an unexpected enemy in common, turning the time-honored game of cat and mouse into something far more sinister!
“For me, Florida is like that relative that you make fun of but become defensive about the minute you hear someone else making fun of them. I grew up there…I’ve been chased by water moccasins, had to call someone about alligator removals, thrown more than one hurricane party, and dressed like a pirate for the annual invasion of Tampa’s bay,” said acclaimed writer Stephanie Phillips. “There is truly no better place I could think of to set Red Before Black–a weird crime story with an even weirder setting. Val and Leo might be our main characters, but Florida is ever present and Goran truly draws the s*** outta this curious place that will forever feel like home for me, no matter where I live.”
Red Before Black #1 features main cover art by Goran Sudžuka with Ive Svorcina and variants by Dave Johnson (100 Bullets), DANI (Catwoman), Cliff Chiang (Paper Girls), and Toni Fejzula (Rumble). Get a first look at each of the covers below:
BOOM! has also provided us with several preview pages from issue #1 which you can read below:
Stephanie Phillips is an American writer known for comics and graphic novels such as Harley Quinn, Spider-Gwen, Phoenix, and GRIM. Stephanie has worked with top publishers, such as Marvel, DC, Boom! Studios, Image, and more, and she also holds a PhD in rhetoric and composition.
Goran Sudžuka began working for DC Vertigo in 1999, co-creating Outlaw Nationwith writer Jamie Delano, for which he won the Russ Manning Award for the Most Promising Newcomer at the Eisner Awards of 2001. He stayed with Vertigo for ten years working on some of their flagship titles like Y: The Last Man and Hellblazer.Later on he worked on superhero comics, most notably on Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman and Charles Soule’s Daredevil. He moved on then to work with Garth Ennis on creator-owned books A Walk Through Hell and Marjorie Finnegan – Temporal Criminal.
Red Before Black #1 will be available in comic shops August 7, 2024. It is available for pre-order at your local comic shop. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including Kindle, iBooks, and Google Play.
