Francesco Francavilla is one of our favorite artists here at Multiversity. Whether he’s drawing dynamite interiors to Detective Comics and/or Black Panther, offering up dynamite variant covers to various Mignolaverse covers or simply just drawing awesome post-Doctor Who images, Francavilla’s pulp sensibilities and artistic visions jive with our own for a most pleasing outcome.
Now its time for Francavilla to step up to the plate, as it were, and use all of his favorite pulp/noir toys with his own creation — the Black Beetle. Set to premiere in Dark Horse Presents #11, Francavilla has crafted a 24-page story to be spread out between three issues of DHP starring his character. The Black Beetle had previously appeared in comic that Francavilla had put online (such as “Kara Bocek”), but the story in Dark Horse Presents will be the first “official” time Black Beetle has starred in his own print comic (outside of an ashcan Francavilla did some odd years ago).
Either way, Dark Horse keeps adding more and more reasons to read their anthology title. With a Hellboy story in the next issue, a Lobster Johnson story in the following, the prelude to the Massive after that and now Francavilla’s Black Beetle in the eleventh, there has seemingly never been a better time to be a fan of anthologies. Be sure to keep your eye on Dark Horse Presents come April of next year and, if we’re lucky, even more after that.
Check behind the cut for the official press release from Dark Horse Comics.
Dark Horse Press Release
Adding an exciting new layer to Dark Horse Presents, Dark Horse Comics is proud to announce a new three-part story by New York Times best-selling artist for Batman, and current Captain America artist, Francesco Francavilla: The Black Beetle!
The Black Beetle is centered on a pulp-noir character and takes place in a fictional universe that’s based in Colt City. Francavilla published several stories online and even put out an ashcan. When the ashcan sold out, Francesco quickly realized that many fans were interested in exploring this world with him. It was only a matter of time before Dark Horse approached him about bringing some Black Beetle tales to Dark Horse Presents!
“I’m working on a 24-page story, titled ‘Night Shift’ that will be spread over three issues of Dark Horse Presents. I am hugely influenced by pulp stories of the ‘30s and ‘40s, and wanted to develop a series that used that influence as a jumping-off point to explore some modern storytelling with fun twists. I think this will be a great introduction to readers who are new to this character and universe, but will also be an exciting new adventure for those who’ve been reading the online stories over the years,” Francesco states.
“As a huge fan of pulp and noir, working on my own characters and stories really gives me free reign to explore this world and create lots of fun scenarios and thrilling situations. The stories are definitely full of mystery and intrigue, plus I get to give The Black Beetle lots of cool and funky gadgets. ‘Night Shift’ promises to be full of action, excitement, danger, and double-crosses, so I am overjoyed to see this new tale in print, and hope this is the first of many more to come in Dark Horse Presents.”
For more on Francesco Francavilla’s art, check out his official website, www.francescofrancavilla.com, and his pulp blog, http://pulpsunday.blogspot.com.
Dark Horse Presents #11 is on sale April 18th, 2012!
About Dark Horse Comics
Since 1986, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent like Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Gerard Way, Will Eisner, and best-selling prose author Janet Evanovich, Dark Horse has developed such successful characters as the Mask, Timecop, and the Occultist. Additionally, its highly successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan the Barbarian, Mass Effect, Serenity, and Domo. Today, Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic-book publisher in the United States and is recognized as both an innovator in the cause of creator rights and the comics industry’s leading publisher of licensed material.
