Current “Black Bolt” writer Saladin Ahmed is teaming up with artist Sami Kivela and Boom! Studios on “Abbott,” a new original series coming in January 2018. The announcement was made at the Boom! Studios panel today, and the book is a supernatural crime noir series set in 1970’s Detroit, following an African-American tabloid journalist as she investigates a series of mysterious murders.
Artist Kivela’s most noted previous work is on “Beautiful Canvas” for Black Mask Studios, and writer Ahmed is a noted poet and novelist, with “Abbott” being his first creator-owned comics work. Regarding the concept of “Abbott,” Ahmed tells CBR that “Elena Abbott is the only black reporter at the Detroit Daily — and the city’s only hope against the things that kill in the dark”. He adds that “Abbott is a story about, well, a lot of things: monsters literal and metaphorical, journalism and race, Detroit and doomed love, sexism and dark sorcery.”
When asked about mixing crime noir with the book’s more supernatural elements, Ahmed states that “the best crime stories and the best horror stories alike ask questions about who the real monsters in our world are. Abbott is very much centered on that question”. There’s no word yet on whether “Abbott” will be a mini-series or an ongoing.
“Abbott” will be released from Boom! Studios in January 2018
