Dark Horse has announced plans to publish the graphic novel Blacking Out next year. The SoCal crime story was written by Chip Mosher, one of the co-founders of DSTLRY, with artwork by Peter Krause, Giulia Brusco, Ed Dukeshire and Tom Muller.
The project began its life on Kickstarter and raised more than $40,000 back in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. I spoke with Mosher about it at the time, and he told me the project was inspired by the French bande dessinée format.
“Creators really take their time producing the work and it shows,” he said. “And these albums are just beautifully crafted, beautifully done, and I really just wanted to do something like that. I just really wanted to do something that just had absolutely no compromises.”
Here are the details on the story from Dark Horse:
A disgraced ex-cop, Conrad, seeks redemption by unraveling an unsolved murder during Southern California’s fire season. Conrad follows a lone clue—a discarded crucifix—to unravel the death of Karen Littleton, whose body was found amid a blaze that scorched 10,000 acres. The search leads him to clash with the victim’s father and prime suspect, Robert Littleton, as well as hostile former colleagues on the local police force. All the while, Conrad combats his consuming alcoholism and fading faculties.
Will his “questionable” methods net him a murderer, or will the grizzled detective be brought to his knees by heartbreak and addiction? Find out in this all-new edition of Blacking Out, a scorching crime noir comic set in a small town in the dry California desert.
Dark Horse will publish the hardcover graphic novel on April 24.