The Black Beetle: No Way Out

Way back in January I was excited because Dark Horse had solicited a Dark Horse Presents with a story staring Francesco Francavilla’s character The Black Beetle. Not content with sharing a book with anyone, the Black Beetle is getting his own mini-series in January. The series is called No Way Out and will run four issues. There is also a zero issue that will collect all of the Black Beetle Dark Horse Presents issues.

If you’re not familiar with the Black Beetle he is a pulp hero that watches over Colt City. Expect two fisted justice, crazy villains, and lots of bullets. Black Beetle was created on Francesco’s Pulp Sunday blog and was eventually moved over to his own blog. Both of these sites are great places to go if you are still unsure about picking up the Black Beetle comic. If you look far enough back you can even see Francesco’s first teases of the Black Beetle as he worked on the concept.

No Way Out isn’t on the shelves right now, but it is available for pre-order. If you have a local comic shop, please tell them to pre-order the comic for you. Black Beetle isn’t another generic character spun out of some spandex filled mega-event. He is a creator owned character in a genre that we don’t see enough of. Every pre-order is going help show Dark Horse that we want to see more of the Black Beetle; that we want to see more original ideas and characters. If the current reboots at DC and Marvel have you disillusioned with comics, please pre-order the Black Beetle and give it a try.

Dark Horse April Solicits

I don’t normally talk about a company’s solicits. I guess it would be easy. I could stretch it into a couple posts if I did a separate one for each of the big companies. Normally that doesn’t feel right to me though. I generally want to talk a little more about things then, “hey this is coming out.” I’m very excited to talk about one of Dark Horse’s April releases, but as I looked over the other solicits I wanted to talk about them also.

Here is the big one. Dark Horse Presents #11 is the debut of Francesco Francavilla’s Black Beetle. Black Beetle is a character that Francesco created on his own blog, Pulp Sunday. Since this seems to be a big year for the Black Beetle Francesco has also created a blog specifically for the Black Beetle. Trust me; this is a book you’re going to want to read. Besides being one of the nicest people on the planet Francesco is such an amazing storyteller. This is very big stuff and we will be talking about it more in the future.

There is also a Criminal Macabre one shot out in April. We love Steve Niles at That F’ing Monkey and we especially love his pill popping detective. Anything Cal McDonald is an instant buy for me. I’m pointing this one out because of that amazing Fiona Staples cover. I love it.

The last thing I feel like I need to mention is that the Mass Effect line is starting a series of single issue stories. The first is starring James Vega. This is the strangest choice ever. The internet is already pretty much against this douche-y looking new character. The bonus is that the writer of each comic will be the person who wrote the character in game. I look forward to seeing who else gets a one-shot.