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Crocodile Black #[nn]
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCrocodile Black #1 marks the first appearance of Danny, the series' morally fractured protagonist, and of the alter-ego identity 'Crocodile Black' — a new noir antihero built around pandemic-era alienation, obsessive reinvention, and psychological horror rather than the superhero archetypes that dominate modern comics. The series represents a notable creative pivot for Phillip Kennedy Johnson, his first wholly original BOOM! Studios series in roughly five years after high-profile work-for-hire runs on Superman and Incredible Hulk, demonstrating that his voice extends well beyond corporate IP. By rooting its villain-protagonist origin squarely in the COVID-19 pandemic — treating that collective trauma as a generative force for crime fiction — the book stakes out territory that few contemporaneous ongoing series attempted, placing it in the company of literary crime comics in the tradition of Ed Brubaker's Kill or Be Killed rather than the cape-and-cowl mainstream.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The series was announced in February 2024, with Johnson publicly describing its conceptual seed as his fascination with how the pandemic caused many people to abandon familiar paths and pursue things they had previously feared — a psychological observation he channeled into the question of whether that same freedom could turn someone toward crime. Johnson specifically sought out Mumbai-based artist Somnath Pal (also credited as SOM), a Superani animator whose background in animation, VFX, and film was his primary medium before Crocodile Black marked his debut in international comics; Johnson described him as 'a visionary' whose talent for rendering the grotesque intruding on the mundane was uniquely suited to the story's hallucinatory noir tone. The full creative team also included colorist Patricio Delpeche and letterer Becca Carey. Issue #1 sold out at the distributor level before its May 8, 2024 on-sale date, prompting BOOM! Studios to issue a second printing — this time with cover art by Somnath Pal himself rather than the original Andrea Sorrentino cover — which shipped in October 2024 alongside the series finale.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Danny, the series' lead character, and the debut of the 'Crocodile Black' criminal persona — a pandemic-era noir antihero — in Crocodile Black #1 (May 8, 2024, BOOM! Studios).
- Written by Eisner-nominated writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Superman: Action Comics, Incredible Hulk, Alien) and illustrated by Somnath Pal / SOM (Brigands), with colors by Patricio Delpeche and letters by Becca Carey.
- Crocodile Black #1 served as Somnath Pal's debut in international comics; his primary professional background before this series was in animation, VFX, and film at the Mumbai-based studio Superani.
- The series is a 5-issue limited run, with issues released May through October 2024; the complete story was collected in a trade paperback (128 pages, rated Mature) released February 19, 2025.
- Issue #1 sold out at the distributor level, triggering a second printing that shipped in October 2024 with new cover art by interior artist Somnath Pal, replacing the original Andrea Sorrentino cover.
- The main cover of #1 was painted by Andrea Sorrentino (Gideon Falls); the original first-print variant was by Christian Ward (Invisible Kingdom), with additional convention and retailer exclusive variants by artists including Martin Simmonds, Kael Ngu, and Ingrid Gala across the series' run.
- The story is explicitly set during the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and was described by Johnson as exploring how societal disruption during that period could function as both liberator and corruptor for a young man with untreated mental health struggles including OCD and hallucinations.
- The collected edition was distributed through Simon & Schuster, reflecting BOOM! Studios' broader book-market distribution relationship.
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