Profane #[nn]

History

The series was announced in March 2024 and positioned as a reunion of Peter Milligan — the longest-running writer of Hellblazer and a key figure in the 1990s British Invasion wave of sophisticated adult comics — with a new creative partner, artist Raül Fernandez, who had previously worked primarily as an inker at Marvel and DC before making his full-penciling debut on a Phantom Stranger story in DC's Terrors Through Time. Milligan described the collaboration as driven by a search for the right visual temperament for his noir-existential sensibility, and Fernandez expressed that working with Milligan on wholly original characters was an unexpected career milestone. The complete creative team of Milligan (writer), Fernandez (artist), Giada Marchisio (colorist), and Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) remained consistent across all five issues, which shipped monthly from June through October 2024.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Will Profane, an original BOOM! Studios character: a Los Angeles private detective with a supernatural 'scrying' ability that lets him read the hidden history of worn objects.
• Written by Peter Milligan (Hellblazer, X-Statix, Shade the Changing Man) with interior art by Raül Fernandez, colors by Giada Marchisio, and lettering by Jeff Eckleberry.
• Profane #1 (Cover A) features a main cover by Javier Rodriguez; retailer incentive variants were drawn by Marguerite Sauvage (1:25) and Mike Deodato Jr. (1:10 and unlockable), with Jão Canola providing colors on the Deodato covers.
• The series ran for exactly five issues, published monthly: Profane #1 (June 5, 2024), #2 (July 2024), #3 (August 2024), #4 (September 11, 2024), and #5 (October 16, 2024).
• Copies of Profane #1 were documented to carry a production printing defect — ink smears on the cover — noted by at least one major comics retailer database.
• The central antagonist introduced across the series is a figure called 'The Red Glove,' whose goal is to force Profane into an 'authorless destiny' — a concept that drives the series' metafictional plot engine.
• Raül Fernandez's first solo published work as a full penciler was a Phantom Stranger story for DC's Terrors Through Time, written by Paul Levitz; Profane represents his first creator-owned original series.
• BOOM! Studios' own promotional copy classified the series as a 'noir meta-thriller,' placing it within a sub-genre that includes comparisons to BANG! and Newburn, though critical reviews argued Milligan's approach is more emotionally grounded than purely self-referential.