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Red Before Black #[nn]
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeRed Before Black #1 marks the debut of two entirely original creator-owned characters — disgraced army veteran Val and drug runner Leo — in a women-led Florida crime thriller that self-consciously revives the gritty, mature-reader sensibility of 2000s-era Vertigo at an independent publisher. Writer Stephanie Phillips brought a deeply personal creative investment to the project, drawing on her own Florida upbringing and themes of PTSD and guilt in ways that stand apart from her earlier superhero work for Marvel and DC. The series is notable for pairing Phillips with Goran Sudžuka, an artist whose career was forged on the actual Vertigo imprint (Y: The Last Man, Hellblazer), lending the book an authentic lineage to the tradition it invokes. Issue #1 sold out at the distributor level and went to a second printing within weeks of its August 2024 release, signaling immediate market and critical traction for an original, wholly creator-driven crime narrative.
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The series was announced on May 20, 2024, with BOOM! Studios positioning it as the next original title from Phillips following her successful Grim run with Flaviano. Phillips has stated in interviews that the project is her most personally rooted work — she grew up in Florida, and the book directly engages with PTSD and guilt rather than the larger-than-life superhero stories that make up most of her bibliography. The title itself derives from a folk rhyme about identifying venomous snakes, a piece of Florida vernacular that doubles as thematic shorthand for the series' moral ambiguities. The creative team also includes colorist Ive Svorcina (Thor: God of Thunder, Secret Wars) and letterer Tom Napolitano (Grim, Justice League), rounding out a roster with deep genre credentials.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Red Before Black #1 (of 6) went on sale August 7, 2024, from BOOM! Studios' main imprint.
- Written by Stephanie Phillips (Grim, Harley Quinn) with interior art by Goran Sudžuka (Y: The Last Man, Hellblazer), colors by Ive Svorcina, and letters by Tom Napolitano.
- Issue #1 is the first appearance of Val, a disgraced army veteran on a covert FBI assignment to hunt drug runner Leo in Florida.
- Issue #1 is the first appearance of Leo, the drug runner who becomes Val's unlikely ally against a shared enemy.
- Red Before Black #1 sold out at the distributor level; a second printing with new cover art by Tonči Zonjić was released September 4, 2024.
- Issue #1 featured a main cover by Sudžuka/Svorcina and variant covers by Dave Johnson, DANI, Cliff Chiang, and Toni Fejzula, plus a limited BOOM! Direct Reserve exclusive.
- Goran Sudžuka won the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the 2001 Eisner Awards for co-creating Outlaw Nation with Jamie Delano — making Red Before Black a reunion of sorts with the Vertigo DNA he helped define.
- The complete six-issue run (#1–6) was collected in a trade paperback (ISBN 9798892153676) published by BOOM! Studios / Penguin Random House, collating the full arc from Val and Leo's first meeting through their climactic final confrontation.
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