Hardcore

Alec Stevens’s Hardcore is a single-issue, black-and-white DC comic from 1989 that delivers a stark, unflinching look at urban violence and moral decay. Through its grim, expressionistic art and sparse, hard-boiled narrative, the issue follows a nameless protagonist navigating a brutal cityscape, reflecting the era’s fascination with raw, independent-style storytelling within a mainstream publisher. Though brief, it stands as a stark artifact of late-80s comics experimentation.