Tag Archives: noir is the new black

Joseph Illidge and Chriscross team for The Winterfields, a no-holds-barred crime noir story set during the historic Harlem Renaissance

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The Winterfields

Writer and editor Joseph P. Illidge and artist Chriscross are teaming up to craft a no-holds-barred crime noir story set during the historic Harlem Renaissance, titled The Winterfields. The two creators, both Milestone Comics veterans, will debut their new historical project with a short story that opens the Expanded Edition of the bestselling FairSquare Comics anthology Noir is the New Black, which goes on sale on January 31 at comic book shops and February 14 at bookstores, in celebration of Black History Month. The short story serves as a prelude to the upcoming full-length graphic novel The Winterfields to be published in 2025 by FairSquare Comics, under the company’s Noir is the New Black imprint.

1920s Harlem: a time of culture, art, and free enterprise. This is the backdrop for the saga of The Winterfields. Cain Winterfield is a former World War I soldier who returned home to a nation that discriminated against him, forcing him to fight once again to survive. Now he makes a living as a bodyguard, putting himself in harm’s way for whomever can pay his price. Taking punches and giving them back. Carver Winterfield is his 10-year-old son, a handsome boy with a good heart, bruised knuckles…and too many secrets for someone his age. When a client’s wife goes missing under Cain’s nose, her merciless husband wants answers, even if he has to get them through bloody violence. 

The six-page prelude short story about the Winterfields, which will also feature colors by artist Morby, will be highlighted as the opening tale in the new Extended Edition of Noir is the New Black. The sold-out bestselling anthology is coming back to print with even more additional material, also including the new short story “Systemic Rise,” by Victor Dandridge and Jean Paul Deshong, as well as additional pinups and behind-the-scenes content never seen before. The fan-favorite book will now feature 18 noir stories crafted by 47 of the finest Black creators from all around the world, such as Brandon Thomas, Gary Phillips, M.D. Bright, Melody Cooper, Brandon Easton, David F Walker, comedian Roxxy Haze, and many more, with a foreword by Shawn Martinbrough.

The Winterfields

Preview: Noir is the New Black Presents: Watson & Holmes Vol. 1

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Noir is the New Black Presents: Watson & Holmes Vol. 1

(W) Karl Bollers
(A) Rick Leonardi, Larry Stroman, Paul Mendoza
(CA) Khary Randolph and Walter Pereyra

Harlem, Now. A missing girl case brings together the most famous dynamic duo in the world for the first time!

Created by Brandon Perlow and Paul Mendoza, NOIR IS THE NEW BLACK: WATSON AND HOLMES, VOL. 1 reinvents the classic detective team from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a bold and diverse way. This reinterpretation features a mostly-black cast of characters in the neighborhood famously known as the beating heart of Black American culture for over a century.

Jon Watson is an Afghanistan war vet and works in an inner-city clinic. Sherlock Holmes is a local P.I. who takes unusual cases. Together, they race against the clock to find Trina, a missing girl tied to a web of drugs, guns, gangs and even a conspiracy!

Written by Eisner Award nominated author Karl Bollers (Marvel’s X-51, Muties, Emma Frost but also a respected editor at Valiant and Bad Idea) with art by legendary artists Rick Leonardi (X-Men, Spider-Man 2099,…) and Larry Stroman (X-Factor, Alien Legion), WATSON & HOLMES: Vol. 1 is a true gem of a graphic novel, and it comes with a brand new cover by superstar Khary Randolph (EXCELLENCE, Image Comics)!

First published by New Paradigm Studios, it won Glyph Comics Awards, was nominated at the prestigious Eisner Awards in 2014 and has been hard to find for a long time.

This new remastered edition brings the world of WATSON & HOLMES to a bigger worldwide audience through FairSquare Comics and the NOIR IS THE NEW BLACK label, distributed by Diamond Book Distributors. It comes with a brand new cover by superstar Khary Randolph (EXCELLENCE, Image Comics).

Launched in 2021 with the eponymous graphic novel anthology, NOIR IS THE NEW BLACK is now morphing into a full line of publications created by Black and African American talents. NOIR IS THE NEW BLACK PRESENTS: WATSON & HOLMES VOL. 1 is the first graphic novel in the collection and certainly not the last!

Noir is the New Black Presents: Watson & Holmes Vol. 1

Around the Tubes

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The History of Science Fiction

The weekend is almost here! What geeky things are you all doing? Sound off in the comments below. While you decide on that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.

JTA – New graphic novel tells the story of Malaysia’s lost Jewish community – This sounds really interesting.

The Beat – A Year of Free Comics: Close encounters of the weird kind in HELION – Free comics!

Review

AV Club – The History of Science Fiction
Atomic Junk Shop – Noir is the New Black
Laughing Place – Star Wars: Darth Vader #18

FairSquare Comics Inks Exclusive Distribution Deal with Diamond Book Distributors

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Diamond Book Distributors has announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with FairSquare Comics to exclusively distribute its products to the North American book market.

FairSquare Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 2019 by Fabrice Sapolsky, co-creator of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir and former Senior Editor at Humanoids. The company is driven to promote immigrants, minorities, and under-represented creators in the world of comics. This mission is emphasized in FairSquare’s company mantra, “comics for the rest of us.” FairSquare Comics utilizes a multilayered approach to their publishing, which provides a home for both company-owned and creator-owned content. FairSquare GREEN represents the core line and books, graphic novels, and comics fully owned by the company; FairSquare PURPLE represents books from other creators, which are fully creator-owned; and FairSquare BLUE represents magazines, merchandise, and other endeavors.

FairSquare Comics boasts an ever-growing library of works, with comic books and graphic novels ranging from action/adventure to mysteries, anthologies, and everything in between. A crime-comedy series, One-Hit Wonder focuses on a former child-star turned hitman for the Hollywood mafia. Noir is the New Black is a graphic novel anthology collecting sixteen noir stories written and drawn by black creators, featuring the voices of well-known black creators as well as a new generation of writers and artists. Intertwined, the first-ever Kung Fu Noir graphic novel, tells the tale of a hero, a protector of the Elements, from the perspective of an immigrant. LADY-BIRD tells the story of two young women, living 100+ years apart, and mysteriously connected. But their goal is the same: freeing themselves from patriarchy, abuse, and exploitation.

Noir is the New Black Delivers 100% Creator-Owned Black Noir Comic Stories

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Black Noir maybe the world’s best-kept secret in entertainment. A variation on the Noir fiction genre popularized by writers like Dashiell Hammett or Mikey Spillane. Except Black Noir blends this classic style with an African American point of view. A unique and powerful perspective brought to modern literature by authors such as Walter Mosley, Chester Himes or Paula L. Woods. In movies too, the Black Noir genre proved very popular, from the late 1960s to the 21st century. And while, many of these early movies, like Shaft, Sweet Sweetback’s Badassss Song (both,1971), Cool Breeze (1972) or any Pam Grier movie, were often part of the so-called “Blaxploitation wave”, the most recent efforts have put black moviemakers in charge of their own creations. Directors like John Singleton, Carl Franklin, F.Gary Gray and, of course, Spike Lee have explored the Black Noir genre in many interesting ways. 

While many comics and graphic novel have featured Black Noir stories through the years, never have these kind of stories been gathered in one place in such a powerful way. For the first time, some of the best creators in modern comics agreed to band together to produce the finest Black Noir stories ever: a collection of 13 short stories from the past, present, and future. Noir is the New Black will be a nexus, where reality and fiction collide.

The Noir is the New Black anthology is also an occasion to showcase new talents. The popular hashtag #DrawingWhileBlack, gave the world a glimpse of the amazing amount of Black creativity. And rather than waiting for other publishers to open doors, new publisher FairSquare Comics decided to make the first move. The next generation of talents as well as creators who’ve been around for a long time but were still undiscovered will take part in Noir is the New Black. A total of 25 writers, artists, color artists and letterers. Most of them Black Americans, but also a handful coming from France, Italy, and Canada.

Creators include Brandon Thomas (Excellence), Greg Burnham (Tuskegee Heirs), Sanford Greene (Bitter Root), Koi Turnbull (Fathom), Brandon Easton (Judge Dredd), Melody Cooper (OMNI), Christian Cooper (Starfleet Academy), Marcus Williams (Tuskegee Heirs), MD Marie (Vindication), Don Walker (Agent: Wild), Hannibal Tabu (Artifacts), Frank Yeiger (Sword of the Free), Greg A. Elysee (Is’Nana: The Were Spider), Regine Sawyer (Ice Witch), N.Steven Harris (Michael Cray), Sylvain Despretz (Storyboarder for Ridley Scott and Guillermo Del Toro — among others), Ray-Anthony Height (Miles Morales, Midnight Tiger), Afua Richardson (World of Wakanda), Dorphise Jean, Vlad Alexis, David Brame, Mel Milton, Teena Stone, Karen S. Darboe, Guile, and more.

The Noir is the New Black Kickstarter runs until August 21.