Vault Comics has revealed Dead Acre: Black Badge, a new ongoing weird western inspired by the USA Today bestselling and #1 Audible bestselling novel series Black Badge. The comic is written by Cullen Bunn, Jamie Castle, and Rhett C. Bruno, with art by Riley Brown, colors by Fares Maese, and letters by Andworld.
Bunn and Brown bring Bruno and Castle’s hit prose series to comics, adapting the first installment of the Black Badge saga.
In Dead Acre, life after death comes with a job. James Crowley died in a storm of gunfire and now exists in purgatory, bound to serve the White Throne to avoid damnation. He exists in a strange middle ground, neither alive nor fully dead, with little hope beyond completing his service and fading into nothing. As a Hand of God, Crowley is tasked with hunting demons that have slipped into the mortal world. His latest assignment takes him to a remote western town known as Dead Acre.
“Black Badge is at the heart of who I am as a person,” said Castle. “I live in Texas. I breathe the same air Crowley once breathed, proverbially speaking. To be able to give him a voice, and now a face through the comics, is like giving life to the undead bastard. Knowing so many old cowboys, and seeing that on the inside of their tough exterior, many of them have hearts of gold… that’s James Crowley. Hard life. Hard times. Never gives up. While Dead Acre reads a lot like a western, the fantasy is what really drives the story. Heaven. Hell. Good. Evil. It’s all there, and painted in drab shades of gray, unlike the comic which is absolutely freaking beautiful. Stemming from one of the best-selling weird western book series of all time, I honestly can’t wait until comic lovers like me around the world get to experience this story. It was a dream to write, and I pray many find it a dream to devour. It’s a love letter to Hex, to Dresden, to the Witcher, and every other bad ass loner you’ve ever read and loved. And to have Cullen and Riley and Fares all working on this? Saints and Elders, someone pinch me.”
“It’s very rare that an adaptation so perfectly captures the vision of an author,” added Bruno. “The Black Badge comic does that. Sitting down, getting to see it for the first time, it feels like Riley Brown pulled it straight from my imagination. The atmosphere, the character work, everything lands with a gritty western tone layered with dark fantasy. Jaime Castle and I have always believed everyone loves a western. Blending the outlaw myth with monster hunting energy and dark magic pushes that idea even further.”
Dead Acre: Black Badge #1 arrives in comic shops this July as the start of an ongoing series. The debut issue is available for preorder now and will feature variant covers by Tyler Kirkham, Nathan Gooden, Riley Brown, and additional artists to be announced.
Check out a preview below!
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