Late last week word started to spread that writer Tom King and artist Greg Smallwood were teaming for a new DC Black Label Human Target series. Now DC Comics has confirmed the pairing and the title, officially announcing that Human Target will be a twelve-issue series debuting in November. No letterer was named in the announcement of the series, which will find Christopher Chance, the titular Human Target, at odds with the superhero community after being tasked with protecting Lex Luthor.
Here’s how DC describes Human Target:
Christopher Chance has made a living out of being a human target—a man hired to disguise himself as his client to invite would-be assassins to attempt his murder. He’s had a remarkable career until his latest case protecting Lex Luthor when things go sideways. An assassination attempt Chance didn’t see coming leaves him vulnerable and left trying to solve his own murder…as he has 12 days to discover just who in the DCU hated Luthor enough to want him dead. The DC Universe meets gritty detective noir in this DC BLACK LABEL series by two of comics most celebrated talents!
Human Target is the latest DC Black Label title from writer Tom King, who has three others — Strange Adventures with Mitch Gerads and Doc Shaner, Batman/Catwoman with Clay Mann and Tomeu Morey, and Rorschach with Jorge Fornés and Dave Stewart, all lettered by Clayton Cowles — running right now. It’s likely, though he’s not named, that Cowles will letter Human Target as well, which is the first collaboration between King and Greg Smallwood, and the first interior DC Comics work for the artist, who has previously worked on Moon Knight and The Punisher for Marvel Comics.
In a long thread on Twitter, Smallwood broke down his process for the striking cover to the first issue of the new series, including a look at the art used to pitch the series:
On the left is the art I did to accompany Tom's pitch for the book. A few months later, I revisited the piece and worked up something closer to the tone and style of my interior art. pic.twitter.com/ul3yyFdLvh
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) July 12, 2021
Tom King-written murder mysteries have been known to leave bad tastes in some readers’ mouths, but if there’s a character King’s sensibilities feel well-suited for it’s the Human Target, and like a vast majority of King-written books it’s sure to look absolutely gorgeous. Check out some additional preview art by Smallwood, as well as a variant cover by Trevor Hairsine and Danny Miki, below. Human Target #1 (of 12) is set to arrive in stores on Tuesday, November 2nd.