Dark Horse Comics has revealed The Big Shakedown, a somewhat post-apocalyptic, four-part series written by Jordan Blum and Tim Seeley, with art by Scott Koblish, colors by Hi-Fi, and lettering by Nate Piekos. The book imagines a noir tale set in Los Angeles five years after “the Big One” finally struck the city, and the government decides not to rebuild it, letting it become a no man’s land.
The full synopsis elaborates, “Ester Blanco, a down-on-her-luck former PI, is willing to do anything to escape the City of Angels. She believes she’s found her ticket out when a desperate father hires her to solve a missing persons case in a city where a third of the population is already missing. Instead, the trail of this lost girl leads Ester to uncover a dark web of cults, conspiracy, and corruption that threatens every Angeleno who stayed behind.”
Blum states, “I’ve now lived in Los Angeles for most of my adult life and The Big Shakedown is a pulpy love/hate letter to a town that can simultaneously be heaven and hell on Earth. LA noir has a long, rich history and we wanted to do a unique and original spin on the detective thriller, so we set it in the aftermath of every Angeleno’s greatest fear… THE BIG ONE.”
The writer previously worked with Seeley at Dark Horse on the 2023 Minor Threats spin-off The Alternates, and Koblish on last year’s crossover Archie vs. Minor Threats. Koblish adds, “I’ve been in Los Angeles for half of my life now, and I never tire of exploring its unique spaces, so it’s a joy to be able to put that to paper. Tim Seeley and Jordan Blum are terrific collaborators and are doing absolutely amazing things in the world of comics. Hi-Fi and Nate Piekos have been a dream to work with, I couldn’t ask for a better group of collaborators.”
Issue #1 will be released on September 16. In the meantime, the fifth and final issue of Blum, Patton Oswalt, and Scott Hepburn‘s Minor Threats: The Last Devil Left Alive will be released on July 29.
