ONE OF THE many really impressive guests we’ve hosted at ITHACON is Chris Condon. He’s a talented writer and an upbeat entrepreneur. He’s kind, personable and so good with fans!
It’s been amazing see him grow over the past few years. He’s been passionate about his creator-owned work. I used That Texas Blood for a reading assignment in one of my classes, and he spoke to the class after they read it!
Recently, his success with big properties, like Ultimate Wolverine and Green Arrow have been so much fun too.
He’s also working on a new project focusing on his creator-owned work, with his long-time collaborator Jacob Phillips. You may have seen the announcement at NYCC.
Here’s the description of Brutal Dark directly from Chris:
This book was one I started in high school, drawing it and writing it myself. Then, in college in California, I wrote it into a screenplay. Then, when Jake and I found ourselves with a book launch delayed by the pandemic, we tried to do it as a Patreon serial which we curtailed after only three short chapters. But then Chris Conroy from DC came calling when Jake and I said we wanted to do Indiana Jones on Twitter. Chris emailed me and said, “saw your tweet.” It turns out, he wanted us to do that – Indiana Jones – but at DC, creating our own version. Well, Jake and I already had the concept – we had the story, we art, we had examples of how chapters might look. It was a match made in heaven.
The book is pulpy noir, adventure, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. In other words, the best of all worlds.
This is the first chapter in what we hope will become an ongoing series of mysteries and adventures – what I describe as ‘hard-boiled adventures’ starring our hero, Ezra Cain. This first one is called “The Peril of the Brutal Dark.” I wrote it, Jake drew it, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou lettered it, and Matt Levine edited it. We are immensely proud of it. It’s out in February – February 25th, to be precise.
Our creative team is:
CHRIS CONDON – WRITER
JACOB PHILLIPS – ARTIST
HASSAN OTSMANE-ELHAOU – LETTERER
RIAN HUGHES – DESIGNER
MATTHEW LEVINE & CHRIS CONROY – EDITORS
DC Vertigo- PUBLISHERThe book will release on Wednesday, February 25th, 2026.
And how about those sneak pages? I love crime fiction and detective series, so, as you can imagine, I can’t wait to read the full first issue in February. And you know we’re going to have a bunch of copies on hand this spring at ITHACON for Chris to autograph!
