“Red before black, OK Jack. Red before yellow, kills a fellow.”
Lost people come from all walks and creeds, from civilian life to the military to the seedy world of the drug trade. And more often than we might imagine, those disparate threads of life cross and intertwine, sometimes to dangerous results. And as the variation of the old rhyme above about the venomous coral snake indicates, carelessness in those intersections can be deadly.
So we see in Stephanie Phillips and Goran Sudžuka’s Red Before Black, which debuted this fall from BOOM! Studios. Following Val, an army veteran with a checkered past, and Leo, the drug runner whose huge misstep has put her in Val’s crosshairs. When their lives intertwine, it’s a matter of the time that a fellow meets their end.
I spoke with Stephanie Phillips recently about the idea behind Red Before Black, working with artist Goran Sudžuka, the inspirations behind the series, and how Florida is as much a character as anyone in the book.
I love this book so dang much. Red Before Black hits every one of those gritty noir beats you want while never being predictable and rote. Phillips and the entire creative team know how to immerse readers in a world that’s dark and uncomfortable, but always commands your attention.
RED BEFORE BLACK #3 cover by Goran Sudžuka
FreakSugar: For folks who might be considering picking up the book, what is the conceit of Red Before Black?
Stephanie Phillips: The story is about two women with very different goals who come together for survival. Val is ex-military and gets mixed up with a former friend from her service years who is now heavily entrenched in a drug organization running out of Miami. Leo happens to be working for that organization, until she starts sampling the product and pissing off the higher-ups. They want her dead… or at least not anywhere they ever have to deal with her again, so they send Val to get rid of her.
What continues from there can only be described as weird, like the state of Florida itself. Because, along with being a pretty grounded crime story, this is my first real foray into writing magic realism – a serious look at crime, trauma, and friendship, with elements of the magical built into the very spine of the narrative.
FS: The cast descriptions are compelling from the get-go. What can you tell us about Val, Leo, and the rest of the cast?
SP: Val has a military background and has been recently released from prison. She’s been dealing with adjusting to civilian life and it hasn’t been a kind adjustment. Leo has her own past she’s running from and, despite being the more outgoing character, she’s also more mysterious and less forthcoming with who she really is.
Neither character is a woman you want to mess with, but they’re also so wildly different that it makes for a fun contrast. Val’s structured military training versus Leo doing everything to get by in the most creative (and often chaotic) ways possible.
FS: Can you talk about the inspiration for Red Before Black? Did the concept come fully formed to you? What stirred the idea?
SP: Leo was probably the first element of the story that was fully formed. I really wanted to write an R-rated woman in comics who can say and do what she wants. I’ve written a lot of licensed properties where there are constraints (darned attorneys!), so Leo is the kind of character that I wanted to really push, bend, and break in ways I’m not always able to. But, the majority of the story is really formulated by growing up in Florida. It’s an interesting place, for better or worse.
FS: The press release grabs you by the throat on the outset. What does writing something like Red Before Black afford you creatively that other projects might not?
SP: Every project is different, but this one has Goran Sudžuka. Does that answer the question? 😉
Like I also said above, I like having to ability to push characters in directions I might not otherwise be able to.
FS: You mention that you grew up in Florida. How much of that experience creeps into Red Before Black?
SP: All of it, really. The wildlife, the weird roadside attractions, the people. Florida is its own character in the book and I’m excited to show off some aspects of the state that I don’t think are common knowledge, starting with a rhyme about a snake. I’m terrified of snakes, so what better way to kick off a series than asking Goran to draw a page of snakes that I can barely look at without having an anxiety attack. I guess that means he draws a really good snake…!
FS: The preview art from Goran Sudžuka is so gritty and perfect. What has the collaboration with Goran been like?
SP: Perfect. Goran is an incredible collaborator. Beyond his clearly amazing abilities as an artist, he brings a really cool perspective to the book. He’s worked on some amazing titles, so I love hearing his ideas on storytelling and how we can make everything flow. And with Ive Svorcina’s colors, Tom Napolitano’s letters, and Dave Johnson’s variant covers… I just really don’t know how I ended up with a spot at the cool kids’ table.
FS: The press release hints that Val and Leo’s cat-and-mouse becomes something more sinister than anticipated. Can you hint at what that might mean?
SP: Without giving too much away, there’s more to the characters than what we are telling readers and what the characters are telling each other. People have secrets that are only going to further complicate the already complicated. But I will say that Red Before Black also deals with some pretty big themes beyond crime and sunshine. Val and Leo are haunted and hunted in both the past and present.
FS: What crime or noir books or movies do you find yourself returning to when you’re in the mood for that kind of fare?
SP: There are four movies that I would say really helped inspire Red Before Black: Bottle Rocket, Blood Simple, True Romance, and Thelma & Louise. May we watch them often and repeatedly.
FS: Following up on that, why do you think readers and viewers are drawn to stories of seedy underbellies and shady dealings?
SP: I’m sure there’s some psychology about being drawn to a world that’s so different from what we might consider a more “ordinary” lifestyle. If you work in an office and want to read about characters who are circumventing the law and living in ways that are so foreign to your own, that makes sense to me. But, hey, I’m just a comic book writer, not a doct– wait. Damnit. I am a doctor. Just not that kind.
FS: What are you reading right now?
SP: Every month I get I HEART SKULL-CRUSHER and it kills.
FS: Are there any other projects you’re working on at the moment that you’d like to talk about?
SP: I’ve got Spider-Gwen and Phoenix ongoings at Marvel and a new book at DSTLRY that I’m co-writing with Brian Azzarello and artist Danijel Žeželj called Life. It’s a flipbook with competing narratives. One half is a prison break and then you flip it and it’s a heist. The narratives interlock like a puzzle throughout.
FS: If you had one final pitch for the book, what would it be?
SP: Thelma & Louise meets Killing Eve and also Florida.
Red Before Black #3 goes on sale Wednesday, November 27, 2024, from BOOM! Studios.
From the official issue description:
A particularly pointed wound sends Val spiraling into another hallucinatory PTSD experience, but this one’s different. Her attacker is there.
It will take everything in Val’s mental arsenal to get back to reality and finish the job, but even more pressing-is this the last she’ll see of her attacker?