Kid Maroon: Christopher Cantwell and Victor Santos launch a metafictional detective novel at Vault Comics

Prepare to embark on a metafictional mystery in Brown Childa new Vault Comics series from writer Christopher Cantwell (Stop and catch fire, Iron Man, Doctor Fatalis), the artist Victor Santos (Polar, Violent love), colorist Mattia Iacono (Venom for kids, The Lucky Dead), letterer Andworld Design (The Many Deaths of Laila Starr), and designed by Adam Cahoon (The bad guy). Billed as a revival of a forgotten 1940s comic strip created by a cartoonist named Pep Shepard, the series sees a young small-town detective move beyond his harmless local mysteries and head into the city, where crime is more common and serious.

As presented by Vault in its press release, “the daily Brown Child The comic focused on a tough young detective who investigates gruesome crimes in his hometown of “Crimeville.” The series quickly attracted significant controversy, as the stories drew on Shepard’s nihilistic outlook, penchant for violence, and obsession with bathtub laudanum. The backlash against the series, coupled with the rise of the Comics Code, led to the comic’s cancellation after only 216 episodes. This led to Shepard’s complete disenchantment with the comic book medium, and he went on to bury all of his original work in what appears to be a field in South Dakota, location unknown. Despite all this, Brown Child became a massive cult hit that has inspired underground and independent comics ever since.

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Kid Maroon #1 Cover

-Victor Santos, Vault Comics)

In the press release, Cantwell says, “I wanted to write a Brown Child I’ve been in the same boat for years. Because Kid Maroon is like me. It’s funny because I remember being a kid and how impatient I was to grow up. Every day I feel like I grew up too fast. I often wish I could go back. Kid faces the same struggle in our book. Sure, his world is filled with gangsters and pulp killers, but he’s very much a kid. That was always the undercurrent of the original book. Brown Child “The Pep Shepard comics. Sure, Pep sometimes had Kid railing against characters like Captain Pinko and writing diatribes against the sales tax, but at their best, these stories were always about a boy caught between two worlds, his innocence always fragile, at risk of being shattered. That’s the heart of our book through and through.”

Santos adds, “I have to admit that I didn’t know the Kid Maroon character existed, but once I started investigating, it was love at first sight. This wild boy was a compact version of The Spirit, Dick Tracy, and who knows how many other pre-Code pulp heroes. But at the same time, he was everything I wanted to be when I was a kid, sneaking into my uncle’s room to read those detective comics that were supposed to be too violent for a kid to read. I couldn’t wait to take this awesome character and take him on new adventures.”

The double length Brown Child Issue #1 will be released in November. Here’s the full synopsis of the issue, along with a five-page preview:

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Kid Maroon preview page

– Vault Comics)(Photo:

Kid Maroon preview page

– Vault Comics)(Photo:

Kid Maroon preview page

– Vault Comics)(Photo:

Kid Maroon preview page

– Vault Comics)(Photo:

Kid Maroon preview page

– Vault Comics)

“Back in print for the first time in over 75 years in a stunning #1 double-length issue…the world’s only tough-minded detective – KID MAROON. From Christopher Cantwell (Iron Man, Doctor Doom, The Blue Flame, Halt and Catch Fire) and Victor Santos (Polar, Violent Love)!

Two years ago, Walden Maroon outgrew his small town, his loving parents, and the low-stakes mysteries of missing butterflies and stolen cookies. Since then, he’s been living in the sewerage of Crimeville, where murder, vice, and corruption are the town’s bread and butter. But at 12, Kid is weary. When a series of gruesome murders and arsons hit the streets, can he solve the case with his quick wits and slingshot? Or does Kid Maroon secretly yearn for what he never could be…a kid?