New 'witch noir' comic 'Black Magick' casts a spell – exclusive first look

Updated July 03, 2015 at 04:59 PM EDT

Credit: Nicola Scott

Back in 2009, a two-word phrase popped into the head of comics writer Greg Rucka (Whiteout, Gotham Central) that proved inspirational: witch noir. “I dropped $200 on every book on witchcraft I could find,” he says. The result is Black Magick, due this October, about a homicide-and-robbery detective named Rowan Black who also happens to be a witch. “She has professional colleagues and then she’s got her other-life colleagues,” says Rucka, who is working with artist Nicola Scott on the Image Comics title. “There is a crime which plays out in the first issue and leads to an ongoing investigation that brings Ro’s two worlds into direct conflict.”

You can check out an exclusive first look at the (nudity- and expletive-featuring) Black Magick, below.