April 21, 2026 – Endings are hard, but noir endings are murder. Cartoonist and award-nominated animator, writer, and director Stephan Franck and his company Dark Planet Comics are finally cracking the case in PALOMINO Volume 6. The ambitious, Ringo Award-Nominated series chronicles the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs and throws readers into a pulse-pounding, decades-spanning mystery. The series deftly blends hard boiled noir and Western aesthetics to explore Los Angeles’ weird and forgotten history with an unforgettable cast of working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls.The saga’s stunning swan song is now live on Kickstarter.
From Spider-Man to the Smurfs to The Iron Giant, Stephan Franck has contributed to some of the most popular characters of all time, but writing and drawing PALOMINO is his passion project. “PALOMINO came from a very personal place,” explains Franck. “It combined my passion for LA noir with my love for the long-lost tradition of the California honky-tonks – a tradition that I’ve had a chance to be a part of myself as a musician, which feels like a lifetime ago – and it’s a love letter to the San Fernando Valley and the very texture of living here.”
A captivating neo-noir crime mystery, PALOMINO begins in 1981 Los Angeles, where readers meet EDDIE LANG, an old-school, hardboiled former Burbank PD detective juggling his 6-nights-a-week gig in the Palomino house band, his P.I. business, and his teenage daughter, Liz–who might even be more hardboiled than he is! Father and daughter share a killer sense of humor and an unbreakable bond, but tragedy looms large over their past. A brand new case that’s hitting a little too close to home upends their lives, sending them each down very dangerous paths. Ultimately, the unsolved mystery haunts LIz into adulthood. In 1995, she’s working as a reporter when a routine assignment opens old wounds and Liz embarks on one final odyssey, where every secret will be revealed and all scores settled. To survive the night, Liz must confront the ghosts of her past and, maybe – just maybe – emerge on the other side reborn and free.
“At first glance, PALOMINO may feel like a departure from my previous series – the vampire heist saga Silver – but the common thread, as in everything I do, is noir.” Franck adds, “Silver was a pulp noir adventure, and PALOMINO is a neo-noir crime mystery drama, but noir is noir. It’s about people who might be driven by an obsession or by an inconvenient sense of justice, and their inability to let things go, no matter the cost. Most importantly, both series are about family. Families by choice, or families by birth struggling to survive. It’s about that bond that, once given, can’t be taken back. It’s about resistance. Not. Letting. Things. Go.”
Here’s what folks are saying about PALOMINO:
“Stephan Franck (…) has quietly been building one of the most interesting catalogs in indie comics.”—BOING BOING
“Mulholland Drive, with a country twang.” —GAMES RADAR
“The Wild West lives on in an unexpected new form, with Stephan Franck’s new graphic novel series Palomino bringing cowboys and noir face to face in the least likely of settings: 1981 Los Angeles.”
—THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“A Fantastic Comic! Highly recommended!” –Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Black Hammer)
“Perfectly-timed, engaging and fully realized world–PALOMINO is nothing short of masterful.” —Tommy Lee Edwards (Gatchaman; Jupiter’s Legacy; Marvel 1985; Grendel, Kentucky)
“Stephan Franck has the unusual gift of being a great writer and an even better artist. When I read Palomino, I did it in one sitting and then went back to read it again, this time taking my time enjoying the simple graphic beauty of this amazing collection. It’s simply a thing of beauty.”
—Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn; Starfire; Painkiller Jane)
“PALOMINO continues in the best tradition of gripping crime comics… Anyone who happens to be a fan of mysteries with hard-boiled dialogue and historical significance shouldn’t miss PALOMINO.” —SCREENRANT
“With page one, Stephan Franck hooked me with his noir-styled use of line and shadow. As the story unfolded, I found myself transported to a seedy world full of jaded yet funny, colorful characters all out for something and willing to use violence to get it. Oh, and did I mention PALOMINO is set in L.A.? More please.” —Shawn Martinbrough, artist of Thief of Thieves, author of How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling
In addition to all six volumes of PALOMINO, Dark Planet Comics’ Kickstarter campaign will feature exclusive merchandise including t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and more. Fans can support PALOMINO on Kickstarter now.
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About the creator:
Stephan Franck is an Annie award-nominated animator/writer/director/ who most recently directed multiple episodes of MARVEL STUDIO’s “WHAT IF…?”. He was a supervising animator on the cult classic THE IRON GIANT, and contributed story to DESPICABLE ME. He co-created the animated TV series CORNEIL & BERNIE (Nicktoons – Hub Network), received an Annie Award nomination for Best Director In a TV Program for the featurette SMURFS: THE LEGEND OF SMURFY HOLLOW. Equally active in comics, Stephan founded the comic-book publishing company DARK PLANET COMICS, and his graphic novel debut SILVER earned a nomination for the prestigious Russ Manning Award at San Diego Comic Con’s Eisner Awards. SILVER was followed by its prequel ROSALYND, and Ringo Award-nominated L.A. crime series PALOMINO. A new hardcover edition of SILVER is currently published by Abrams ComicArts.
