Country Music and L.A. Crime Collide in Stephan Franck’s Graphic Novel Series PALOMINO
Acclaimed cartoonist and award-nominated animator, writer, and director Stephan Franck has worked with some of the most popular characters of all time—including Spider-Man and the Smurfs — and has contributed to classic contemporary animation projects, including Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, The Iron Giant, and Marvel Studios’ What If…? as head of animation and director. This spring, the LA-based creator is returning to a passion project: writing and drawing the graphic novel series Palomino, a neo-noir graphic novel series set in the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs. Franck and his company, Dark Planet Comics, are returning to Kickstarter to crowdfund volumes 2 and 3 of the planned 4-volume graphic novel series. The prelaunch page for Palomino Volumes 2 and 3 is now live on Kickstarter.
“Palomino follows the neo-noir, slice-of-life adventures of a man on thin ice,” said Franck. “Eddie Lang is a former Burbank PD detective, who’s a private investigator by day and a working musician by night. In the new volumes, Eddie dives deeper into the murder case of a former TV actress and quickly finds himself uncovering too many deadly truths. Meanwhile, his old-soul teenage daughter Lisette just might be even more hard-boiled than her father. Lisette’s frustrated by her father’s refusal to reopen her mother’s cold case and she decides to begin her own investigation. What could possibly go wrong?”
Set in Los Angeles in the year 1981, Palomino is perfect for fans of mysteries, hard boiled dialogue, music, lived-in slice-of-life, and Los Angeles’ weird and forgotten history. The American Century is running on fumes, but the end isn’t anywhere in sight. The cowboy is still America’s most central symbol—and from movies, to music, to the President himself, it all hails from Southern California. Across LA, six nights a week, working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls all play their part in the cultural myth making. Most of them are just trying to survive—on the B-side of the City of Angels. This is Palomino — where Farrah Fawcett hair reigns supreme, where Ronald Reagan is beginning his first term as President, and where LA’s hottest music spot is North Hollywood’s historic Palomino Club.
Back in 2020, nearly 700 Kickstarter backers supported Palomino on Kickstarter. To support the project, head to Kickstarter. For updates, follow Stephan Franck on Twitter and follow Dark Planet Comics on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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