Paper Girls artist Cliff Chiang returns to DC this fall for the four-part series Catwoman: Lonely City. This is the artist's first long-form comics work that he'll be writing himself, after several short stories.
Catwoman: Lonely City is a multi-century story following Selina Kyle before and after a massacre known as Fools' Night resulted in the deaths of Batman, Nightwing, Commissioner Gordon, and the Joker. Catwoman was framed for the crimes, and spent years in prison.
When she gets out, she is met with a very different Gotham City - one with Harvey Dent as mayor and an army of 'Batcops' at his beck and call. Changed by those deaths and the years of her life taken from her, Catwoman is back on the streets to clear her name and find the real murderers - and it all begins with a mysterious character known as 'Orpheus.'
DC has had another character named Orpheus - an early '00s DC comics vigilante who worked alongside the Bat-family in protecting Gotham. He was used by Batman to infiltrate Gotham street gangs, however, he was ultimately killed by the Black Mask. For a time, the Black Mask masqueraded as Orpheus to infiltrate the Bat-family.
Check out this four-page preview of Catwoman: Lonely City #1:
Having read an advance copy of Catwoman: Lonely City #1 and #2, creatively this is a culmination of his work leading up to this. Chiang is going full auteur without any bravado - an assured, confident, and transcendent comics experience.
Catwoman: Lonely City is part of DC's Black Label imprint, for mature titles intended for those aged 17 and up. This is somewhat of a full circle for Chiang, as he got his start as an editor of DC's previous mature readers imprint, Vertigo Comics, as an editor. Also, his memorable run on Wonder Woman with Brian Azzarello was originally planned to be a mature-readers title as part of Vertigo.
Chiang has a long history with the Bat-family, with a run on Detective Comics, the graphic novel Batman: The Golden Streets of Gotham, two issues of Nightwing, and the memorable 'Ladies' Night' story in The Brave and the Bold #33. Catwoman: Lonely City will be his second Catwoman project, after drawing the story 'Lifestyles of the Rich & Evil' for 2002's Catwoman: Secret Files & Origins.
Here are some of Chiang's model sheets for Catwoman: Lonely City:
Chiang will write, draw, color, and letter Catwoman: Lonely City, which will be published in DC's new Prestige Plus format.
Chiang has drawn the primary cover to Catwoman: Lonely City #1, as well as a variant. A second variant cover has been drawn by Jock. Check all three covers here:
Catwoman: Lonely City #1 (of 4) goes on sale on October 19.
Make sure you've read all the best Catwoman stories before you read Catwoman: Lonely City.
