Jeff Lemire Writes and "Draws" Special Black Issue of Bloodshot Salvation

Years ago, John Byrne earned a special footnote in comic book history for Alpha Flight #6, in which Snowbird fought a Native American snow entity in the midst of a blizzard. 

Infamously, the resulting fight was five of pages of white with only sound effects to punctuate the emptiness.

Byrne was paid the full page amount.

Now the Byrne baton passes to Jeff Lemire, who between previous experimental issues in series like Trillium and Sweet Tooth, is no stranger to pushing the proscribed boundaries of comic book storytelling.

Byrne gave us the "white issue." Could Lemire be delivering comics' very first "black issue"?

Announced today at Paste Magazine, Lemire will write and "draw" Valiant's Bloodshot Salvation #7, a special issue "told entirely in pitch-black darkness."

Part of the upcoming "Book of the Dead" story arc, the issue will see Bloodshot blinded as he roams the Deadside dimension in search of a cure for his ailing daughter. The issue will then chronicle the unseeing Bloodshot's battles with demons and "inhuman entities that crave only death, suffering, and slaughter" from his own firsthand point of view — as depicted by black pages with white panel borders supplied by Lemire.

Valiant has supplied a preview here for context:

Move over, GI Joe #21 and Hawkeye #11… because, in 2018, it looks like Jeff Lemire is gunning for a shot at comics' unofficial Single Issue Hall of Fame.

Bloodshot Salvation #7 goes on sale March 7th with covers by Lemire, Raul Allen, Renato Guedes, David Lafuente, and Valiant co-founder Bob Layton.

(Shouldn't be too hard to get this one out on time, should it?)