On 09 May 2011, Dark Horse Comics announced that issue #3 of their recently relaunched anthology series, Dark Horse Presents, will include an exclusive, thirteen-page preview of the new edition of Red Tide, written and illustrated by comics legend Jim Steranko.

From the publisher:

After emerging as Marvel Comics’ most controversial superstar, Jim Steranko (Captain America, X-Men, SHIELD, The Shadow, Superman, Heavy Metal) tackled his greatest artistic challenge: creating an entirely new medium, the visual novel – not an illustrated novel or novel-length comic book, but a seamless fusion of interdependent graphic and prose narratives forming a powerful and original new method of telling stories. An artistic tour-de-force, Red Tide is hard-boiled detective fiction in the bare-knuckle tradition of Hammett, Cain, and Chandler, as well as the dark, atmospheric milieu of film noir. Dark Horse is proud to reintroduce this landmark work, remastered with state-of-the-art digital colors by Eisner Award-winner Dave Stewart, in a collector’s quality hardcover edition.

Did Steranko really create “an entirely new medium” when he created Red Tide? Sorry. No. He did not. But don’t let publisher’s hype deter you from buying the book. Because no matter what the stage, the multi-talented Steranko seldom delivers anything less than an elegant, exuberant, intelligent performance.

Dark Horse Presents #3 is scheduled to arrive in stores on August 24, so I assume that Red Tide by Jim Steranko — the first edition of which was published in 1976 by Pyramid Books — will be available shortly thereafter. But don’t quote me on that. Chapters.indigo.ca and Amazon.ca both give a publication date of July 12, 2011. Quote them.