Residents of California have worried and speculated about “the big one” — the cataclysmic earthquake that will doom the Golden State — for decades now. In a new comic book series that blends film noir with science fiction, it’s already come and gone. Today, Collider is proud to present an exclusive look at The Big Shakedown, a new four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.

The series opens five years after a mega-quake left Los Angeles in ruins, with most of the population having either perished or fled. But there are a handful of stragglers who either won’t or can’t leave. One of them is private detective Ester Blanco, a onetime private eye who’s desperate to depart for greener pastures. She may have found her ticket out of the City of Angels when a desperate father hires her to find his missing daughter. But how is Ester going to find a missing person in a city where a third of the population is already missing? That question brings her into contact with a sinister underworld of cults and conspiracies that threaten to destroy what’s left of the City of Angels.

The series is penned by Jordan Blum and Tim Seeley, with art by Scott Koblish; it will be colored by Hi-Fi and lettered by Nate Piekos. Says co-writer Blum, “LA noir has a long, rich history and we wanted to do a unique and original spin on the detective thriller, so we set it in the aftermath of every Angeleno’s greatest fear… THE BIG ONE.” The Big Shakedown #1 will hit comic shops on September 16: you can pre-order your copy now.

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jordan Blum wrote episodes of American Dad! and Community, and showran the stop-motion Hulu series M.O.D.O.K. In the comics realm, he, Patton Oswalt, and Scott Hepburn co-created the series Minor Threats, which depicts the quest of a group of low-level costumed criminals to kill their city’s deadliest super-menace; it’s set to be adapted by Netflix. Tim Seeley co-created the comic series Hack/Slash and Revival; the latter was recently adapted for TV by SyFy. He currently writes X-Force for Marvel. Scott Koblish has penciled and inked dozens of titles for Marvel and DC; his cover for ***Deadpool ***#27 holds a Guinness World Record for Most Characters Depicted on a Single Comic Book Cover.

Hi-Fi is a coloring studio founded by Brian Miller and Kristy Miller; they’ve colored books for almost every publisher in comics. Nate Piekos is a twenty-year veteran of the comic book industry and penned The Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering. Founded in Oregon in 1986, Dark Horse Comics is one of the longest-running independent publishers in comics. Their most notable publications include Usagi Yojimbo, Sin City, 300, Hellboy, and The Umbrella Academy.

The Big Shakedown #1 will be available in comic shops on September 16. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.