Judd Winick and artist Pablo Raimondi are teaming up for a new miniseries called Red Hood: The Lost Days -- "a six-issue mini-series revealing the untold story of the man behind the Red Hood. It’s the tale of an angry young man’s transformation into a deadly villain," according to DC's The Source blog.

“I’m thrilled to return to this character, and it’s both a joy and challenge to tackle this new story," Winick said. "LOST DAYS tracks the time from the Red Hood’s rebirth to his return to Gotham. In it, we get to understand this anti-hero in a new way. I think it explains both how he’s sympathetic, and an unrepentant monster. He’s a wonderfully complex character, and I hope this adds some even greater depth to his mythology.”

And here's today's "Why didn't they start doing this sooner?" moment -- the release of the comic will coincide with the release of the Under the Red Hood DVD, DC's next entry in their animated movie series. Typically when a big blockbuster film hits theaters, comic companies release a barrage of comic tie-ins to maybe pull in new readers. I can't remember DC doing anything like that, at least this overtly, with any of their previous animated DVD releases, but maybe I'm forgetting something. Many of the DVDs, of course, have been based on existing stories, like New Frontiers and the Death of Superman, so there's always the opportunity to sell from the backlist, but actually creating a tie-in comic seems like something worth trying as well.

Update: Someone in our comments section points out that there was, indeed, a New Frontiers special that came out back in 2008 when the animated DVD hit that I, obviously, didn't remember.