CBR Brubaker Interview, Details on "Bad Night."

In promoting the publication of "The Dead and The Dying", Ed Brubaker conducted an interview with Comic Book Resources, published here on Wednesday. In the interview, Ed reveals the original plan for showing how Gnarly ended up at the Undertow, and he confirms that the parallels between Teeg and Tracy Lawless was intentional.

The interview focuses on the upcoming arc, "Bad Night." I misread the original solicitation and thought the story would be set a few years before "Lawless." Instead, it's set about a year after. In addition to putting the spotlight on Jacob, the story introduces the staff of an all-night diner -- the Blue Fly Diner, apparently -- and the story has elements that would fit in stories by David Goodis or by Jim Thompson. The issue's bonus material will feature an interview with Charles Ardai, editor of Hard Case Crime, the excellent imprint that focuses on old-school paperback noir, and this CBR interview includes six black-and-white preview pages of Criminal #4.

To follow "Bad Night," Ed already has other stories in the planning stages, and he suggests that, if Criminal ever draws to a close, the final and longest story arc may be the untold story that was alluded to in "Coward" and that casts a shadow on all who survived: what Ed simply alludes to as, "Leo’s screw up."