A Preview, An Interview, and More.

Big news yesterday -- a preview for Incognito: Bad Influences. Featuring four final pages of interior art, the preview is available at Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, and Comics Alliance. This first issue is currently scheduled to reach stores on October 20th.

Fans looking for more should bookmark Sean Phillips' blog, where he has recently posted the sketch and final artwork for the latest pulp essay by Jess Nevins, to be included in the back of the first issue.

December solicitations for the major publishers have recently been released, and Marvel's solicitations lack any reference to Incognito; the strong implication is that we'll see at most three issues of the pulp mini-series in 2010. However, at year's end we'll have new issues from Ed Brubaker's Secret Avengers and Captain America.

Meanwhile, DC's solicitations continue to include noteworthy reprints, most notably a collection of another four issues of Brubaker's Batman run from 2000-2002. Beginning in October, DC Comics will publish several extra-sized reprints (96 pages for 8 bucks) that might appeal to fans of Criminal and Incognito:

• OCTOBER TO DECEMBER
  DC Presents: Batman #1-3 - collects Batman #582-585, and 591-598, all written by Ed Brubaker
  
  
• OCTOBER
  DC Presents: Brightest Day #1 - includes a one-shot Hawkman crime story by Brubaker and Phillips
  
  
• NOVEMBER
  WildStorm Presents #1 - features various writers, including Ed Brubaker
  
  
• DECEMBER
  Vertigo Resurrected: Winter's Edge #1 - features various artists, including Sean Phillips

DC's solicitations also feature what we now know to be the final issues published under the WildStorm imprint. CBR posted a summary of the early news surrounding the imprint's end, and Newsarama asked comic creators -- including Ed Brubaker -- for their comments.

On Twitter, Brubaker recommends that interested readers purchase WildStorm's Sleeper (and I would add Point Blank) while the trade paperbacks are still readily available. It's the same warning that Charles Ardai gave when his Hard Case Crime imprint lost its paperback publisher. It's my hope that Sleeper will remain in print for the foreseeable future: set in the WildStorm universe, the story is still remarkably self-contained, it was the work of two creators who are -- individually and collaboratively -- held in high esteem by both fans and critics, and it is still on track to be adapted into a major motion picture. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry, and I would strongly recommend Sleeper in any case.

There's news about a different adaptation -- the Incognito movie, which was first announced in May -- and it can be found in a lengthy audio interview with Ed Brubaker. It is the first installment of a two-part Word Balloon interview, and the two-hour conversation can be found at iFanboy and two sites dedicated to the podcast, the blog and an archive with a direct mp3 download.

I'll post a link to the second part of the interview when it has been made available.

Updates and News: Incognito Variant Cover, Call for Brubaker Interview Questions.

In my last post, I noted an uncertain future for the paperback crime imprint Hard Case Crime. That future is beginning to brighten: along with reprinting the relevant newsletter email from publisher Charles Ardai, The Violent World of Parker highlighted the news that Subterranean Press will be publishing the first HCC hardcover, scheduled to be published in the first half of next year. The book will collect two early Lawrence Block novels, printed back-to-back: this 69th book in the line wasn't announced earlier and is proof that the imprint still has some life in it.

(The site, devoted to the Richard Stark's brutal creation Parker, also reported that the University of Chicago Press has secured the publishing rights for the Parker books up through Firebreak. That's the twentieth book of the series, and the U of C press will publish books 16, 17, and 18 this March. Fans of Criminal and Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptations should definitely look into these trade paperbacks.)

While Hard Case Crime fans will have to wait a while for the next release, the wait has finally ended for the conclusion to the first arc for Stumptown, a detective comic that deliberately evokes shows like The Rockford Files. The fourth issue was released just last week, just over four months after the publication of issue #3. Over at his blog, writer Greg Rucka -- Brubaker's co-writer on Gotham Central -- announced that this sort of delay won't be repeated. Subsequent story arcs won't be solicited until it's clear that the entire arc can be released on time.



Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Incognito will also see a short delay. On Twitter, Brubaker relayed that the release has been pushed back from the original release date of September 15th. Marvel.com currently lists the release date as October 6th.

The "apocalyptic pulp noir" is definitely on its way. Starting in late August and throughout September, Sean Phillips has been posting plenty of work from Incognito on his blog, including thumbnails, pencils, and completed inks.

Most interesting is the artwork featured here, what has been announced as a variant cover for the first issue of Incognito: Bad Influences. I believe this is the first variant cover for any Brubaker and Phillips collaboration, not counting the second printing for the debut issue of Incognito, and Brubaker explains that it is "a nod" to the title's pulp origins. The cover is featured in a 1:10 variant edition, offered to retailers at the same price as the regular edition.



Finally, Brubaker recently publicized an opportunity to submit questions for an upcoming Word Balloon podcast with John Siuntres. The deadline for questions is this Monday evening.


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