Gotham Noir and Gotham Central, In Stores Now, More or Less.

I've seen a few more reviews for the latest issue of Incognito: Bad Influences #4 than I have for the last few issues: specifically, IGN and Comic Book Resources have both posted fairly positive reviews.

Looking to older material for a moment, on Monday Sean Phillips announced that his Amazon store was offering "a few copies" of his first major collaboration with Ed Brubaker, the prestige-format Elseworlds story, Batman: Gotham Noir, published in 2000.

(I say "major" because, the year before, Phillips inked Michael Lark's pencils for the last three issues of Brubaker and Lark's regretfully short-lived Vertigo series, Scene of the Crime. All four issues and a rare short story are available in a trade paperback.)

It wasn't there yesterday, but it's there now. I wouldn't bet on its being available for long, because the pulpy mystery has never been republished. I was lucky to find a copy at Dragon*Con a year or two back, and I recommend die-hard fans to check it out.

Easier to find this week is Gotham Central, Brubaker's acclaimed collaboration with Greg Rucka. The fourth and final hardcover collection reached retailer shelves today, along with a softcover reprint of Gotham Central Book 1, collecting the first ten issues.

Gotham Central Book 4: Corrigan (an unfortunate title) features the last nine issues of the title's forty-issue run. Ed Brubaker left before the end of the series, but this volume includes the excellent "Dead Robin," his last collaboration. Starting with that arc and issue #33, Sean Phillips created the cover art for all but one issue, and this artwork should be included in the collection.