A Barrage of Bullets: Previews, Interviews, and More!

 

 

Brubaker and Phillips' Fatale

• Fatale #17 Preview.  The latest issue is out this Wednesday, and Paste Magazine has an exclusive five-page preview of the latest arc's "interlude" set in the present day.
• Interior Art from Sean Phillips.  Over at his blog (note the new URL), Sean Phillips continues to show us the occasional bit of artwork, including the inks for a partial page, presumably from issue #17.  A inked preview of Fatale #18 reveals a rare double-page spread, evidently the first (or second?) in more than 1600 pages produced by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
• December Solicitations.  Image's December solicitations were recently released, and the year is set to close with the trade collection for the current arc and the first issue of the new arc: Fatale Volume 4: Pray for Rain and Fatale #20 are both scheduled to be released on December 18th. 
• Cover Art for the New Year.  Phillips has also revealed cover art for upcoming issues, with artwork for Fatale #21 being the latest preview.

 

Ed Brubaker

• USA Today Interview and Velvet Interior Pages.  Yesterday, USA Today's Life section posted an extensive "Sunday Conversation"  with Ed Brubaker, primarily about Fatale, Velvet, and the upcoming Captain America sequel.  The piece mentions his continuing to work on a film adaptation for "Coward," the first arc in Criminal, and Brubaker discusses his family's background in writing and espionage, his experiences in LA, and the surprising influence of The Sopranos.  The article also features our first look at three interior pages from the first issue, set in Paris, 1973.  Velvet is scheduled to debut on October 23rd -- or, going by Brubaker's Twitter feed, October 30th.
• Third Catwoman Volume Next Year.  The blog Collected Editions provided an early look at the hardcovers and trade paperbacks that DC Comics plans to release in early 2014.  The list includes Catwoman Volume 3: Under Pressure.  Evidently containing issues #25-37 of the 2002 series, the book will conclude Brubaker's run on the series.  Amazon suggests a release in the first week of April.
• Brubaker Honored in Top Ten of Batman Black & White.  To commemorate the recent revival of the Batman Black & White, Comics Alliance listed their top ten entries in the original award-winning mini-series and the subsequent back-up stories in Batman: Gotham Knights, all collected in three volumes (with a few additional stories).  The list includes Ed Brubaker and Ryan Sook's "I'll Be Watching," and for my money I would have included Alex Garland and Sean Phillips' "Sunrise," even before I recognized the artist by name.  The new mini-series is worth checking out, and the earlier stories are well worth a second look.

 

Sean Phillips

• Art of Sean Phillips Interview and Previews.  Sean Phillips' deluxe artbook will be released in just over three weeks, and Newsarama has an interview with the artist.  Among other topics, Phillips discusses the significant input he had on the book's design and contents, and he reviews his career from childhood to Marvel Zombies to his extensive collaboration with Ed Brubaker.  Phillips recently received advanced copies of the book, and he used his blog and Twitter feed to provide a few previews of the book:  one, two, three, and four.
• Art of Phillips Postcards for Comic Art Fest.  We previously mentioned the Lakes International Comics Art Festival in the UK, which will feature an exhibit on Sean Phillips from October 6th to November 10th.  Phillips will be bringing 500 postcards that he'll be giving away at the festival, and the cards feature art from Criminal and Fatale.
• Sean Phillips' First Film Poster.  Having created the artwork for four Criterion Collection releases, Sean Phillips has recently created a moody poster for We Gotta Get Out of This Place, a crime thriller debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Bad Ass Digest has the details and a synopsis (h/t Comics Alliance), and Phillips reveals that he was responsible for both the painting and the design work.
• An Old Blog with a New Name.  Around September 4th, Sean Phillips changed the URL of his blog to http://theartofseanphillips.blogspot.co.uk/ which is reflected in the new links listed on the right.  Our old links to his blog are now dead, and it's not clear whether we'll have the time to correct them all in the near future.

 

Frequent Collaborators

• Film Adaptation for Greg Rucka's Queen & Country.  Brubaker's Gotham Central co-creator has his own espionage comic, the excellent Queen & Country, collected in four, undersized Definitive Editions, released by Oni Press between 2007 and 2009.  The series is being adapted for the big screen, and, earlier this month, Variety exclusively announced that Ellen Page is in negotiations with Fox to star as the central character, Tara Chase.  I do not believe a director or release date has been announced.
• Darwyn Cooke Adaptation of Slayground, Out in December.  Finally, Brubaker's Catwoman collaborator Darwyn Cooke will release his fourth Parker book at the end of the year.  IDW's December solicitations list the book as the publisher's Gem of the Month, and they feature the book in a summer press release.  This will be the fourth book Cooke has created from Richard Stark's Parker series, and the book will include "The Seventh," a short story previously available only in the large "Martini edition."