Bullets: Fatale in May, Criminal in Liberty Collection, Brubaker/Phillips in Toronto, &c.

The ACB Bulletin for Wednesday, April 30th:

• Fatale #22 Delayed to May, Probably Out Next Week.  April is passing us by without the latest issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' noir-horror comic.  Going by my local shop's list for next week and Image's updated listing, it appears that Fatale #22 will be released next Wednesday, May 7th.

It's rare for Phillips to produce more than one issue a month, so we now expect the series finale no sooner than July, and while issue #23 is still listed for late May, Image Comics now gives July 2nd as the release date for Fatale #24.

In what has been a noticeably light month for our personal pull list, Brubaker's Velvet is also missing:  the first arc concludes with issue #5, which is now scheduled for May 21st.  The debut issue is being reprinted this week, for $1.00 as part of the Image Firsts line.

(Another favorite of ours, Chew, barely makes it this month with a new issue out today.)

• Criminal Short Story Reprinted in Liberty Hardcover.  Fans of Brubaker and Phillips aren't entirely hung out to dry this week, as Image Comics is releasing Liberty, a hardcover collection of the first five years of the Liberty Annual, produced in support of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  The collection, priced at $24.99, features work from the annuals from 2008 to 2012, new cover art by Paul Pope, and "additional material not seen anywhere else."

The description explicitly mentions a Criminal story by Brubaker and Phillips, which is undoubtedly "No One Rides for Free," originally featured in the first annual, released in July, 2008.  The Criminal "emission" focused on Tracy Lawless, and it was originally collected in the first deluxe edition for the series.

All proceeds of this new collection benefit the defense fund, and the CBLDF also makes an appearance at this Saturday's Free Comic Book Day, with Defend Comics, "a light-hearted look" at the topic of censorship.

• Close-up Cover Art for The Fade Out's First Issue.  With Fatale concluding no sooner than July, it's no surprise that the new series is missing from Image's July solicitations.  We're not completely starved for news, as Sean Phillips has provided fans with a close look at the cover art for The Fade Out #1, which we reprint above. 

Sean relays that the cover was painted digitally, "using Frenden brushes in Manga Studio."

• Brubaker and Phillips in Toronto, with Artwork, Cooke, and Kubrick. Also at his blog, Phillips reminders readers that he and Ed Brubaker will be attending the Toronto Comic Art Festival, Saturday and Sunday, May 10th and 11th.  Sean writes that the two will be signing the following gorgeous giclée along with "anything else you put in front of us."

Partner-in-crime Darwyn Cooke is also attending TCAF, and Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog reports that Brubaker and Cooke will be screening The Killing, Stanley Kubrick's crime noir classic from 1956, praised as the director's "first mature film."

The "evening of criminal activity" begins with the screening at 5 pm on Saturday, May 10th, and it concludes with a signing.  The cost is $7 in advance and $10 at the door.