30 Days of Fatale: The Missing Scene.
Fatale #11 kicked off 2013, being released on January 2nd alongside a five-page preview and the trade paperback for "Book 2: The Devil's Business." This issue was the first of four self-contained flashback stories, together comprising book 3, "West of Hell," the title being perhaps an allusion to the phrase "East of Eden," from Genesis 4:16 and the inspiration of Steinbeck novel by the same name.
This isn't the first time that Brubaker and Phillips' third arc in a series contained stand-alone flashbacks: Criminal did the same, with interlocking stories collected in the third trade collection, "The Dead and the Dying." Earlier this year, Brubaker relayed that there are currently no plans to continue Incognito, but if he changes his mind, there would be worse ways to return than with single-issue flashback stories, perhaps focusing on the original pulp heroes in that universe. The tension would build as the reader waits to discover what happened to the main character in the present day; as with Fatale, this protagonist was last left in custody.
In this month-long review of this cosmic horror-noir, I've already mentioned issue #11 a couple of times: "The Case of Alfred Ravenscroft" marks the earliest story we see for Josephine, perhaps just more than a year after her first death and her curse of immortality and power over men. In the very first entry, I noted that the focus of the series' three-page trailer may be a considered a "deleted scene" from what would become this issue: namely, the Bishop's interrogation of the police officer Nelson in 1936.
We're republishing the trailer below, and we would like to draw particular attention to the very first image, an eerie barn at night, flanked by two cars from the Thirties.
This image appears in the inside front cover of literally every issue of Fatale, with new coloration to match the rest of the issue. I don't think the building makes an appearance anywhere else in the series, and I would be surprised to find it in the final issue.
Taking the trailer as a canonical part of the larger story, the barn is very significant to the story, as the scene of Nelson's interrogation. We find out in issue #14 that this is where the Bishop first learns of Josephine.
This isn't the first time that Brubaker and Phillips' third arc in a series contained stand-alone flashbacks: Criminal did the same, with interlocking stories collected in the third trade collection, "The Dead and the Dying." Earlier this year, Brubaker relayed that there are currently no plans to continue Incognito, but if he changes his mind, there would be worse ways to return than with single-issue flashback stories, perhaps focusing on the original pulp heroes in that universe. The tension would build as the reader waits to discover what happened to the main character in the present day; as with Fatale, this protagonist was last left in custody.
In this month-long review of this cosmic horror-noir, I've already mentioned issue #11 a couple of times: "The Case of Alfred Ravenscroft" marks the earliest story we see for Josephine, perhaps just more than a year after her first death and her curse of immortality and power over men. In the very first entry, I noted that the focus of the series' three-page trailer may be a considered a "deleted scene" from what would become this issue: namely, the Bishop's interrogation of the police officer Nelson in 1936.
We're republishing the trailer below, and we would like to draw particular attention to the very first image, an eerie barn at night, flanked by two cars from the Thirties.
This image appears in the inside front cover of literally every issue of Fatale, with new coloration to match the rest of the issue. I don't think the building makes an appearance anywhere else in the series, and I would be surprised to find it in the final issue.
Taking the trailer as a canonical part of the larger story, the barn is very significant to the story, as the scene of Nelson's interrogation. We find out in issue #14 that this is where the Bishop first learns of Josephine.
Labels: Criminal, Fatale, Incognito, thirty days
posted by Bubba at 11:30 PM
2 Comments:
Hi, this is Eshita from Comic Con India & was trying to reach Mr. Brubaker. My contact is eshita@comicconindia.com. Is there any way I can send across our message to him? Will really appreciate the help.
Ed Brubaker is pretty active on Twitter, and I know from personal experience that he's often responsive to tweets sent his way. His Twitter account is @brubaker.
And in the writer's page at the back of each issue, he's asked for feedback by email, criminalcomic -at- gmail -dot- com.
Hope that helps!
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