February, The Month of Romance -- and Criminal and The Fade Out!

Early last week, Image Comics released their February solicitations, and from Sean Phillips' summary we see that there's a ton of material coming our way from Brubaker and Phillips.

The new editions of Criminal will continue their monthly release schedule with volume 2 on February 18th. "Lawless" will feature new cover art that complements January's new edition of "Coward."

Then, on February 25th, the entire run of The Fade Out  -- up to this point -- will be released with the first trade paperback and the next issue.  With The Fade Out #5, "The second act of BRUBAKER and PHILLIPS’ biggest hit ever begins with a bang!" -- and with a perfect jumping-on point for new readers.

Ed Brubaker's other series, Velvet with Steve Epting, is noticeably absent from the month's listings.   Combining recent news stories with this week's extended forecast from ComicList, we anticipate a lot of good books out over the next three months -- including a $1 "Image First" reprint of the debut issue of The Fade Out.

• 12/17 The Fade Out #1 Image Firsts Edition
• 12/24 The Fade Out #4, Velvet #9
• 1/7  Velvet #10
• 1/28 Criminal Special Edition, Criminal: Coward TPB
• 2/18 Criminal: Lawless TPB
• 2/25 The Fade Out #5 and Vol 1 TPB

I would expect Velvet #10 to be pushed back a little and not come so hot on the heels of the previous issue, but we predict that the series' second arc will conclude by February.

Bullets: The Noir Series, The Collected Hellblazer, and The Fade Out.

• Brubaker's Play, to be Rebroadcast. This weekend's production of The Noir Series was quite enjoyable, with Ed Brubaker's "Air Conditioned Rooms" being a real highlight.  The four-play anthology provided a good mix of suspense, black comedy and even vaudevillian humor, and if the streaming simulcast was a little rough around the edges, the hiccups added to the effect of watching a new take on Playhouse 90 and the other dramatic anthologies from television's early years.

The Heretick Theatre Lab relays that the The Noir Series will be rebroadcast, and we'll try to pass along the details once they're made available.

• Phillips' Hellblazer, Being Reprinted.  In the meantime, we would be remiss not to follow up on the latest from Sean Phillips:  new collections of early work on Vertigo's Hellblazer.  Phillips was the primary artist for 37 issues initially with writer Eddie Campbell around the end of 1994 and primarily with writer Paul Jenkins.

We first reported the news in March, but after twenty years, the first 13 issues of his run was collected and published just last month in trade paperback, as Hellblazer Volume 9: Critical Mass.

The next 11 issues are due on February 11th, in Hellblazer Volume 10: In the Line of Fire.

On Halloween, appropriately enough, Sean Phillips posted some in-progress work of the new cover art he's creating for this upcoming volume.  What began with digital sketches, he finished as an 18-inch painting; he writes that is "the first Hellblazer cover I've painted since 1998."

• The Fade Out #3, Out Today with a Preview Online. Finally, the latest issue of The Fade Out is in stores today, preceded by a six-page preview posted Monday at Comic Book Resources and Comicosity.   An early review by Flickering Myth confirms what the preview suggests, that we're getting a closer look at the story's larger cast of twisted and broken characters.

It's a good time to be fans of both creators: alongside Brubaker's new work in a different medium and Sean Phillips' new collections of his early work for DC's Vertigo line, we're continuing to get regular doses of the unique alchemy of Brubaker and Phillips together.

Brubaker's Air Conditioned Rooms, On Stage and Online This Weekend!

Today sees the publication of the second printing for The Fade Out #2.  I haven't been able to find the cover art for this edition, so I'm not sure how it varies from the first printing, and it appears that issue #3 has been rescheduled to next week.

UPDATE, 11/7:  Going from a listing on the online secondary market, it appears that the second printing's cover uses a black-and-white version of Sean Phillips' artwork, combined with the bloody/inky red logo for The Fade Out.  Republished below, the monochrome approach makes the cover seem more like a still from an old horror movie, even if it's a bit less striking than the quasi-photo negative used for the debut issue's second printing.

This week's other big release is the latest issue in Ed Brubaker's retro spy comic.  Velvet #8 is in stores today, and Comic Book Resources has a three-page preview.

Even bigger news is what I believe to be Ed Brubaker's debut as a playwright, with a play that can be seen in person and on the web.

Teased in September and announced in early October, Brubaker's play is part of a live theater experience that will be filmed in HD, mixed in real time, and streamed online.

"The Noir Series" is a live production by the new Heretick Theater Lab. The Culture Mom blogs that the series is comprised of four thematically linked, interactive plays, and a news story published today at the Clyde Fitch Report elaborates that the series is being performed in Schkapf Theatre, a 67-seat black box theater in Los Angeles.

Heretick Lab explains, "We’re going to put on a play and film it, then we’re going to present it to you in your living rooms. Sure it’s crazy talk, and dreams will most likely be crushed, but that’s LA, that’s theatre - that’s Noir."

Along with "Air Conditioned Rooms" by Ed Brubaker, the series features plays from the Captain America screenwriter Stephen McFeely, filmmaker John Hindman, and a comedy partnership called the Burglars of Hamm.

On Twitter, Brubaker confirms that the series is "one event [produced] four times over a weekend," so you can catch all four plays in a single showing, with evening shows on Friday and Saturday, November 7th and 8th, and matinees on Saturday and Sunday, the 8th and 9th.

Opening night concludes with a Q&A in the lobby, with Brubaker in attendance, but this first show is already sold-out in person.

Patrons online can still watch any single performance for $7.99 or all four performances for $20.