The Complete, Collaborative Works of Brubaker and Phillips: A Brief Bibliography.
The following are the collaborative works of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, listed by the original sale date of the single-issue story or the story arc's debut, cross-referenced against Comic Collector Live and the Grand Comics Database. Dates are listed by month, with the day included in parentheses only to resolve any ambiguity in the order of release.
Titles that currently span more than one story arc or comprise at least one original graphic novel (OGN) are color-coded, and the original trade paperback collections are listed if a single listed work spans more than one collection.
Unless otherwise indicated, all works below credit Ed Brubaker as the sole writer and Sean Phillips as the sole artist, possibly excluding lettering and coloring. Relevant works that exclude one or the other creator are included in parenthesis.
Scene of the Crime
Pencils by Michael Lark, Inks by Lark (#1) & Sean Phillips (#2-4)
DC Vertigo, Mar-Jun 1999
Batman: Gotham Noir
DC, Mar 2001
Batman #603 - “The Turning Point”
DC, May 2002
(Point Blank, Sleeper prologue, written by Brubaker and drawn by Colin Wilson, with the protagonist Holden Carver designed by Phillips: WildStorm, Aug-Dec 2002)
Sleeper
Collected in “Out in the Cold” (#1-6) & “All False Moves” (#7-12)
WildStorm, Jan 2003 - Jan 2004
(Coup D’Etat: Sleeper written by Brubaker and drawn by Jim Lee: WildStorm, Feb 2004)
“Sleeper, Season Two: Prelude”
Coup D'Etat: Afterword
Wildstorm, Mar 2004
Hawkman (2002) #27 - “The Black Bird”
DC, Apr 2004
Catwoman (2002) #32 - “Only Takes a Night”
DC, Jun 2004 (June 23)
Sleeper: Season Two
Collected in “A Crooked Line” (#1-6) and “The Long Way Home” (#7-12)
WildStorm, Jun 2004 - May 2005 (June 30)
Gotham Central #33-40
Cover art by Phillips, #33-35, 37-40
Created by Brubaker & Greg Rucka; Brubaker stopped writing for the series after #36
DC, Jul 2005 - Feb 2006 (series debuted in Dec 2002)
Criminal: The Dead and the Dying
Criminal Vol. 2 #1-3
Icon, Feb-Jun 2008
Criminal Emission: “No One Rides for Free”
Liberty Comics
Image, Jul 2008
Criminal: Bad Night
Criminal Vol. 2 #4-7
Icon, Aug-Dec 2008
Incognito
Icon, Jan-Sep 2009
Criminal: The Sinners
Icon, Oct 2009 - Mar 2010 (Oct 7)
Criminal Emission: “21st Century Noir”
Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics
Dark Horse, Oct 2009 (Oct 21)
Incognito: Bad Influences
Icon, Oct 2010 - Mar 2011
Criminal: The Last of the Innocent
Icon, Jun-Sep 2011
Night Fever
Hardcover OGN
Image, June 2023
Oversized Deluxe Hardcovers
Beginning with their first creator-owned series Criminal, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have released deluxe editions of their major collaborations -- oversized hardcovers with extensive bonus material.
The team subsequently released a similar hardcover for the early work Scene of the Crime, with Michael Lark; while the monthly issues and trade paperback were published by DC's Vertigo imprint, the oversized hardcover of the creator-owned mini-series was published by Image Comics.
DC's Vertigo imprint released an omnibus for the duo's WildStorm title Sleeper, and using their main imprint DC has released an omnibus collecting all 40 issues of Gotham Central, co-created and co-written by Ed Brubaker with cover art for 7 issues by Sean Phillips.
Sean Phillips has also released an art book spanning his entire career, with extensive sections on his work with Ed Brubaker up to their then-recent series Fatale. The noir-horror title was their first work published by Image Comics, and Phillips' art book was published by Dynamite.
Together, these deluxe editions collect all of Brubaker and Phillips' collaborative work, except for the early, short works published by DC's main imprint (Gotham Noir and single issues) and the duo's most recent work, having been published too soon to be repackaged.
We've listed them in roughly chronological order. Books for a single title are grouped together, based on the publication date of the title's very first issue; The Art of Sean Phillips covers the artist's career up to Fatale and is therefore placed immediately after that title.
Scene of the Crime
Image, Nov 2012
Fatale The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1
collects issues #1-10
Image, Mar 2014
Fatale The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2
collects issues #11-24
Image, Nov 2015
Titles that currently span more than one story arc or comprise at least one original graphic novel (OGN) are color-coded, and the original trade paperback collections are listed if a single listed work spans more than one collection.
Unless otherwise indicated, all works below credit Ed Brubaker as the sole writer and Sean Phillips as the sole artist, possibly excluding lettering and coloring. Relevant works that exclude one or the other creator are included in parenthesis.
Scene of the Crime
Pencils by Michael Lark, Inks by Lark (#1) & Sean Phillips (#2-4)
DC Vertigo, Mar-Jun 1999
Batman: Gotham Noir
DC, Mar 2001
Batman #603 - “The Turning Point”
DC, May 2002
(Point Blank, Sleeper prologue, written by Brubaker and drawn by Colin Wilson, with the protagonist Holden Carver designed by Phillips: WildStorm, Aug-Dec 2002)
Sleeper
Collected in “Out in the Cold” (#1-6) & “All False Moves” (#7-12)
WildStorm, Jan 2003 - Jan 2004
(Coup D’Etat: Sleeper written by Brubaker and drawn by Jim Lee: WildStorm, Feb 2004)
“Sleeper, Season Two: Prelude”
Coup D'Etat: Afterword
Wildstorm, Mar 2004
Hawkman (2002) #27 - “The Black Bird”
DC, Apr 2004
Catwoman (2002) #32 - “Only Takes a Night”
DC, Jun 2004 (June 23)
Sleeper: Season Two
Collected in “A Crooked Line” (#1-6) and “The Long Way Home” (#7-12)
WildStorm, Jun 2004 - May 2005 (June 30)
Gotham Central #33-40
Cover art by Phillips, #33-35, 37-40
Created by Brubaker & Greg Rucka; Brubaker stopped writing for the series after #36
DC, Jul 2005 - Feb 2006 (series debuted in Dec 2002)
Criminal: Coward
Criminal #1-5
Icon, Oct 2006 - Mar 2007
Criminal: Lawless
Criminal #6-10
Icon, May-Nov 2007
Criminal #1-5
Icon, Oct 2006 - Mar 2007
Criminal: Lawless
Criminal #6-10
Icon, May-Nov 2007
Criminal: The Dead and the Dying
Criminal Vol. 2 #1-3
Icon, Feb-Jun 2008
Criminal Emission: “No One Rides for Free”
Liberty Comics
Image, Jul 2008
Criminal: Bad Night
Criminal Vol. 2 #4-7
Icon, Aug-Dec 2008
Incognito
Icon, Jan-Sep 2009
Criminal: The Sinners
Icon, Oct 2009 - Mar 2010 (Oct 7)
Criminal Emission: “21st Century Noir”
Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics
Dark Horse, Oct 2009 (Oct 21)
Incognito: Bad Influences
Icon, Oct 2010 - Mar 2011
Criminal: The Last of the Innocent
Icon, Jun-Sep 2011
Fatale
Collected in five trade paperbacks and two deluxe hardcovers
Book 1: Death Chases Me (#1-5)
Book 2: The Devil's Business (#6-10)
Book 3: West of Hell (#11-14)
Book 4: Pray for Rain (#15-19)
Book 5: Curse the Demon (#20-24)
Image, Jan 2012 - Jul 2014
The Fade Out
Collected in three trade paperbacks, each comprising a 4-issue “act”
Subsequently collected in a single-volume deluxe HC and bare-bones TPB
Image, Aug 2014 - Jan 2016
Criminal: Wrong Time, Wrong Place
Criminal Special Edition & 10th Anniversary Special
Image, Feb 2015 & Apr 2016
Kill or Be Killed
Collected in four trade-paperback volumes and in a single deluxe HC
Vol. 1 (#1-4); Vol. 2 (#5-10); Vol. 3 (#11-14); Vol 4. (#15-20)
Image, Aug 2016 - Jun 2018
"The Spirit" single-page story
The Spirit of Eisner: Celebrating the Centenary of the Birth of Will Eisner
Phillips also coordinated the publication of this newspaper-sized comic
Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Oct 2017
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies
A Criminal Novella, published as a hardcover OGN
Image, Oct 2018
Criminal: "The Night Callers"
Originally untitled, with the title provided in the deluxe hardcovers
Criminal Vol 3. #1
Image, Jan 2019
Criminal: Bad Weekend
Collected in a hardcover GN & expanded with 10 additional pages, Jul 2019
Criminal Vol 3. #2-3
Image, Feb-Mar 2019
Criminal: “Orphans”
Criminal Vol 3. #4
Image, Apr 2019
Criminal: Cruel Summer
Criminal Vol 3. #5-12
Image, Jul 2019-Jan 2020
Pulp
Hardcover OGN
Image, Jul 2020
Reckless
Hardcover OGN
Image, Dec 2020
Friend of the Devil: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Apr 2021
Destroy All Monsters: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Oct 2021
The Ghost in You: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Apr 2022
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: A Grofield Story"
17-page story in Richard Stark's Parker: The Martini Edition Last Call
"For Donald Westlake and Darwyn Cooke"
IDW Publishing, May 2022
Collected in five trade paperbacks and two deluxe hardcovers
Book 1: Death Chases Me (#1-5)
Book 2: The Devil's Business (#6-10)
Book 3: West of Hell (#11-14)
Book 4: Pray for Rain (#15-19)
Book 5: Curse the Demon (#20-24)
Image, Jan 2012 - Jul 2014
Collected in three trade paperbacks, each comprising a 4-issue “act”
Subsequently collected in a single-volume deluxe HC and bare-bones TPB
Image, Aug 2014 - Jan 2016
Criminal: Wrong Time, Wrong Place
Criminal Special Edition & 10th Anniversary Special
Image, Feb 2015 & Apr 2016
Kill or Be Killed
Collected in four trade-paperback volumes and in a single deluxe HC
Vol. 1 (#1-4); Vol. 2 (#5-10); Vol. 3 (#11-14); Vol 4. (#15-20)
Image, Aug 2016 - Jun 2018
"The Spirit" single-page story
The Spirit of Eisner: Celebrating the Centenary of the Birth of Will Eisner
Phillips also coordinated the publication of this newspaper-sized comic
Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Oct 2017
A Criminal Novella, published as a hardcover OGN
Image, Oct 2018
Criminal: "The Night Callers"
Originally untitled, with the title provided in the deluxe hardcovers
Criminal Vol 3. #1
Image, Jan 2019
Criminal: Bad Weekend
Collected in a hardcover GN & expanded with 10 additional pages, Jul 2019
Criminal Vol 3. #2-3
Image, Feb-Mar 2019
Criminal: “Orphans”
Criminal Vol 3. #4
Image, Apr 2019
Criminal: Cruel Summer
Criminal Vol 3. #5-12
Image, Jul 2019-Jan 2020
Pulp
Hardcover OGN
Image, Jul 2020
Reckless
Hardcover OGN
Image, Dec 2020
Friend of the Devil: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Apr 2021
Destroy All Monsters: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Oct 2021
Hardcover OGN
Image, Apr 2022
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: A Grofield Story"
17-page story in Richard Stark's Parker: The Martini Edition Last Call
"For Donald Westlake and Darwyn Cooke"
IDW Publishing, May 2022
Neo Noir: The World of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
A 64-page collection of previously released "trailers" (finally!)
Includes essays & interviews written by David Harper
Part of the series of $1 "Image Firsts" comics
Image, Oct 2022 (Oct 5)
Follow Me Down: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Oct 2022 (Oct 12)
Criminal Story: "Teeg's Christmas Carol"
First short story not subtitled a "Criminal Emission"
Image! anthology #9
Cover art by Sean Phillips
Image, Dec 2022
A 64-page collection of previously released "trailers" (finally!)
Includes essays & interviews written by David Harper
Part of the series of $1 "Image Firsts" comics
Image, Oct 2022 (Oct 5)
Follow Me Down: A Reckless Book
Hardcover OGN
Image, Oct 2022 (Oct 12)
Criminal Story: "Teeg's Christmas Carol"
First short story not subtitled a "Criminal Emission"
Image! anthology #9
Cover art by Sean Phillips
Image, Dec 2022
Night Fever
Hardcover OGN
Image, June 2023
Where The Body Was
Hardcover OGN
Image, December 2023
Hardcover OGN
Image, December 2023
Houses of the Unholy
Hardcover OGN
Image, August 2024
Hardcover OGN
Image, August 2024
...next: a Criminal OGN and Jacob's return!
Oversized Deluxe Hardcovers
Beginning with their first creator-owned series Criminal, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have released deluxe editions of their major collaborations -- oversized hardcovers with extensive bonus material.
The team subsequently released a similar hardcover for the early work Scene of the Crime, with Michael Lark; while the monthly issues and trade paperback were published by DC's Vertigo imprint, the oversized hardcover of the creator-owned mini-series was published by Image Comics.
DC's Vertigo imprint released an omnibus for the duo's WildStorm title Sleeper, and using their main imprint DC has released an omnibus collecting all 40 issues of Gotham Central, co-created and co-written by Ed Brubaker with cover art for 7 issues by Sean Phillips.
Sean Phillips has also released an art book spanning his entire career, with extensive sections on his work with Ed Brubaker up to their then-recent series Fatale. The noir-horror title was their first work published by Image Comics, and Phillips' art book was published by Dynamite.
Together, these deluxe editions collect all of Brubaker and Phillips' collaborative work, except for the early, short works published by DC's main imprint (Gotham Noir and single issues) and the duo's most recent work, having been published too soon to be repackaged.
We've listed them in roughly chronological order. Books for a single title are grouped together, based on the publication date of the title's very first issue; The Art of Sean Phillips covers the artist's career up to Fatale and is therefore placed immediately after that title.
Scene of the Crime
Image, Nov 2012
Batman: The Man Who Laughs: The Deluxe Edition
oversized, dust-jacketed hardcover featuring three Batman stories written by Brubaker
- The Man Who Laughs with art by Dough Mahnke
- Batman: Gotham Noir with Sean Phillips
- Made of Wood with art by Patch Zircher, Aaron Sowd, & Steve Bird
DC, Oct 2020
The Sleeper Omnibus
collects Point Blank, Sleeper, Coup d'Etat Afterward, and Season Two
Vertigo, Mar 2013
Gotham Central
DC, May 2016
Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1
collects Coward, Lawless, The Dead & the Dying, "No One Rides for Free"
Icon, Nov 2009
2nd ed. Image, Apr 2021
Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2
collects Bad Night, The Sinners, Last of the Innocent, "21st Century Noir"
Icon, Oct 2012
2nd ed. Image, Apr 2021
Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 3
collects Wrong Time, Wrong Place; My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies; Criminal (2019) #1-4, including Bad Weekend
Image, Nov 2020
Criminal Cruel Summer
effectively a fourth deluxe HC, collecting Criminal (2019) #1, 5-12
Image, Aug 2020
Incognito The Classified Edition
collects Incognito and Incognito: Bad Influences
oversized, dust-jacketed hardcover featuring three Batman stories written by Brubaker
- The Man Who Laughs with art by Dough Mahnke
- Batman: Gotham Noir with Sean Phillips
- Made of Wood with art by Patch Zircher, Aaron Sowd, & Steve Bird
DC, Oct 2020
The Sleeper Omnibus
collects Point Blank, Sleeper, Coup d'Etat Afterward, and Season Two
Vertigo, Mar 2013
Gotham Central
DC, May 2016
Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1
collects Coward, Lawless, The Dead & the Dying, "No One Rides for Free"
Icon, Nov 2009
2nd ed. Image, Apr 2021
Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2
collects Bad Night, The Sinners, Last of the Innocent, "21st Century Noir"
Icon, Oct 2012
2nd ed. Image, Apr 2021
Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 3
collects Wrong Time, Wrong Place; My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies; Criminal (2019) #1-4, including Bad Weekend
Image, Nov 2020
Criminal Cruel Summer
effectively a fourth deluxe HC, collecting Criminal (2019) #1, 5-12
Image, Aug 2020
Incognito The Classified Edition
collects Incognito and Incognito: Bad Influences
Icon, Sep 2012
Fatale The Deluxe Edition Vol. 1
collects issues #1-10
Image, Mar 2014
Fatale The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2
collects issues #11-24
Image, Nov 2015
Also: Fatale Compendium Trade Paperback
collects issues #1-24
Image, Jul 2024
The Art of Sean Phillips
Dynamite, Nov 2013
The Fade Out
Image, Oct 2016
Kill or Be Killed The Deluxe Edition
Image, Nov 2019
Pulp The Process Edition
Hardcover OGN
Image, Aug 2022
[Original introduction to the bibliography]
Robert and I are starting off the new year with a long look back to the very beginning of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' amazing work together. Since we've had a month-long break between issues of Kill Or Be Killed, we're taking time this week to devote an Undertow Podcast episode to their very earliest collaboration, Scene of the Crime.
The pair tends to produce ten comic books a year, and we may use these occasional quiet months to slowly work our way through their entire body of work -- or at least their work as a team, a still quite hefty subset of the many books that list Brubaker or Phillips in their credits.
To prep for this literary travelogue, I made some notes on their books' order of publication: we posted a brief list of their major and minor collaborations back in 2011, but it didn't go into details about story arcs. The two keep returning to our favorite series Criminal between their other titles -- and we've had three new titles debut in the last half-decade -- so it was worth putting together these additional notes, and we think our readers might appreciate our posting the list online.
collects issues #1-24
Image, Jul 2024
The Art of Sean Phillips
Dynamite, Nov 2013
The Fade Out
Image, Oct 2016
Kill or Be Killed The Deluxe Edition
Image, Nov 2019
Pulp The Process Edition
Hardcover OGN
Image, Aug 2022
[Original introduction to the bibliography]
Robert and I are starting off the new year with a long look back to the very beginning of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' amazing work together. Since we've had a month-long break between issues of Kill Or Be Killed, we're taking time this week to devote an Undertow Podcast episode to their very earliest collaboration, Scene of the Crime.
The pair tends to produce ten comic books a year, and we may use these occasional quiet months to slowly work our way through their entire body of work -- or at least their work as a team, a still quite hefty subset of the many books that list Brubaker or Phillips in their credits.
To prep for this literary travelogue, I made some notes on their books' order of publication: we posted a brief list of their major and minor collaborations back in 2011, but it didn't go into details about story arcs. The two keep returning to our favorite series Criminal between their other titles -- and we've had three new titles debut in the last half-decade -- so it was worth putting together these additional notes, and we think our readers might appreciate our posting the list online.
Labels: Bad Weekend, Batman Gotham Noir, Criminal, Fatale, Gotham Central, Incognito, Kill Or Be Killed, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, Pulp, Reckless, Scene of the Crime, Sleeper, The Fade Out, The Spirit
posted by Bubba at 2:50 PM
13 Comments:
Hi guys, do you have any info on Incognito reissue (both tpb and classified edition) or Criminal deluxe edition reissue?
Sorry about not noticing your comment sooner, Vandislav, but I *GREATLY* appreciate your readership, and you raise a good question.
You're right, those are the five collections of Brubaker & Phillips' creator-owned comics from Marvel's Icon imprint, which are currently out-of-print and have not yet been reprinted by Image:
- The Criminal Deluxe Edition, Volume 1 HC
- The Criminal Deluxe Edition, Volume 2 HC
- Incognito TPB
- Incognito: Bad Influences TPB
- Incognito: The Classified Edition HC
In early 2014, we did report that, in the original announcement of the five-year contract with Image, Incognito was moving to the publisher along with Criminal. By late 2015, the plans to republish Incognito by year's end had evidently changed. I do STILL suspect that the Incognito trades will be republished by Image eventually, but they may be waiting for something like a film adaptation going into production, a second sequel to the series, or a milestone like the original book's 10th anniversary in 2019.
About the deluxe editions, your guess is as good as mine, but I *DO* very much hope they go back print, both to address an error or two in the original editions and to provide new fans an affordable chance to read both titles in the best possible format.
Update, Apr 25 2018, with the following additions:
- Phillips' design of Sleeper's Holden Carver, for Point Blank
- The solicited final date of Kill Or Be Killed and our projection that the title will end up in four TPB's
- The October, 2017, release of the one-page contribution to the Spirit newspaper-sized comic
Jan 7, 2019:
- Listed the issues for the four TPB's for Kill Or Be Killed
- Added Junkies
- Added Criminal Vol. 3
- Minor corrections
April 23, 2020:
- Completed earlier work adding cover images, mostly from deluxe hardcover collections
- Updated the main list to include Criminal Vol 3 and Pulp, along with anticipated 2020 hardcover collections
- Added a second list summarizing deluxe hardcover collections in recommended order for reading and/or shelving
- Minor corrections
Big fan, since scene of the crime. I love the noir movie reviews/essays in the back of many single issues. Is there an index or list of those essays? I have all the issues, just want to be able to find specific analyses after I’ve watched the movie.
Thanks!
Apr 26-27, 2021:
EXTENSIVE revisions, focusing on making the bibliography current
- Added the formerly missing title for Criminal Vol. 3 #1
- Updated Pulp & added the first Reckless books
- Added The Man Who Laughs Deluxe and updated the deluxe editions of Criminal
- Added new cover images and rearranged the images for The Spirit and The Art of Sean Phillips
- Moved the post's original introduction to the bottom of the page
- Made minor corrections
Was looking for a complete list of their works together and this was the quickest/easiest I could find. Others were incomplete or just "top 5" style lists in random orders.
Thanks for keeping this up to date over the years!
You are quite welcome, THX! I'm glad to be of service!
Oct 18, 2022:
- Extensive reformatting, to fix this post
- Updated up to the preliminary info on the Criminal short story in December's Image! #9
...and added preliminary info for spring's OGN, as yet untitled
Nov 25, 2022, updated information on the Criminal short story "Teeg's Christmas Carol" and the recently announced OGN "Night Fever."
Aug 13, 2024, updates include Houses of the Unholy and the Fatale Compendium with images
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