In Stores Now, KILL OR BE KILLED 20 Featuring The JUNKIES Teaser!

For fans of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, it's the biggest week in quite some time.  The conclusion to their twisted vigilante comic, Kill Or Be Killed #20, arrives in retailers today, including in a virgin variant cover.

Image Comics features the issue in one of its front-page banner images, shown below, and the publisher has just posted a three-page preview -- the same preview we found in last week's CBR interview, with a few profanities blacked out.

Brubaker and Phillips tend to announce and promote their major projects with a short teaser comic, evoking the cinematic feel of a movie trailer, and their next project is no exception.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is an original hardcover graphic due in October, and we previously reported on Phillips' tweet that the KOBK finale would include that teaser, a hint of which we see in the embedded image.

My copies of #KOBK #20 have arrived. Out next Wednesday. Includes a teaser for our new book. Virgin variant edition available too. https://t.co/92hLA8E7Zl pic.twitter.com/RCmgrWBs51

— Sean Phillips (@seanpphillips) June 21, 2018

Phillips has since posted the full teaser to Twitter, and Image has done the same with a press release.

We'll be sure to discuss the teaser at length in The Undertow Podcast, but for now we'll simply point out the striking combination of the familiar and the new:  there's the three-row layout that has been a staple since the first Criminal arc in 2006 and the first-person narration that's an even older hallmark, but the mixed-case lettering, the more minimal lines that verge to cartooning, and ESPECIALLY the muted pastel colors evoke an indie romance comic.

But, as the teaser begins with a robber and ends with the threat of violence, all drawn to evoke empathy more than outrage, there's no mistaking the story for anything but a noir comic from the best team in the business.

We're sure we're not the only ones eager to get KOBK #20 in our hands today, for the main story and to see that teaser in print -- and we can hardly wait for the book's October release.