To RZ, AB, & Others: Personal Recommendations & Free Comics!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm using the $1 Image Firsts Neo Noir comic book to introduce friends to one of my great interests, the crime comics of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

I'm sending them the comic book and directing them here for more info, at least to reveal something about my personality and hopefully to get them hooked on my favorite comic books!


What's the BLUF, the Bottom Line Up Front?

1. If a particular book by Brubaker and Phillips caught your eye in that Neo Noir comic or in our bibliography, do check it out: you can't go wrong, their books run from very good to jaw-dropping.
2. My personal recommendation would be Criminal: The Last of the Innocent, and I'll elaborate on my preferences below.
3. Or, you can always pick up the team's most recent book, as they strive to make every project accessible to new readers, even those who have never read comic books before! 

Their latest project is Reckless, a series of fairly self-contained graphic novels, and its most recent entry is Follow Me Down.

(UPDATE, DEC 16. In his email newsletter on Wednesday, Brubaker released the four-page trailer for the team's next project Night Fever, a stand-alone graphic novel expected this June.)

If you're still only half curious, issue #1 for several of the duo's books are available online, absolutely free from the publisher's official website: links are below.

Personal Background

As far as hobbies go, I tend to emphasize depth over breadth. I don't follow all major sports closely, just my one undergrad alma mater in its seasonal athletic endeavors. I don't devour all of Star Trek, just Deep Space Nine (its greatest series) and to a lesser extent The Original Series and The Next Generation. My musical interests focus on the magnificent singer-songwriter David Gray and, somewhat to a lesser extent, vintage U2. And I don't have shelves upon shelves of sophisticated board games, just a handful of games with an overwhelming emphasis on Monolith's Conan board game and its numerous expansions.

I'm a little OCD; I do obsess.

(Here, it's not all Conan games, neither its licensed RPG nor its computer games. And it's not all iterations of Monolith's "Tactical Homeostatic System," it's just the original implementation with Conan's milieu of Sword and Sorcery. Much as I adore Batman, the Gotham City Chronicles game holds no real appeal for me!)

I do enjoy comic books generally, but I adore the crime comics by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Consistently productive and always bringing new wrinkles to their work, the team is now responsible for two decades' worth of critically acclaimed noir comics.

Separately, Brubaker is a fine writer and Phillips is a skilled artist, but together, it's alchemy.

I didn't closely follow either creator at the time, but I was already a big fan of Gotham Central when Criminal was announced. I was hooked the first time I read the "trailer" for the first arc, and I've been a fanatic ever since, with each new project providing further validation for my enthusiastic support for the team.

I soon became a co-contributor to this blog, then its sole contributor (currently providing infrequent updates), and then the co-host of The Undertow Podcast. I maintain a complete bibliography for the team's collaborative works, and I occasionally(!) share my interest with friends.

My Favorites by Brubaker & Phillips

I recommend The Last of the Innocent as an excellent introduction to the team -- which it certainly is, even though it is, in some ways, a very unusual entry in their bibliography -- but that doesn't mean the book is my all-time personal favorite.

Indeed my favorite series is Criminal, easily, and I'm thrilled that the team keeps coming back to the title over and over again: three ongoing series, mini-series, an original graphic novel, and short stories. It's been close to two years since we've visited that world, but another short story is due before New Year's.

But within Criminal, my favorite book is Wrong Time, Wrong Place, which collects two extra-length one-shots. I particularly love the magazine-sized variant for each story, with covers and bonus material mimicking the vintage comic book that the main character is reading -- the "Savage Sword" of a barbarian pastiche or the "Deadly Hands" of a kung-fu werewolf!

Criminal is their first creator-owned series and my all-time favorite, but their most fun comic might be their first lengthy collaboration Sleeper, a self-contained spy story set in DC's WildStorm universe. It's pure noir, so it's plenty dark in its premise, characterization, and plotting, but it has the most laugh-out-loud moments -- and it has the most innovative page layout, to boot.

And I wouldn't describe The Fade Out as fun, but I suspect that it may be the team's magnum opus. It tells a single lengthy, self-contained story set in Hollywood's Golden Age, and in its scope and focus (movie-making rather than superheroes), I think it compares favorably to that epic from the Eighties, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. It may not be quite as intricately told, but it may actually be a better story, one with continued relevance for the new century.

Other Recommended Comic Books

There are other books that I adore, beginning with another of Brubaker's frequent collaborators, the late, great, and irreplaceable Darwyn Cooke.

Cooke's DC: The New Frontier is another book that I think demands comparisons to Watchmen; it's a more optimistic book, and I think optimism may be harder to get right. His Catwoman with Brubaker is a great compliment to Gotham Central. And Darwyn Cooke's Parker books are AMAZING, the best comic adaptations of crime novels just as Criminal is the best original crime comic.

As far as adaptations go, I also thoroughly enjoyed Lawrence Block's Eight Million Ways to Die, intelligently adapted by John K. Snyder III.

And a very original, very humorous crime comic I've enjoyed is Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory: it takes a bizarre food-related premise and runs with it at full speed. (You can read the first issue for free, see below.)

My life with comic books started with Batman and Star Trek, and I can still strongly recommend a few other comics set in Gotham or built on sci-fi premises.

• Batman Black and White is an excellent anthology series, particularly the first volume.
• Batman Year One remains the best Batman story, better than The Dark Knight Returns.
• Planetoid by Ken Garing is a brilliant sci-fi series, a great story beautifully told.
• Strange Science Fantasy by Scott Morse isn't for everyone, but I loved it.

Star Trek: Early Voyages may be the best Trek comic, despite its cliffhanger ending remaining unresolved when Marvel's Paramount imprint closed up shop. Star Wars Tales is an excellent anthology, and the best ongoing series was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, written by John Jackson Miller and quite satisfying from beginning to end.

And if you remember the cartoons from the early 1980's, you might just adore, as I do, the brilliant but bonkers Transformers vs GI Joe by Tom Scioli.

As much as I like Conan and first got hooked thanks to the Dark Horse anthology, Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword, I'm not sure there's a modern story that stands tall as a must-read book. My hopes are high for Titan's new series due in 2023.

And I do like comic strips wholly apart from comic books -- especially The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes, with a fond spot for Peanuts and (more recently) Shoe.

A Brief Digression on Batman

Batman: Black and White was one of the first comic books I deliberately picked out for myself, and I distinctly remember getting it off a supermarket shelf. Along with Tim Burton's Batman from 1989 and the subsequent Batman: The Animated Series, this anthology kindled my enduring love of the Dark Knight, through Nolan's masterpiece trilogy -- yes, including The Dark Knight Rises -- to today, when just about the only Batman book I get is for the kiddos, the excellent Scooby-Doo team-up.

Gorgeous fan-made Dark Knight Trilogy posters by StudioKXX

Just as one can draw a straight line from Batman through Gotham Central to Criminal, I can see another line being drawn, with Scooby-Doo as the first crime comics for my kids.

FREE COMICS ONLINE!

Many creator-owned comic books find their home outside the "Big Two" publishers of DC and Marvel, and there's probably no bigger home than Image Comics. Image has found a few ways to advertise their books; in addition to their $1 "Image Firsts" reprints of #1 issues, they have an extensive online collection of free first issues, from The Walking Dead and Saga to some quite obscure titles.

Here are the ones I'd recommend.

Brubaker & Phillips

• Fatale
• The Fade Out
• Kill Or Be Killed

Artist Jacob Phillips, Sean's son and the team's current colorist

• That Texas Blood
• Newburn

Other Crime Comics

• Chew
• Gunning for Hits

Miscellaneous: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Humor

• Black Science
• Farmhand
• Gogor
• Shirtless Bear Fighter!

Wrapping Up

I certainly read more than just comic books; it was Criminal and Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptations that led to the hard-boiled crime fiction of Hard Case Crime and Richard Stark's Parker series.

I also thoroughly enjoy the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, and I have fallen hard for Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. And, on a most serious note, my faith has been strengthened by being mentored, in a sense, through the works of C.S. Lewis and John Stott.

But I can hardly overstate how much I love the crime comics of Brubaker and Phillips, and I hope that -- just maybe -- the Neo Noir comic and this little blog post will open the door to your discovering their books for yourself.

If not, at least you've had a glimpse into my little world.

Follow Me Down, Undertow Podcast & More, Out Now!

We would be remiss if we didn't briefly mention the output of a very busy week and change.

Follow Me Down, the fifth Reckless original graphic novel, reached retailers this past Wednesday, revealing what Ethan was up to during the events of The Ghost In You. In the afterward, Ed Brubaker tells readers that they're taking a break from the series for another project -- as yet unannounced, "a new hardback graphic novel" due in the spring and already in production -- but he promises that Ethan and Anna will return in a story set in the 1990s.

The previous week saw the arrival of a quite unique Image Firsts $1 comic: Neo Noir: The World of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Instead of reprinting a single first issue, the comic reprints the short "trailers" the team has produced to advertise their books, all with essays by David Harper providing an overview of the team's work. The 64-page comic book serves as an excellent introduction to the team, prompting me to give away copies to close friends.

(We note in passing that things have come full circle: the "trailers" were produced to mimic movie trailers and offer an alternative to traditional previews consisting of a comic book's first few pages, but the last preview in Neo Noir, for the first Reckless OGN actually is the book's first four pages. The introductory chapter in each Reckless book is almost like a cold open to a TV series, and this particular chapter serves to introduce the main character, his job and personality, and the overall series. It's kinda like a trailer after all.)

With new books in stores, Brubaker published his first email newsletter in more than two months. In addition to these new releases, the writer mentions Friday and Pulp, addresses the recent news regarding Batman: Caped Crusader, and highlights a new video-podcast interview. He closes with an enigmatic image from the mysterious new project.

That same Tuesday, Robert Watson released the latest episode of the Undertow Podcast. With our current production schedule, we tend to release an episode as Ed sends out his newsletter, both in anticipation of the next book hitting store shelves.

This time, we looked forward to Follow Me Down by taking an extended look back at the previous Reckless book, The Ghost In You.

We also took a time to talk about that other recent release from Brubaker and Phillips -- effectively, the latest "Deluxe Edition" oversized hardcover, Pulp: The Process Edition. I recommend it heartily for completists and especially those who are interested in the team's creative process, and our discussion might complement what Brubaker recommended in his newsletter, an extensive review at AIPT Comics.

Robert gave us a good overview of Richard Stark's Parker: The Martini Edition Last Call, the second and final oversized hardcover collection of Darwyn Cooke's phenomenal adaptations of the classic crime novels. As I said in the podcast, the Parker books comprise -- alongside DC: The New Frontier -- Darwyn's magnum opus.

The much-missed artist is honored in this edition, designed and overseen by Brubaker and Phillips, who contribute a new short story to the collection. As with Pulp, we would direct readers to AIPT for more info, this time a May 10th review of this concluding Martini Edition.

Robert and I concluded the podcast with a rare joint recommendation -- Heat 2, an unexpected sequel to the classic neo-noir epic, a novel co-written by writer and director Michael Mann and award-winning mystery writer Meg Gardiner.

(I thoroughly enjoyed the book despite some nits to pick, and I plan to outline my criticisms in the comments below -- briefly and maybe tomorrow, but with heavy spoilers for the original film and some high-level spoilers for the new novel. Readers have been warned.)

Finally, we simply must mention Image Comics' December solicitations (ignore the erroneous URL). The publisher has been releasing an anthology series in celebration of its 30th anniversary, and Image! #9 features a contribution from Brubaker and Phillips -- more specifically, a Criminal short story, perhaps a Criminal "emission" in the vein of previous short stories listed in our bibliography.

Previous cover art for the anthology has presented homages to other Image books, and issue #9 puts Criminal front and center with our good friend Teeg Lawless, wired and tired and ready for Christmas. The book is expected to be a late Christmas present, due out on December 28th.

We're already looking forward to it!