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!

Podcast Addenda as Reckless Vol 4 Hits Shelves This Week.

The Ghost In You, the 4th Reckless OGN from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, arrives this week, and so Robert Watson has released another episode of The Undertow Podcast: this time, Robert and I review the previous volume, Destroy All Monsters.

There were a few more items that didn't make the recording, all worth mentioning briefly.

We recorded Sunday night, and Ed Brubaker sent out another email newsletter Monday with a few of those items.

• Reckless Bookplate. Stores with large enough orders will include an autographed bookplate with The Ghost In You.

For this release, the bookplate features a young Anna with her Black Flag tee-shirt and the "Anna-archy" grafitti she uses to tag the front doors of the El Ricardo theater.

• Parker's Last Call, Long Overdue. Brubaker shares the good news that Parker: The Martini Edition Last Call will finally reach stores in just a few weeks. The ComicList blog has a May 4th release date for the super-deluxe collection of Darwyn Cooke's second set of Donald Westlake / Richard Stark's Parker stories, originally expected September 30th, 2020. (!!!)

Ed Brubaker evidently has his "comp copies," and we're treated with a few interior photos, including one of a group interview with Brubaker, Bruce Timm, and Scott Dunbier.

To our own greatest delight, we get a glimpse of the team's long-awaited contribution to this collection -- "TOMORROW and TOMORROW and TOMORROW, A Grofield Story by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, For Donald Westlake and Darwyn Cooke."

• Gotham Central Ominbus Returning to Stores. In addition to keeping up with Ed Brubaker's newsletter, we have a habit of checking the ComicList blog each week, and along with The Ghost In You, this week sees the release of the 2022 edition of the Gotham Central Omnibus.

The release dovetails nicely with a news item for the podcast, announcing an end-of-year release of the 2022 edition of The Sleeper Omnibus, Brubaker and Phillips' self-contained masterpiece for DC's WildStorm universe.

We list Gotham Central in our bibliography for Brubaker and Phillips, but it is an oddity in that list: the latter only worked on cover art for seven of the last eight issues, and the former stopped writing for the 40-issue series with issue #36.

Nevertheless, Gotham Central is one of the best books set in Batman's hometown. The omnibus is well worth the $100 retail price, but we're sure you can find the book for less.

• Brubaker Working on Hollywood Adaptations. Finally, returning to the newsletter, we find a bit more about one item Robert mentioned in the podcast.

The last few months has been a hectic balancing act for me. Scripts and rewrites on the Batman show, working on Reckless and Friday script pages, and the early stages of adapting a few of our books into films (I never believe anything in TV or film is really happening until things are officially greenlit to production).

We wonder which books might be adapted -- Reckless? Kill Or Be Killed? Criminal?? -- and we've been waiting for years for any such project to see more than an industry-mag announcement. When an adaptation finally is produced and released, all we will say is, it's about damn time -- and we'll have our fingers crossed that the work honors the excellent source material.

Criminal #7 Out Today, An Undertow Review of Criminal #1-6, and More!

We've been expecting another email newsletter from Ed Brubaker -- so far, nothing yet -- but we have plenty to cover as the latest issue of Criminal reaches stores today.

Yesterday, Newsarama posted an extensive preview of Criminal #7, a six-page preview supplementing the three pages already seen at Image's website. The preview focuses on four very familiar faces, and we believe this is the first time we've seen the entire group of friends together -- Leo Patterson, Ricky Lawless, Jacob Kurtz, and Jenny (Jen) Waters.

(L-R) Jenny, Leo, Jacob, Ricky

(Tracy continues to be MIA; he's been mentioned in narration, but I don't believe we've seen him at all in this new ongoing series.  I wonder what the surly but capable older brother has been up to.  Since it seems their father's murder led directly to Tracy's less-than-voluntary military enlistment -- and another stay in juvie for Ricky -- we strongly suspect that we see Tracy's return before Teeg's tragic end.)

Much like characters in Stranger Things, also set in the mid-1980's, our quartet has a now-strained Sunday routine playing Dungeons & Dragons; naturally, Jacob is the DM. The title for this chapter of "Cruel Summer" -- "Must Be This Tall to Ride" -- may hint at the transition from childhood to adulthood, from relative innocence to a life of crime.

(It's the same transition Jacob noticed in "Bad Weekend," in a long narration that was entirely reworked for the expanded hardcover release.  In both versions, Jacob took two very different paths to note how Ricky had changed over the years, following in his father's violent footsteps.)

The title also reminds us of the amusement-park sign which was prominently featured in The John Larroquette Show, in the office of the sardonic main character, a recovering alcoholic:

"This is a Dark Ride."

That pretty much sums up Criminal, for that matter, and Robert and I recently reviewed the entire first half of 2019 in an extensive, two-part episode of The Undertow Podcast. 

• Episode 33 came out at the beginning of the month, covering the latest news, looking back at the first four issues -- two of which serve as a kind of prologue to "Cruel Summer"; the other two having been collected and expanded in the "Bad Weekend" -- and looking closely at Criminal #5, "Night of the Hunter."
• Out just last week, Episode 34 provides a similarly in-depth review of Criminal #6, "Song to the Siren," and concludes with recommendations for a couple recent films, both featuring Liam Neeson.

In the news, we covered Deadline's July 17th article announcing Ed Brubaker's deal with Legendary TV Studios adapting his creator-owned comics, and we mentioned the most recent award for those comics, the Best (New) Graphic Album Eisner for My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, announced at the San Diego Comic-Con.

We also took a look ahead, first at Image's October solicitations and then at some very exciting news for 2020.   The former includes a 10/23 release for Criminal #9 as well as advance solicitations for TWO collections, both due on November 13th: the softcover for Junkies, retailing at $13, and the deluxe single-volume hardcover for Kill Or Be Killed, retailing at $50. 

Separately, Bleeding Cool's San Diego Comic-Con coverage made note of a few special projects from IDW, and the most eye-catching announcement was for the four Parker adaptations from the late, great Darwyn Cooke:  the first two books had already been collected in the deluxe Martini Edition, and it's going back to print next year alongside a new "Last Call" Martini Edition for the final two books, with design and additional writing coming from Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker!

 We couldn't conceive of a better way to conclude the "Martini" editions of these instant-classic comics, brilliantly adapting the best novels from the late Donald Westlake, aka Richard Stark.

Since then, we have seen that Junkies has been nominated for a 2019 Harvey Award, announced just  last week.  Comprising just six categories, the awards will be announced on October 4th during the New York Comic Con, and My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is one of ten nominees for "Book of the Year."

We also saw the August 7th release of the "Image Firsts" edition of Criminal #1, and we confirmed that the issue -- explicitly designed by Sean Phillips -- is a bare-bones reproduction of the very first issue of the creator owned series, chapter one of "Coward" from late 2006.  The issue omits the bonus essay, a marvelous journal entry written from Gnarly's point of view, and instead the issue includes ad pages for the entire, sprawling Criminal saga.

(We wonder if "Coward" ties into "Cruel Summer" more than we expect:  the current story is leading up quite explicitly to Teeg's murder, and we wonder if we'll see a few more familiar faces on the way.)

Finally, we've also seen a few recent interviews from Ed Brubaker, resulting from his San Diego appearance.  On July 30th, Newsarama posted a text interview, discussing screenwriting and his exclusive deal with Image, how the Lawless family is an effed-up "funhouse mirror reflection" of his own family(!) and how Criminal #8, still due on September 25th, is the approximate midpoint for "Cruel Summer." 

On August 7th, SyFyWire published a three-minute video interview with Brubaker at Comic-Con, about the origins behind "Bad Weekend," namely the great comic-book artists and their tragic histories, including the fatal car accident that is fictionalized in his recent Criminal tale -- a 1956 accident, in which 46-year-old Alex Raymond died while driving Stan Drake's Corvette. 

We see that Cerebus creator Dave Sim began telling the story of "The Strange Death of Alex Raymond" in his self-published book Glamourpuss, from 2008 to 2012.  By 2014, Sim was seeking support through Patreon for the work-in-progress, with plans to publish through IDW, but the latest update I could find is from 2014:  with about 90 pages complete, enough for two volumes, the book may be legally unpublishable because of copyright concerns, but Sim continues working on it, "a strictly creative, non-commercial thing to noodle away at for the rest of my life."

Apparently Sim isn't the only person fascinated by the tragic tale, an extreme example of what Brubaker calls the "tragic limbo" in which great artists have hardly prospered from their much beloved work.

New UNDERTOW PODCAST As The End Nears for KILL OR BE KILLED!

We've just released the latest episode of The Undertow Podcast:  we're approaching our 25th episode as Kill Or Be Killed is hurtling toward its grand finale.

In episode 24, we review KOBK's penultimate issue #19, an action-packed chapter with the series' most shocking cliffhanger ending.

We also cover the latest news from the world of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' crime comics.  An interviewer asks about that ending, and we talk about the upcoming graphic novella, My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.

And we end the issue with my strong and unequivocal recommendation for another graphic-novel crime comic, John K. Snyder III's hardcover adaptation of Eight Million Ways to Die, published by IDW.  The 1982 novel by Lawrence Block is the fifth in his detective series starring the alcoholic ex-cop Matthew Scudder, but this adaptation stands very well on its own, perfectly capturing the story's melancholy mood and the seedy setting of New York City in the early Eighties.

The book was released just last week, and late last month, CBR posted a very unusual preview, featuring work in-progress with fascinating commentary from the artist. 

In the crime writer's own newsletter, Lawrence Block writes, "I flat-out love what JKS3 has done," something he hasn't been able to say for most of his work's big-screen adaptations.  And, he links to a comics review by J.C. Vaughn saying that the book "may well be Snyder’s magnum opus, and it is unquestionably the best work of his career."

In their main characters and art styles, the two adaptations are very different indeed, but we find ourselves shocked to say that we think the book is as astounding as Darwyn Cooke's four books adapting Richard Stark's master thief Parker.

As always, you can find the podcast on iTunes and at Podbean:  we greatly appreciate listeners' feedback, and if you like our work, tell someone else who you think should give it a listen.

We'll be back very soon indeed to review the final issue of Kill Or Be Killed:  issue 20 reaches stores tomorrow, with two different covers.

Bullets: November Solicits, Postcards and Beer Cans, and More!

We saw a very cool tweet from Sean Phillips today:

The Fade Out is Wikipedia article of the day... https://t.co/lOqFfqZKiY

— Sean Phillips (@seanpphillips) August 25, 2017

Wikipedia's featured article for today, August 25th, is the entry on The Fade Out, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' award-winning noir set in the Golden Age of Hollywood.  Debuting three years ago this month, The Fade Out has proven to be one of the team's best books, one which we must revisit soon.

The Wikipedia article is exemplary, placed by the editors in the top 0.1% of the site's pages, and it sets the table for our lengthy post of news items.

• Kill Or Be Killed #14, Scheduled for November.  Image Comics released its November solicitations on Tuesday, and it includes another issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' ongoing vigilante series. 

"The shocking conclusion of the third arc of BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS’ bestselling series! Dylan's war against the Russian mob hits a fever pitch, as the demon returns from the shadows."

Since this wraps the third arc, this issue presumably includes the last of Sean Phillips' interlocking covers, which will form the collage shown above.

The issue is scheduled for a November 29th release -- the week after Thanksgiving -- and we would expect December to be a "skip month" for the series, allowing the next arc to debut in the new year.  The third trade paperback collection might still be released just in time for Christmas, but prior releases suggest that Kill Or Be Killed Volume 3 will reach stores the same day as issue #15.

...and, looking even further ahead, our guess is that these first 14 issues will eventually comprise the first deluxe hardcover collection of the series, with a page count similar to the deluxe editions of The Fade Out (12 issues), Fatale (two volumes, collecting 10 issues & 14 issues), and Velvet (15 issues).

• Inspector Rebus Turns 30, with Postcards by Sean Phillips.  We completely missed this last time, but Tripwire magazine's creator and editor-in-chief Joel Meadows published an interview with Sean Phillips on the artwork he created for the 30th anniversary of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus.

The Scottish novelist recently released the 22nd full-length novel for the Edinburgh detective, and Entertainment Weekly briefly interviewed Rankin about this latest entry in the popular, bestselling series -- and how he became a murder suspect researching the first Rebus novel. 

From Meadows' interview, we learn that Sean Phillips and Ian Rankin are friends: Phillips has read all the Rebus books and is a fan of a few British crime writers, "especially Ian, Denise Mina and Mark Billingham," and Rankin happened to have purchased a few issues of Kill Or Be Killed the day after Phillips took this assignment.

Sean used ink on paper to create the black-and-white artwork, keeping the title character in shadows and a trench coat.  Ian Rankin had final approval, but he and Orion Publishing approved all ten pieces without recommending any changes.  The artwork is featured in a slideshow at Tripewire's website, linking to a single Imgur page with all ten images, and we've posted four of our favorite images above.

It's been difficult to find more details about where exactly these postcards are being made available, but a search of the Orion Publishers' website produces only one hit for "Sean Phillips," a three-book hardcover box set.  Amazon's listing for the Rebus Anniversary box set notes that the package "also includes 10 limited edition postcards," and these are almost certainly what Phillips produced.

It appears the Rebus Anniversary set was released earlier this month.

From top: Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, & Gene Tierney

• Femme Fatale Beer, with Can Designs by Sean Phillips.  Some quite surprising news came out Wednesday, revealing the purpose for that lovely Rita Hayworth artwork we noticed in July.

OK Comics in Leeds, England, is celebrating its 15th birthday with a party on the night of September 23rd -- the same weekend as the Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, taking place just a short walk from OK Comics' city centre location.

The store is launching a beer for the occasion, brewed by North Brewing Co and available for purchase that entire weekend at Tallboys Beer Market, next door to the city centre OK Comics.  You can see both the comic shop and the beer market below, in the quite picturesque photo OK Comics recently tweeted.

Evidently named Femme Fatale beer and based on North Brewing's Herzog brand of Kolsch-style German ale, the beer features four different can designs from Sean Phillips, "based on his favourite Femme Fatales."

On Twitter, Sean Phillips identified his four subjects for us:  Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, and Gene Tierney.

Above, we've posting a collage of the process for the image of Rita Hayworth in the title role of the 1946 noir Gilda.  The images Phillips tweeted include an in-progress drawing, the completed inks, the completed, colored artwork, the can layout incorporating the pencils, the nearly finalized beer can label, and the finished design,

Lauren Becall was also featured in that "inks" tweet above and in a subsequent detail of the final image, and Phillips also posted the in-progress art of an earlier drawing of Gene Tierney -- in-progress details of the inkwork, shading, and coloring -- which we're reposting below.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect about this announcement can be found among the details for the shop's birthday party, in the event's Facebook page:

- Sean Phillips PrintsWe'll have a small quantity of limited edition prints, based on the Sean Phillips beer can designs. They will be signed, framed and ready to display.

It is not clear whether the beer or the artwork will be available elsewhere, either for purchase within the UK or for international orders.

And, although he is not included in the list of creators participating in the party's signing event, Sean Phillips is officially listed as a featured guest at Thought Bubble.

• Recommended Reading on Donald Westlake, Robert Mitchum, and Elvis Presley.  Finally, we'd like to highlight a few online essays that might interest our readers.

First, thanks to the official Twitter account of Hard Case Crime, we see that the Los Angeles Review of Books has published a lengthy essay on Donald Westlake, the "writer's writer's writer."

As Richard Stark, Westlake created Parker, the consummate professional thief whose novels were adapted by Darwyn Cooke in four killer graphic novels.  Hard Case Crime has already published (or reprinted) six of his novels with a seventh novel, a comic caper, already scheduled for next year.  Most recently, the imprint released the never-before-published Forever and a Death, based on a treatment of a James Bond film that was never produced -- and thereby hangs a tale and another interesting article.

Next up, the incomparable Mark Steyn recently published an essay on the classic noir Out of the Past, whose star Robert Mitchum was born 100 years ago this month.  The film itself turns sixty later this year, and in the back pages of this month's Kill Or Be Killed, Ed Brubaker named it his personal favorite noir and possibly his favorite film of all time, with "one of the greatest endings in the history of film."

Long-time readers might remember that Brubaker himself wrote a bonus essay about the movie in one of the very first issues of Criminal -- issue #2, I believe.  We're reposting Sean Phillips' artwork for the essay above, and the essay's another good reason to dig through our back issues.

Finally, Mark Steyn has also been commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley.  One quite long piece stands out above all the rest, the most recent "Song of the Week" essay on one of the most beautiful songs of all time, the quiet "Love Me Tender,"

One doesn't have to read his Twitter feed long to realize that Sean Phillips isn't politically simpatico with the conservative pundit, but Steyn's apolitical writing on culture -- and especially music -- is worth everyone's time.

I also know that, like U2's Larry Mullen Jr and my own departed mother, Sean Phillips is a hu-u-uge Elvis fan, and I couldn't recommend Steyn's essay more highly to him and any other fans.

Bullets: New Undertow Podcast, New Books This Week, New Incognito Screenwriter, and Much More!

A huge, huge post ahead!

• Undertow Podcast Episode 5, Now Online!  Just in time for this week's bundle of new books (see below), the latest episode of the Undertow Podcast is now online.  Robert and I talk about Kill Or Be Killed #2, along with news, the latest Criminal trade paperback, and some movie recommendations.

As always, the episode is available on iTunes and at Podbean.

• Brubaker Newsletter -- and The Fade Out, Kill Or Be Killed, and Batman In Stores Now!  Late yesterday, we received Ed Brubaker's seventh email newsletter (full archive here), in anticipation of quite a few books that arriving today.

• The Fade Out Deluxe Edition Hardcover
• Kill Or Be Killed #3
• Kill Or Be Killed #2, 2nd printing
• Kill Or Be Killed #1, 3rd printing
• Batman By Ed Brubaker Volume 2 TPB

Quite literally the biggest book is The Fade Out -- the 400-page, complete and oversized hardcover edition collecting all 12 issues of Brubaker and Phillips' Eisner-winning noir set in Hollywood's golden age.

We've really been looking forward to this one, and Brubaker writes that, with minor tweaks and fifty pages of extra content, this is how the book was always meant to be read -- as a novel rather than a series, with details that reward a close rereading.

We also have the next issue of Kill Or Be Killed this week.  Yesterday, Image Comics posted a three-page preview, and Brubaker provides two more preview pages along with an in-progress page from the upcoming issue #4.

Ed Brubaker also suggests getting a copy early -- or calling your comic shop to reserve one -- since the first two issues were immediate sellouts.  Reprints of these issues also reach stores today, and Brubaker writes that he continues to be overwhelmed by the response from readers old and new:  "It's humbling as hell."

And there's one book that wasn't mentioned in the newsletter, and which wasn't on our radar until we saw the weekly release summary from ComicList:  Batman By Ed Brbuaker Volume 2.  The collection follows from the first volume released this past January, and it includes stories from ten issues -- Batman #598-607 -- for a retail price of $19.99.  It features chapters from the "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" and "Fugitive" arcs, and since Batman #608 kicks off "Hush" -- the popular arc from Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, which I think a little overrated -- this collection completes Brubaker's work writing for the Dark Knight's eponymous title.

Most notably, this collection includes Batman #603.  A fairly self-contained story within the "Fugitive" storyline, "The Turning Point" features artwork from Sean Phillips, and it is one of the earliest Brubaker-Phillips collaborations, preceded only by Scene of the Crime and Batman: Gotham Noir.

• New Screenwriter for Incognito Adaptation.  Also breaking late yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively announced a new writer for Sony's film adaptation of Brubaker and Phillips' "apocalyptic pulp noir" Incognito.  Daniel Casey is the new writer, and his sci-fi thriller Kin is now in production; Fede Alvarez is attached to direct following his Evil Dead remake and this summer's hit Don't Breathe.

Work on an Incognito adaptation has been in the news off-and-on since 2010, confirmed by Brubaker in 2012 (along with the possibility of more Incognito comics), and news about the director Fede Alvarez was leaked last year when plans were still floating around about Image republishing the series.  My bet is that the series' two arcs will be republished near the film's eventual release.

• Hard Case Crime Comics, Out Now.  Going back to comics, there was another couple titles we almost overlooked, the first two comic books from the the Hard Case Crime imprint, published by Titan Comics.

It's clear from this blog that we've long been a fan of Hard Case Crime, thanks especially to its back-page ads in the first few issues of Criminal, in 2006.  This new arrangement to produce comics makes sense, as Hard Case Crime has been working with Titan Publishing since Dorchester Publishing ceased production on mass-market paperbacks in 2010.

Still, I find it ironic on a personal level, since their inexpensive and always entertaining crime fiction made me reevaluate the value I was getting from most of my comic-book purchases.  But with that yellow ribbon -- the editor's "assurance of quality" -- I'm going to have to check these out.

The comics imprint was announced in July, with CBR publishing exclusive preview art.

[UPDATE, 9:00 pm: forgot about this interview]  In early August, Previews World published a brief interview with HCC editor Charles Ardai, who explains why readers should pick up HCC comics:  "Because a great crime story will knock you on your ass and take your breath away. Because these comics will be like nothing else out there."

The (UK) Guardian ran a story on the imprint in late September, quoting Ardai who was reading comics before getting into mystery books, and who says, "The sharp, tough, high-velocity stories we tell are a natural for the medium."  Ardai then joined some of the books' creators at this weekend's New York Comic Con,

The first book was released last week: Triggerman #1, from screenwriter and director Walter Hill and French comics writer Matz and artist Jef.  The book is described as a "hardboiled crime thriller set in the bullet-ridden streets of 1930s Chicago," and from CBR's disjointed five-page preview from September, we're reprinting one particularly striking variant cover above, evidently from artist Fay Dalton.

The second book is out today:  Peepland #1 from crime authors Christa Faust and Gary Phillips and artist Andrea Camerini.  The book is set in the red light district of Times Square in 1986, and September's five-page preview validates a review that Faust retweeted, rating this seedy book not with stars but with "a lifetime supply of germ-x and Lysol wipes."  In September, the writers were interviewed by Crime Fiction Lovers, and yesterday Bleeding Cool posted an article with the creators' brief thoughts on their influences and some behind-the-scenes art.  Writer Christa Faust should be of especial interest to existing HCC fans as the author of Money Shot and Choke Hold.

On the horizon is a 2017 adaptation by Max Allan Collins of his popular hitman Quarry, who has just been brought to the small screen on Cinemax.  And just today Flickering Myth reports that the Triggerman team will produce an English-language adaptation of Walter Hill's thriller (Re)Assignment, which he first wrote as a graphic novel in France and then directed in a controversial film starring Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver, first screened in September's Toronto International Film Festival.

• Steve Epting Drawing Batwoman.  In other news this past week, and in the lead-up to New York Comic Con, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively announced a new Batwoman series from DC Comics.  Apparently part of a second wave of DC's Rebirth soft reboot, the series will begin with a Rebirth one-shot in February and issue #1 in March, it will be written by Marguerite Bennett, and -- most relevant to readers of this blog -- it will feature artwork by Steve Epting, his first work for DC in over 15 years.

This probably rules out any major collaborations between Epting and Brubaker for the near term:  if news about Velvet is still in the works -- and we reported in June that Brubaker said he's sitting on "huge news" on that front, along with his next project with Epting, "still top secret"  -- it's probably not a sequel series.

(Yesterday, in response to a tweet begging for a crime noir TV series from the writer, Brubaker cryptically tweeted, "stay tuned.")

• THR List.  Finally, along with the news about the Incognito film and Epting's upcoming work for DC Comics, there's one more article worth mentioning from The Hollywood Reporter, published late last week:  their list of the "100 Greatest Superhero Comics."  Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and the beloved Darwyn Cooke appear more than once.

95. Wildcats by Joe Casey, Phillips, Dustin Nguyen, and others
89. Daredevil by Brubaker and Michael Lark
75. Sleeper by Brubaker and Phillips
67. The Immortal Iron Fist by Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Travel Foreman
63. Catwoman by Brubaker and Cooke
36. Captain America by Brubaker and others
20. DC: The New Frontier by Cooke

We're surprised that the quasi-spy thriller Sleeper made it but Gotham Central didn't, and we wouldn't be surprised if The New Frontier continues to grow in stature as the years go by; the article also has some links to some great pieces on Darwyn Cooke.

Bullets: Velvet #15 Out Now, Advance Reviews of KOBK, and More!

We have a long post that could have been made even longer, but we'll start with a couple big items, as one big story reaches a momentary conclusion and another one looms larger on the horizon.

• Velvet #15, In Stores Today, with a Preview Online.  We recently covered the news that Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, and Bettie Breitweiser's espionage period piece was going on a hiatus following this new issue and its "grand finale of the first big Velvet story."  The new issue hit stores today, following a three-page preview that Comic Book Resources published yesterday, and we can confirm that Brubaker doesn't reveal many additional details in the back pages, beyond plans "to return to Velvet, hopefully soon and often."

(Okay, there's also a hint of what we might see in the future, a reveal that might be considered a bit of spoiler in light of the preview.)

At the beginning of the month, ComicList's extended preview for Image Comics included a product change for the issue.

VELVET #15 will now run 40 pages at a price of $3.99, not 32 pages at a price of $3.50.

We can confirm both the slightly higher price and the extra-sized issue; we notice that finales tend to run long with Brubaker stories, but we're not complaining in the least.

• Advance Reviews and Previews for Kill Or Be Killed.  In the back pages of Velvet, we find an extended preview of Kill Or Be Killed #1, the upcoming crime comic from Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Breitweiser.  It's the same six-page preview that we mentioned earlier.  These first few pages of the debut issue were first released in Image+ #2 and then expanded upon with in-progress art in Brubaker's first email newsletter, and it has since made it to other publications.

Two weeks back, it was announced on Twitter that the preview was included in the new issue of The Walking Dead, and we see that it's in issue #156, upside-down in the back -- tête-bêche, a format popularized by the Ace Doubles books introduced in the 1950's --  which allows Phillips' cover art to serve as a proper cover to the preview.  Long-time readers may remember that, despite being published through the Icon imprint of Image competitor Marvel, Criminal was featured in TWD ten years ago next month, with the five-page "trailer" for its first arc "Coward" being included in issue #30, and four years ago this month, Sean Phillips created a variant cover for the series' milestone 100th issue.

From Sean Phillips, we also learned that the book is featured in a five-page article of the latest issue of British comics magazine Comic Heroes.  The issue, released in early July, features Harley Quinn and Man-Bat on the cover, and the article evidently includes an interview with both Brubaker and Phillips.

And, advance copies of the debut issue is apparently reaching select readers, resulting in advance, reviews -- and advance tweets, as Rick Remender calls the book "an eerie layered bit of stunning greatness."

In a spoiler-free review, Nerdist raves that issue #1 "is so much darker and more twisted than anybody guessed. It’s also freaking glorious and an awesome first issue of a promising new series."  Elsewhere, Comic Bastards gives the book a 5 out of 5, describing the issue's narrative structure but still avoiding much more detail, particularly for readers of Brubaker's newsletter.

The book should be hitting stores in just a couple weeks, on August 3rd, and ComicList's latest extended forecast for Image relays that the issue "will now run 48 pages, not 40 pages, with no change in price."

• Solicitations, with Preview Art in the Latest Newsletter.  The latest issue of Ed Brubaker's email newsletter came out Sunday, and as before the issue is archived online, and readers should DEFINITELY subscribe to stay up-to-date.  In addition to fielding reader questions, Brubaker provides a ton of rare artwork:

• a Fatale giclée that was available at the 2014 TCAF, where both Brubaker and Phillips made an appearance
• several behind-the-scenes drafts of the cover art for Fatale #9
• a "non-spoilery tease" for KOBK #2, black-and-white in-progress artwork for a single page, with text
• the cover art for KOBK #3, along with an earlier sketch

We're reprinting the final cover art below, and it appears to have been omitted from the October solicitations that were released on Monday.

Kill Or Be Killed #3 cover, From the Desk of Ed Brubaker

(These first three issues' covers seem almost to tell a single story.  We wonder if that's deliberate, and we wonder if this "story" will continue to unfold on the covers.)

We overlooked Image's September solicitations, and the story's premise remains vague but very intriguing:

#2: Every killer has to have his first kill, and they're never easy.

#3: As our hero is drawn deeper into the shadows, his secret vigilante life begins to put everything he cares about in danger.

As with the first issue, these next two issues are solicited at $3.99 for 40 pages.

Fundraising and Tributes.  Finally, a couple brief notes, much more abbreviated than any one of these items deserve.

• Ed Brubaker was announced among the first wave of the 2017 JoCo Cruise, a weeklong excursion down Baja California in early March, and it appears that the cruise continues its partnership with the Worldbuilders charity, where booklovers work together to help worthy causes.
• Sean's wife Jeanette Phillips has set up a JustGiving page for Epilepsy Research UK. The 5K run/walk took place this past weekend, and she has already exceeded her goal, but people can still donate online.
• Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog has highlighted a tribute panel for the late, great creator at this year's San Diego Comic-Con International.  The one-hour event will start this Saturday evening, moderated by Jimmy Palmiotti and including Mike Allred, Scott Dunbier, Cully Hamner, Frank Tieri, and Bruce Timm.

We plan to pass along any reports on this panel.