Reckless: Brief Biographical Timelines

Note: If you've received a copy of the Neo Noir comic book, see my previous post for more info.

Our friend Robert Watson has just posted the latest episode of the Undertow Podcast, where we focus on Follow Me Down, the fifth book in the Reckless series. This is the final book in this particular run as Brubaker and Phillips take a break to publish Night Fever and possibly other books, including perhaps the long-awaited follow-up to The Fade Out.

This seems as good a time as any for me to summarize some notes I've taken, to produce a timeline (or three!) for the main characters and the central location in the series. I'll try to avoid serious spoilers for the Reckless books.

Ethan Reckless

1950-1951, born

With his father in Naval Intelligence, Ethan lived in Sterling Park, Virginia; Berlin, Germany; Oahu, Hawaii; and "half of the 60's" in Gitmo -- Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ethan was recruited by the FBI to infiltrate radical groups in college, using the alias "Donovan Rush" and working with Special Agent Frank Hancock.

1967-1968, ~age 17, spent his first year in college at UC Berkeley

1971, June, ~age 21, while working undercover, suffered a serious head injury from an explosion

Ethan soon left the FBI, and Ethan's father was never again promoted after 1972.

1975, ~age 25, began working for hire, as an unlicensed private investigator and fixer of problems

1979, ~age 29, befriended Anna

1981, ~age 31, Reckless (book 1)

Ethan revisits coastal town Santa Teresa, an apparently fictional town that was mentioned as a "vacation village" in the Criminal novella My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies.

Ethan stopped speaking with his father around this time; his father died before Christmas, 1984.

Frank Hancock retired from the FBI and suffered a stroke.

1985, Summer, ~age 36, Friend of the Devil

1988, April-August, age 37 (stated explicitly), Destroy All Monsters

1989, November, age 38, The Ghost In You & Follow Me Down

2004, Summer, age 54, concluding chapters to Follow Me Down

c. 2021, about age 71, during the pandemic, Ethan types his memoirs

Anna

1962, born

Anna's father worked as the projectionist at the El Ricardo theater.

1968-1972, ~age 6-10, watched Evilina on local channel 14

1975, age 12 (stated explicitly), father died

Anna's mother Sharon would have a series of unhealthy relationships with boyfriends and husbands.

1979, age 17 (stated explicitly), befriended Ethan; was previously a runaway

1988, age 26 (stated explicitly), had a brief falling out with Ethan, moved to east LA and then back

1989, age 27, works first case as the primary investigator, for Lorna "Evilina" Valentine

Christmas Eve, Sharon marries for at least the third time, with Anna as a bridesmaid.

the El Ricardo theater

The El Ricardo is located on Strand Street in Santa Monica.

1974, closes for the first time

1979, is given to Ethan Reckless by a client; Ethan moves into the theater

1988, is damaged and renovated; Ethan gives the theater to Anna, who reopens it for curated showings

c. 1999, closes for the second time

This second closing may have been prompted by the tragedy mentioned at the end of Destroy All Monsters.

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.

Out This Week, New Reckless and a New Undertow Podcast!

I know, it's been forever. I even have an unfinished draft from when Friend of the Devil was due to be released, announcing that my life in the real world has just been keeping me entirely too busy to blog -- but further noting this isn't the worst possible time to post intermittently, with Brubaker & Phillips having made the move from releasing monthly issues to publishing original graphic novels.

For the time being, A Criminal Blog is unofficially going into a partial and indefinite hibernation:

• Partial, because I'll still post as time permits and circumstances require it.
• Indefinite, because I'm not sure when I'll resume a more regular schedule with blogging.

But this week, we do have news!

The third original graphic novel in the Reckless series, Destroy All Monsters, is due to hit stores this week, and just in time for its release, Robert and I recorded a brand new episode of the Undertow Podcast, focusing on the previous volume, Friend of the Devil.

In the podcast we mention other upcoming books...

• The first print collection of Ed Brubaker's Friday, collecting the first three digital-only issues and due on November 3rd. 
• The second ongoing comic book for artist Jacob Phillips, Newburn, featuring a private detective in New York City (to compliment the rural sheriff of That Texas Blood) and also due to debut on November 3rd.

...and the latter has something I haven't seen for an Image Comics release, a video trailer:

We're always looking forward to more from Brubaker and Phillips -- and now the 2nd Phillips as well -- and we're glad to still be here to comment when we can.

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: Coward
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

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

Night Fever
Hardcover OGN
Image, June 2023

Where The Body Was
Hardcover OGN
Image, December 2023

Houses of the Unholy
Hardcover OGN
Image, August 2024

The Knives: A Criminal Book

Hardcover OGN
Image, August 2025

Giant-Size Criminal #1
One-shot comic book
Image, December 2025

Five Gears In Reverse: A Criminal Book

Includes Giant-Size Criminal #1 as the first chapter, "The High Roller"

Hardcover OGN
Image, May 2026

Unfinished Tales
Hardcover OGN
Image, November 2026

---

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

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.