CRIMINAL One-Shot & UNDERTOW Podcast Out Now: More CRIMINAL in May!

 We're posting to the blog just long enough to relay a few items of note.

• The GIANT-SIZE CRIMINAL #1 one-shot is in stores now. Along with a standard cover by Sean Phillips, the book features three variant covers shown above. The interiors include a story starring Ricky Lawless, an overview of the series in anticipation of the upcoming Amazon TV show, and a poker-based CRIMINAL RPG ready for readers to implement, all on glorious newsprint.
• The latest episode of THE UNDERTOW PODCAST is also out now. Robert and I review THE KNIVES and discuss the latest news.
• And, recent solicitations list Brubaker and Phillips' next OGN, and it's another CRIMINAL story, due May 27. FIVE GEARS IN REVERSE features "the legendary RICKY LAWLESS and the crazy tale of how he and MALLORY fell in love in the midst of a crime spree."

We still haven't heard anything about the premiere of Amazon's CRIMINAL TV series. We're hopeful that it will come out before FIVE GEARS, and regardless we will pass along any information as we find it.

THE KNIVES Come Out Tomorrow!

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' greatest series returns in their longest original graphic novel yet!  THE KNIVES is a CRIMINAL book, the first full-length story in five years, and it features Jacob, Tracy Lawless, and Angie.

On July 13th, Brubaker sent out an email newsletter with a lengthy preview of the new book, a brief note on the new editions of CRIMINAL -- trade paperbacks with new covers by Sean Phillips -- and news that the next project is another CRIMINAL tale, "a CHRISTMAS SPECIAL magazine, which will be available in comic shops only this December."

Brubaker also relays that the Amazon series won't be out in the early fall after all, but we wonder if the Christmas Special is timed to coincide with the debut of the TV adaptation of CRIMINAL.

We'll just have to wait and see, and we'll probably have a new episode of THE UNDERTOW PODCAST out sooner rather than later to review the new book. 

Night Fever and a New Undertow Podcast, Out This Week!

We're writing very briefly to note that the latest Brubaker-Phillips collaboration came out this week:  Night Fever is a stand-alone original graphic novel following one man's descent into decadence and violence while on a business trip to Europe.

It's worth noting that the cover art has changed from what was originally announced, with the orange and blue image of protagonist Jonathan Webb's back, shown on the left, replaced by the image shown on the right: the gray and white image has Webb facing the reader, still carrying a knife, standing in shadow, and obscured by a mask one would find at a masquerade ball.

(I honestly prefer the original cover art.)

The hardcover edition went on sale at local retailers Wednesday, with an MSRP of $24.99.

In anticipation of the new book coming out, Robert Watson and I briefly chatted for a new episode of The Undertow Podcast. We talked about the recent news in Hollywood: 

• a film adaptation for Pulp with Oscar-winning writer Tom McCarthy
• an Amazon series for Criminal with novelist Jordan Harper as the co-showrunner 

Robert had an amusing list of casting choices, straight out of a 90s-era issue of Wizard magazine.

This isn't the first time that Hollywood has tried to adapt Brubaker and Phillips, and we hope these projects bear fruit and produce work that is worthy of the source material.

In the meantime, we also discussed the announcement for the team's next book, surprising in that the news broke before Night Fever hit store shelves.

Where the Body Was is due this December, and in a recent email newsletter, Brubaker explained that the book begins with a map of the neighborhood where the body in question was found. This is a bit of callback to the mapback editions of pulp paperbacks, where the back cover would draw in readers with a diagram or map of the scene of the crime.

We've already enjoyed Night Fever on our first readthrough, and we'll probably reread the book just prior to our next podcast recording -- possibly as soon as July! -- but we're already quite looking forward to Where the Body Was.

It seemed we picked a good team to follow so fanatically!

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!

Out This Week: PULP, That Texas Blood #2, a Brubaker Newsletter, and an Undertow Podcast!

It's been a while, but we're back, and I'll be brief. (Yeah, right.)

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return today with their first new comics work in literally six months, the hardcover, original graphic novel, Pulp!

Announced last December and originally planned for a May 20th release, Pulp is the third slightly oversized "graphic novella" for the team, following 2018's My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies the expanded edition of Bad Weekend released last July.  

Image Comics prominently features the book on its website, and there are a number of signed bookplates for the book.  Shown below (L-R), there's one for the North American market and exclusive bookplates for two different British retailers, Page 45 and OK Comics.

Pulp is coming out the same day as That Texas Blood #2, by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips, the Criminal colorist who is proving to be an artistic force in his own right.  

The first issue was released on June 24th and went into an immediate second printing, which hit stores last week.  Shown below, we have Sean Phillips' first-printing variant cover and the second-printing cover for issue #1, followed by the two first-printing covers for issue #2.

On the listing for the second issue, we find that the variant cover is by Hellboy artist Duncan Fegredo, the issue is the first chapter of a five-part story entitled "A Brother's Conscience," and a three-page preview is available to whet our appetite.

With so much arriving this week, Robert and I made an extra effort to meet online and record an episode of our podcast: Brubaker hadn't released an email newsletter since mid-May, and I believe I half-jokingly predicted that would change between the episode's recording and release.

I was right.  The latest newsletter "From the desk of Ed Brubaker" hit my inbox yesterday afternoon, a little more than three hours before Robert texted me that the podcast was up!

Brubaker's new email newsletter is a must-read, giving readers a little more insight into Pulp (including some preview pages) and some very exciting details about what comes next.

We got a few preview images indicating a setting of LA in 1981; it's only a setting, one of potentially many. The title, the release date -- "sooner than you think" (!!!) -- and some more preview pages are promised for the next newsletter, but what Brubaker just revealed is thrilling enough:

• The next project is a series of original graphic novels.
• Each OGN will feature the same protagonist but tell its own complete story.
• The books will be longer than the 72-page "novellas" that preceded them -- Junkies, Bad Weekend, and Pulp -- and the first book is about 125 pages.
• The team plans to release three volumes over the course of a year.

Brubaker believes this is a first -- "three full-length OGNs in one year by the same team." 

So if you're a longtime reader of ours, you'll actually be getting more "content" than usual soon.

We've been going through withdrawal, so we're positively giddy!

Brubaker also writes about a classic TV shows -- his dad's favorite, and one of mine, alongside Perry Mason and Magnum, P.I.  The show is The Rockford Files, previously aired on the delightful MeTV and now streaming on NBCUniversal's new streaming service, Peacock.  It's been (more than) a few years since the writer dropped the often toxic environment of Twitter, but we remember that his account's profile photo used to be of the man himself, Jim Rockford, in an iconic shot from the opening sequence.

(We wonder if Jim Rockford is anything like the protagonist for this upcoming series of OGNs...)

But before you check out Rockford, we heartily recommend Episode 38 of The Undertow Podcast.  This new episode was recorded Monday night and released just yesterday, and it features reviews of four recent releases!

During what our inestimable host Robert Watson has accurately described as a "cruel summer," we have still had a few books to read outside of the usual Brubaker-Phillips collaborations -- short stories and full-length comic books, in print and online, in separate projects from Ed Brubaker and Jacob Phillips -- and we briefly covered each one.

• Friday #1, from Brubaker and artist Marcos Martin, 24 pages released digitally on 4/15 through Martin's Panel Syndicate
• "The Art of Picking a Lock," a 12-page story from Brubaker and artist Cameron Stewart, released on 6/2 in the prestige-format Catwoman anthology, the 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular
• That Texas Blood #1, from writer Chris Condon and artist Jacob Phillips, a 22-page comic released on 6/24 through Image Comics
• Brutal Dark #1 & #2, from Condon & J. Phillips, two 8-page issues released digitally on 5/6 and 6/18 respectively, for fans who support the team through their Patreon page

Each book was a helluva read, and Robert and I also had a few recommendations for our listeners, including a pair of very different movies from the 1990's -- the stylish adaptation of the comics detective Dick Tracy and the cult sci-fi/horror film Event Horizon.

I also gave a brief, unplanned recommendation for Scooby-Doo! Team-Up.  The 50-issue series ran from 2013 to 2019, and I think it was the best kids comic on the stands: our kids love it, and it's a great introduction to crime comics, somewhat spooky but very funny!

(Like all great works for kids, there's plenty for parents to appreciate, too.)

To promote the new animated movie, Scoob!, more than 250 issues of Scooby-Doo comics have been made available through Comixology and other digital retailers, completely free if purchased now through September 7th.

Featuring famous and obscure characters from DC Comics and Hanna-Barbara, the Team-Up book is the best of the bunch, and the entire series is being given away in eight volumes of digital trade paperbacks -- and if you have an Amazon account, you already have a Comixology account whether you realize it or not.

Summing up, there's lots to enjoy for Brubaker and Phillips fans -- a new podcast, a new newsletter, a couple old movies and quite a few books to read -- but the highest priority is visiting your local comic shop for Pulp and the sophomore issue of That Texas Blood.

Giddy-up!

FRIDAY and the Rest of 2020: New Podcast, Newsletter, Deluxe Editions, AND a Digital Book from Brubaker!

Early April saw the release of the latest Undertow Podcast, featuring our review of Criminal #12, the explosive finale of the sprawling "Cruel Summer" arc.  We hope our listeners enjoy the discussion even half as much as Robert and I did.

During the podcast, we raised some questions we had about Amazon listings for upcoming releases, and we happened to get some answers last week from an email newsletter sent out by Ed Brubaker.

That newsletter opened with bigger, MUCH more immediately pressing news, and we'll follow suit here, with the Criminal news at the end of the post.

Ed Brubaker's Brand New Comic FRIDAY

In the last few years, a handful of high-profile creators have released works suddenly, without any prior press or announcement.  Beyonce famously did this in December, 2013, with her self-titled "visual album," and U2 infamously did something similar the following September, "gifting" their album Songs of Innocence to a half billion iTunes customers.

With hardcopy comic books generally requiring solicitations and retailer pre-orders, such surprise releases are quite rare: the only example that comes to mind is Robert Kirkman's July, 2018, release of Die! Die! Die!

(Kirkman avoided the usual process by giving copies of the debut issue to retailers, matching the number of copies ordered for March's Oblivion Song #1. The writer followed up the surprise debut the very next July with the sudden end of The Walking Dead at issue #193).

Digital comics are an entirely different animal, and on April 15th, Ed Brubaker announced the immediate release of the first "chapter" (or issue) of FRIDAY, a new series with Spanish artist Marcos Martin.

Marcos Martin has spent more than twenty years in the industry, primarily for the Big Two publishers.  Martin and writer Brian K. Vaughan created Panel Syndicate to distribute "digital comics directly from creators to readers."  In 2013, the pair debuted the first title for the site,The Private Eye, with coloring by Muntsa Vicente.  The series won both an Eisner and a Harvey, and the site has since expanded to feature other series, other creators, and a one-shot for The Walking Dead.

Now, Martin and Vincente are joining writer Ed Brubaker to create FRIDAY.

In his newsletter, Brubaker relays that he's been working on this project for nearly a year: "Close readers will have noticed me mentioning a secret project with one of my favorite artists here and there, and this is it."

(We're not sure what's become of the "top secret" project with Steve Epting, post-Velvet, mentioned almost five years ago this month.)

Along with Ed's email newsletter, a few news sites announced the book Wednesday morning. The AV Club includes the same four-page preview found in the newsletter and at Panel Syndicate.  Meanwhile The Hollywood Reporter quotes Brubaker on how the series originated in a request from Martin to work on "his next big thing for Panel Syndicate," followed by Brubaker's immediate and enthusiastic response.

That same Wednesday, CBR published the official press release, the source of those quotes from the creators.  Martin elaborates that the pair previously collaborated for a Captain America annual (evidently the 65th Anniversary Special), a brief but satisfying experience.

The press release also gives us the title of this first chapter: "The Girl in the Trees."

CBR has since posted a few more articles on the new series.

• Thursday, Aaron Fentress provides a spoilery look at the first chapter, suggesting that the series aims to deconstruct YA fiction much the way Watchmen deconstructed costumed superheroes, causing the characters to age and leave their comfort zone in a manner similar to the humorous Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros.
• Friday, Sam Stone previewed an "upcoming exclusive interview" with Marcos Martin, explaining that the recent health crisis briefly delayed the series' release and simultaneously motivated its immediate publication: the quarantine "was a determining factor to put it out now instead of waiting around until later because we felt it would be good for the industry and most definitely, our mental health."
• Saturday, Collier Jennings previewed an upcoming interview with Ed Brubaker, discussing the Young Adult genre and its strange but comforting trope of "kids just living this endless youth as the decades around them change."  In what the writer has coined "post-YA," Brubaker is "just taking those same types of teen heroes, and allowing them to grow up and exist in the real world around them, to allow the strange occult mysteries they investigate to become actual horror stories."
• Sunday, Fentress drops even more spoilers to compare the series to True Detective, with both evidently having roots in the same kind of horror stories.

(Also, on Friday, CBR published Ed Brubaker's response to the rumor that Shang-Chi's parentage has been changed for the upcoming MCU release.)

Just today, CBR published the complete interview they previously teased, an exclusive, joint interview with Brubaker and Martin.  Brubaker traces the lineage of horror and occult stories in YA fiction and children's stories, and he elaborates that the pair's earlier collaboration was very brief indeed:  "He and Javier [Pulido? Rodriguez?] jumped in at the last minute when an artist blew a deadline on a Cap annual, and they saved us by alternating chapters."

The process for the new book has been much more deliberately paced, and Martin says that he especially enjoyed "the mixture of the Lovecraftian New Englandish town and the early 70s," the latter caused Muntsa Vicente to change her approach to coloring "with no use of gradients at all and limiting her palette to just 128 colors like the old comics of the late 70s."

The interview closes with Martin's hopes for Panel Syndicate, and we can't help but think Friday will help the site expand its readership.  Yesterday, Brubaker sent out a "quick note of thanks" for the overwhelming response to the book -- and he linked to two additional stories.

• Calling the book a "gripping read" with special praise for the artwork, Volume 1 Brooklyn apparently conducted their own interview with the creators: Brubaker notes the freedom in page length which the digital format affords him, and Martin relayed the positive response to Panel Syndicate, even from retailers and publishers who can "make more sensible and informed decisions in regards to the product they wanted to print and put out physically.
• Giving a rating of 10 out of 10, Comics Bookcase calls Friday "damn good," and "the best debut issue of any comic I’ve read this year."

The Bottom Line on FRIDAY

There's a lot to read about Brubaker's new series, but it may be useful to highlight the main points.

The Panel Syndicate page for the series provides an excellent summary of its premise (emphasis mine).

Friday Fitzhugh spent her childhood solving crimes and digging up occult secrets with her best friend Lancelot Jones, the smartest boy in the world. But that was the past, now she's in college, starting a new life on her own. Except when Friday comes home for the holidays, she's immediately pulled back into Lance's orbit and finds that something very strange and dangerous is happening in their little New England town...

This is literally the Christmas vacation from Hell and neither of them may survive to see the New Year.

What do we know about the comic's format and availability?

• Chapter One, "The Girl in the Trees," is out now, in multiple formats -- "No DRM, no encryption, just plain files optimised for on-screen viewing" -- and is available in English and in Spanish.
• In line with Panel Syndicate's publishing model, you PAY WHAT YOU WANT for the book, including the option of not paying at all: PayPal used for payment, and you do NOT need a PayPal account to complete the purchase.
• This first issue is listed at 30 pages, with 26 pages of story and concluding with a two-page note from the writer.
• Per Ed Brubaker, "The plan is to release the chapters digitally as we finish them, and then put out the whole graphic novel from IMAGE in a beautiful hardback edition (with lots of extras) for comic shops and bookstores."

We suspect that the title alludes to the 1995 comedy starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday.  Citing a book of essays on the director Howard Hawks, Wikipedia helpfully explains that the title is ironic "because a girl 'Friday' represents a servant of a master, but [ace reporter] Hildy [Johnson] is not a servant in the film, but rather the equal to Walter [Jones, editor and ex-husband]."

And this isn't the first time that Ed Brubaker has riffed on Encyclopedia Brown -- or YA fiction for that matter, if you count Archie Comics.  "The Last of the Innocent" introduced Britt Black, but since Lancelot Jones is different prodigy P.I., all grown up (or growing up), we might not be in the same world as Criminal, and we certainly can't be sure who might or might not make it to the story's conclusion.

CRIMINAL Collections, Coming Soonish

In that newsletter from last week, Ed Brubaker relays that the upcoming hardcopy books are "sitting in limbo" at the printer, both Pulp and the "oversized hardback of CRUEL SUMMER."

While we're waiting for Pulp, Brubaker has treated newsletter readers with a new but brief, three-panel preview of the story, but it's the "Cruel Summer" collection that intrigues us most.

So far as we know, that book has not yet been officially announced.

As we mentioned in the Undertow Podcast, James Joshua Hall reached out to us through Twitter to direct our attention to a few new listings on Amazon.

For posterity's sake, and in case the listings change, here's what we currently have:

Cruel Summer hardcover

expected July 21, 2020
list price $34.99

BRUBAKER and PHILLIPS' CRIMINAL epic, collected in a gorgeous hardback edition.

In the summer of '88, Teeg Lawless comes home to plan the biggest heist of his career. But Teeg's son Ricky and his friends are starting down the same dark path their fathers are on, and this is about to become the worst summer of their lives.

An epic tale of tragedy handed down from generation-to-generation, CRUEL SUMMER is a crime comic masterpiece from the most-celebrated noir masters in the industry, creators of CRIMINAL, FATALE, KILL OR BE KILLED and THE FADE OUT.

Collects CRIMINAL issues 1 and 5 - 12 in a beautiful new hardback edition, with additional behind the scenes material.

Criminal Volume 8: Three Sharp Knocks paperback

expected December 29, 2020
list price $16.99

The debut appearance of one of the most important characters in CRIMINAL history, RICKY LAWLESS, in three heartbreaking tales of crime and family.

Collects CRIMINAL (Image Comics) #1-4.

The June solicitations were (and still are) the most recent solicits for Image Comics, and the list of upcoming books did not include any advance solicitations for Criminal books, for July or later.

We found these two Amazon listings quite odd.

We're not sure why the "Cruel Summer" collection would include the untitled issue #1 but not "Orphans" from issue #4: both served as a kind of prologue to the "Cruel Summer" arc, explicitly looking forward (or backwards) to the violent death of Teeg Lawless.

We also can't quite understand why the next numbered TPB for Criminal would overlap with this "Cruel Summer" collection (with issue #1) and the "Bad Weekend" expanded hardcover (issues #2-3).

While we pondered those questions, JJH reached out again last Monday, pointing us to yet another new listing on Amazon, albeit one with "no image available":

Criminal Deluxe Edition, Volume 3 Hardcover

expected October 27, 2020
list price $49.99

BRUBAKER and PHILLIPS' hard-to-find CRIMINAL hardbacks are finally back in print, and joining them is the long-awaited CRIMINAL: DELUXE EDITION, VOL. 3.

This oversized deluxe hardback collects several short stories and novellas from the most award-winning team in the history of comics in a fantastically-designed book full of extras -- illustrations, selected articles, interviews, behind the scenes looks, painted covers... and much much more! Collects the SAVAGE SWORD OF CRIMINAL and DEADLY HANDS OF CRIMINAL magazines, the novellas MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES and BAD WEEKEND, and issues 1 and 4 of the newest run of the CRIMINAL monthly series, two full length short stories about the LAWLESS family.

A true collector's edition must-have for any fan of the best in crime comics.

Effectively, the book would appear to collect Volume 7 ("Wrong Time, Wrong Place"), Junkies, the forthcoming Volume 8, and presumably the ten new pages in the Bad Weekend hardcover.

(Would the book also include the extra material from the two magazine-sized variants for the "Savage Sword" and "Deadly Hands" one-shots?)

If we were compiling the next deluxe edition, we're not sure we would separate the stories in issues #1 and #4 from the "Cruel Summer" arc since, again, we find that they serve as excellent prologues to the sprawling death-of-Teeg story.

Presumably the "Cruel Summer" arc is too long for inclusion in the third deluxe volume, and since a return to the world of Criminal has already been promised, perhaps the story would kick off an eventual fourth deluxe edition.

In the meantime, Brubaker's newsletter has shed more light on the upcoming releases, even if there's still some uncertainty.

Ed writes about (quote) "our oversized hardback of CRUEL SUMMER" and we wonder if this larger size matches the deluxe editions rather than the slightly smaller hardcovers for Junkies and Bad Weekend.  If so, and if the Amazon listing is right that the book includes "additional behind the scenes material," this hardcover is EFFECTIVELY a thinner Deluxe Edition, Volume 4 -- or perhaps a Volume 3 1/2, a placeholder for the next few years.

(It may be a while. The oldest story expected in Volume 3, the Special Edition "Savage Sword" one-shot, was originally released in early 2015. It's taking more than five years for the story to find its way into a deluxe edition.)

And, Ed treats fans to Sean Phillps' brand-new wraparound cover art for Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume 2, shown above.  It's gorgeous, a montage combining elements from the volume's three story arcs.

He confirms that these new editions are scheduled for the fall, and he confirms Volume 3: "We've got new designs [emphasis mine] and covers for the first two books (out of print for nearly a decade now) and a new third volume to join them, finally."

So, two out of the three Amazon listings have been partially confirmed by Ed Brubaker to one degree or another, with the 8th TPB "Three Sharp Knocks" not yet addressed.

We can't wait to open up the new deluxe editions and see what's changed.

In the meantime, we'll keep an eye out for any new information on these collected editions, and we'll pass them along as quickly as our hectic lives allow.

---

UPDATE, 4/23:   On Twitter, Sean Phillips kindly answered the lingering questions we raised here.

First, he tackled the mysterious Amazon listings:

That paperback listing is incorrect, we don’t have another Criminal trade planned. Cruel Summer is out first followed by the three Deluxe Editions, all over-sized hardcovers.

Then, he answered my follow-up question about the relative sizes of the upcoming hardcovers:

Cruel Summer is the same size as the Deluxe Editions

That does make the "Cruel Summer" hardcover a kind of Volume 3 1/2.

So, in summary, Brubaker and Phillips will release four oversized hardcovers in the remainder of 2020.

• Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume 1, 2nd edition
• Includes a new design AND a new cover
• Collects Criminal (2006) #1-10 & Criminal (2008) #1-3
• "Coward" 
• "Lawless" 
• "The Dead and the Dying"
• Likely still includes the short story "No One Rides for Free"
• Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume 2, 2nd edition
• Includes a new design AND a new cover
• Collects Criminal (2008) #4-7 and two mini-series 
• "Bad Night" 
• "The Sinners" 
• "The Last of the Innocent"
• Likely still includes the short story "21st Century Noir"
• Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume 3
• Brand new collection 
• Likely collects two one-shot issues, one OGN, and Criminal (2018) #1-4
• "Wrong Time, Wrong Place" (Special Edition & 10th Anniversary Special)
• "My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies"
• Untitled Teeg & Ricky story, set in 1987
• "Bad Weekend"
• "Orphans"
• Not clear how much will be included from the one-shot magazine variants and the expanded OGN HC edition of "Bad Weekend," which included ten extra pages
• Criminal: Cruel Summer
• Brand new collection
• Collects Criminal (2018) #5-12
• Might also collect at least one of the related prologue issues, #1 & #4

All four hardcovers will be the same size, comprising a complete library of the first 18+ years of the Criminal comic book.  The "Cruel Summer" hardcover will come first (possibly late July), followed by the three deluxe collections perhaps around October.

And all this is in addition to the brand-new collaboration Pulp, a hardcover, original graphic novel originally scheduled for May 20th.