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.

Bad Weekend Exclusives at England's OK Comics and San Diego's Comic Con!

Last week we mentioned how had real trouble tracking down the signed bookplate included with Bad Weekend for retailers ordering a particular number of copies.  There are four stores on our own internal "radar" for the Atlanta metro area, and none had ordered enough.

(I have no doubt that more than enough had been ordered between them, and this would have been a perfect opportunity for the stores to have pooled their resources.)

But we noticed that a few exclusives have been offered through OK Comics out of Leeds, England:  their copies of Bad Weekend have included the bookplate we've already noted, a second bookplate -- a store-exclusive, also signed by the three creators -- and a store-exclusive postcard advertising Jacob Phillips' Past is Prologue, expected from Image Comics next year.

As of last week, they also still had signed copies of Criminal #1.

That second bookplate is apparently limited to 100 prints, and it bears a close resemblance to the candidate cover which Sean Phillips preferred but was rejected for a color scheme too closely matching the previous hardcover novella, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies.

OK Comics has been advertising the book on its A-frame sidewalk sign, shown below.  Apparently they originally ordered sixty(!) copies, and more than three-fourths of the store's initial stock sold that Wednesday. Even with putting a hold on mail orders that Friday, the store quickly sold out of its initial stock by Sunday.

The store now has more copies in stock and they're once again taking new orders by mail. We can confirm that they accept PayPal and they DO ship internationally.

If you're interested in ordering Bad Weekend from Leeds' OK Comics, email Jared at shop@okcomics.co.uk.

On the other side of the pond -- and a couple mountain ranges past that -- there's another Bad Weekend exclusive being offered at San Diego's Comic-Con International, which has a preview tonight prior to its official opening tomorrow.

Image Comics announced their con-exclusive merchandise, panels, and signing schedule just last Friday.  Among the exclusive items available at booth #1915 is a "jacketed hardcover" edition of Bad Weekend, with jacket art by Sean Phillips, for the usual retail price of $16.99.

Shown above, the jacket art simulates a "special collector's edition" collection of Danny Dagger stories from Hal Crane, the subject of Bad Weekend.  The jacket wraps around the covers, with the fake book's description and its author's bio folded inside, and the jacket features the same worn look -- and, we suspect, the exact same digital weathering effect -- found on previous magazine-sized variants for Criminal and The Fade Out.

Ed Brubaker is attending the convention this year, on its 50th anniversary, and he sent out a newsletter late yesterday with the schedule for his appearances at the Image booth.

It's mostly the same schedule as last week's press release -- with one additional 10:00 am signing on Saturday, July 20th -- and the Image story notes that the signings are 45-60 minutes, and are "ticketed" events requiring wristbands given out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Brubaker also notes that the jacketed copies of Bad Weekend will be available to people who buy the book "while they last."

Please note: there are only a few hundred of these printed for the convention, I believe, so they will go fast - I don't even have one yet. I hope to escape with a copy or two when no one at the booth is looking.

By our watch, the first signing is just about to begin.

It's worth mentioning that Friday night, July 19th, is awards night at Comic-Con, with the 31st annual Eisner Awards.  Image Comics made history sweeping the "Best New Series" category, and a couple other nominations caught our particular attention.

• My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies was nominated for Best New Graphic Album.
• Sean Phillips was nominated for Best Penciller/Inker for his work on Kill Or Be Killed as well as Junkies.

We're sure we'll have more later about the Eisners and a few other items from Brubaker's newsletter, which includes a three-page in-progress preview of Criminal #7, details on a couple August appearances, and a link to a his recent commentary-track podcast for Bad Weekend.

Junkies Wins 2018 Gem Award!

On the same day that Image Comics announced a second printing for Criminal #1, Diamond Comic Distributors announced the 2018 winners of their Gem Awards, and winners include Brubaker and Phillips' My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies.

(The dateline appears to be missing from the official press release, but -- at the moment -- the main page for Press & Media confirms a January 17th publication.)

Given out for more than a decade, the Diamond Gem Awards are described as "the pinnacle of sales achievement."  Nominations are made by the distribution company "based on their sales performance and quality, and their overall impact on the industry during any given year," and winners are selected by comic book retailers -- "members of" that segment of the retail industry, so evidently not all retailers domestically or internationally.

“The Diamond Gem Awards give comic shop retailers an opportunity to recognize the vendors, titles, and products that have been critical to their success over the past year,” said Diamond President & CEO Steve Geppi.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies won the 2018 Diamond Gem Award for "Original Graphic Novel of the Year."

Previous winners include Fables: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall (2006), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (2007), and Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of Richard Stark's Parker in The Hunter (2009).  Recently, this particular category has been dominated by DC's Earth One volumes, featuring Superman (2010), Batman (HC 2012, TP 2014, Vol. 2 HC 2015), and Wonder Woman (2017).

(The list of winners is duplicated for 2008 and 2009, but apparently it's the former that was garbled:  the actual 2008 winner for Original Graphic Novel appears to be DC's Joker book.)

Just as the second printing for Criminal suggests that -- after all these years -- demand for Brubaker and Phillips' crime comics continues to exceed expectations, this sales award for Junkies indicates the prominence of their work, without qualifications about creator-owned comics that (thus far) lack any film or TV adaptations.
Comichron's sales data for 2018 appears to confirm Junkies' place as the best-selling original work, in a category dominated by reprints of monthly issues.  Comic shops purchased just over 40,000 copies of The Infinity Gauntlet collection last year, as theaters were packed with the MCU blockbuster, and they purchased just over 10,000 copies of Brubaker and Phillips' crime-tinged romance comic.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies has apparently been quite the successful book, and the industry has taken notice. 

Bullets: a Virgin Variant, an Eisner Nod, and The Next Project Announced!

It's been one very busy week, not even counting a news item that we previously overlooked.

• Virgin Variant for KILLED OR BE KILLED 20.  Looking at ComicList's advance forecast for Image Comics, we saw an intriguing second entry for the upcoming final issue to Kill Or Be Killed, for "Cover B Sean Phillips Virgin Variant", linking to a TFAW product page with the second image shown below.

We reached out to the artist himself, and Sean Phillips confirms the listing:  the final issue of Kill Or Be Killed reaches stores with a second, "virgin variant" cover with all the trade dress removed, allowing readers to enjoy the homage to Romita's Spider-Man in all its undiluted glory.

Phillips has since posted a pic of what appears to be his comp copies of both versions, telling readers that the issue "includes a teaser for our new book," which we'll cover further down.

Both versions of the issue -- standard cover and virgin variant, both shown above -- are due next week, on June 27th.

• Brubaker & Phillips Interview for KOBK Finale.  As we were investigating the variant cover this past week, CBR was doing its own work of journalism, posting an extensive interview with the primary creators of Kill Or Be Killed as the vigilante series wraps up.  We think this is the first interview with Phillips since January, and we can't remember the last time Brubaker talked with the press.

Ed Brubaker doesn't want to spoil the final issue -- or even confirm Dylan's fate and "reveal whether he actually did die" -- but he describes it as "the weirdest comic I’ve ever written, probably."  Still being wary of spoiling the issue, he also says it deals "in some ways" with the question of whether the antagonistic Demon is real.

Sean Phillips, meanwhile, describes his characters' evolution, his use of Fairburn's popular reference book series from the 1970's, and Bettie Breitweiser's contributions in adding color to New York through all four seasons.

As coy as the pair is about how the series wraps, the interview includes pages from the upcoming issue, presumably from the opening act, constituting a three-page preview that we're including below.

Brubaker mentioned that he's learned, "never say never," regarding a return to any fictional world, and he's "keeping his fingers crossed" on the film adaptation involving members of the creative team behind John Wick: "I’m helping to produce the movie, but not on a day-to-day level like I am with my current TV show at Amazon [Too Old to Die Young]."

Sean Phillips, meanwhile, is working on covers for home video, film soundtracks, and a Glasgow band, and his eight-page WWI comic with Ian Rankin is still due in October.

And what about the pair's next collaboration?  It's evidently a pair of projects, first an original, hardcover graphic novel, due in October, and then another serialized book which we believe to be the anticipated return to the world of The Fade Out.

Phillips is returning to drawing on paper for the former -- this graphic novella -- and Brubaker said that this project "will be announced soon."

He wasn't kidding.

• Due In October, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES. The CBR interview was posted on Monday, June 18th.  The very same day, Image Comics released its September solicitations, which included an advance solicit for the pair's upcoming graphic novella.

MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES OGN HC 

WRITER: ED BRUBAKER 

ARTIST / COVER: SEAN PHILLIPS 

OCTOBER 10 / 72 PAGES / FC / M / $16.99 

The first original graphic novel from the bestselling creators of CRIMINAL, KILL OR BE KILLED, THE FADE OUT and FATALE. Teenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts, those tragic artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be... she’ll find another more dangerous romance, and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand. MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a seductive coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness... and what she finds there. A gorgeous must-have hardback from the award-winning team of ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, with acclaimed color artist ELIZABETH BREITWEISER.

The title may be a riff on the melancholic country song popularized by Willie Nelson. I wonder how often I'll conflate the titles here and on the podcast -- or combine them and reference the Cowboy Junkies.

The next day, Image posted a press release for the book, which Sean Phillips reposted at his blog.

In the release, Brubaker describes the book as their version of a romance comic, confirming that it's also a crime story: "But it's one that allows me to mine some of my own pop culture obsessions and delve back into my teen years and the kind of trouble you can only get into when you're young."
This is evidently the "romance comic" that Phillips reference in an earlier interview, and we do wonder if this started out as that Criminal novella.

On Twitter, Phillips adds that, along with returning to paper for this project, he'll be providing the colors along with his son Jacob Phillips.  I believe this will be only the second time Sean Phillips has been a colorist, the first being the pair's contribution to The Spirit Newspaper.

• Eisner Nod for The Spirit Anthology.  On the subject, we had earlier overlooked the late-April announcement -- covered by the LA Times among others -- of the 2018 Eisner Award nominations.

We found the following among the nominees for Best Anthology:

• The Spirit Anthology, edited by Sean Phillips (Lakes International Comic Art Festival)

By our reckoning, this is the first year since 2014 that a Brubaker and Phillips collaboration hasn't been explicitly nominated for any Eisners, but they did have a one-page contribution to The Spirit newspaper-sized comic.

The Eisner Awards will be announced Friday night, July 20th, at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Between the Spirit comic's subject matter and rationale (the centenary of its creator Eisner's birth) and the murderer's row of creators, we're expecting good things.

On Twitter, Sean Phillips has a pinned tweet to remind readers that this anthology he edited is exclusively available through worldwide mail order from Page 45 Comics -- and here is the direct link.

• New Prints for Upcoming Works from Brubaker & Phillips.  Finally, Sean Phillips very recently announced new prints at his Big Cartel store, for artwork from this fall's big releases:  the cover for the single-volume trade collection for The Fade Out and the cover for the new novella, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies.  In the case of the latter, two options are available, with and without the creators listed.

Bullets: Undertow Podcast on A.D. After Death, Spirit Preview Art, New Inventory and a New Vertigo Collection, and Much More!

New releases for Kill Or Be Killed are just around the corner -- issue #11 and the Volume 2 trade paperback are both due on August 11th, and Sean Phillips has already tweeted a photo of the comp copies he's received -- but we'll kick off the month with quite a few items of interest.

• Undertow Podcast Bonus Review of A.D. After Death. In lieu of our usual segment of monthly recommendations, Robert and I recorded a bonus episode of The Undertow Podcast to discuss a previous recommendation:  A.D. After Death, a combined comic book and illustrated prose novel written by Scott Snyder with art by Jeff Lemire.

A hardcover collection of the three-issue mini-series was released at the end of June, our podcast discussion recently came out, and I couldn't sum up both any better than Robert did in the description for episode 14:

"Great sci-fi, with a touch of crime, and gorgeous watercolors made this a fun to book to read and break down."

As always, The Undertow Podcast is available at iTunes and on Podbean.

• Preview Art of Brubaker and Phillips' The Spirit.  As we reported in May, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are contributing a one-page story to The Spirit of Eisner, a 12-page newspaper-sized comic honoring The Spirit, on the centenary of the birth of its extraordinary creator.

Phillips is also coordinating the publication of this comic, to be released by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in October, and in subsequent tweets he's treated fans to previews of eight different pages.  In addition to a signed drawing by Michael Cho and the distinctive cartoony style of Sergio Aragonés, we see a panel crediting Chris Samnee, who was not listed in the March press release.

Perhaps even more exciting for Brubaker and Phillips fans, the artist has announced that he's finally underway with their contribution to the project, and he has posted more than a dozen preview photos, from thumbnails and photo reference, to digital pencils subsequently transferred to paper and inked.  Over the weekend, Phillips tweeted that he has completed the inks and will do his own color work for this story (confirming his role as colorist on Twitter), and he's posted a partial preview of the vibrant neon colors with some completed lettering.

We've seen quite a bit of the first few panels -- including photos of the artist holding up the single page, in pencils and again in partial inks, shown in the collage below -- but we're sure that, for both his work and for the others, Sean Phillips is saving a lot of surprises for the book's readers.

• New Art By Sean Phillips, for Rawhead Rex and JD's Revenge.  We mentioned that Sean Phillips has been creating artwork of Rita Hayworth in our previous post, and Phillips relayed that the work is for a separate project and not for a bonus essay.  This project has still not yet been formally announced, but it appears that Ms. Hayworth is not the only subject.

In the meantime, other projects have been officially announced.

First, AICN reports the return of the 1986 British horror film Rawhead Rex, with a screenplay by Clive Barker and based on a previously published short story by the horror writer.  The film is getting a 4K restoration for a limited summer run and a Blu-ray release in the fall, and Sean Phillips created the poster for the re-release.

AICN provided an exclusive look at the resulting work, which we're including below.  The distributor's official site lists ten North American theaters screening the film between August and October.

And, at his own blog, Sean Phillips has posted both a preliminary draft and the final version of the menacing artwork for Arrow Video's release of a 1976 blaxploitation horror film JD's Revenge.  The release is due in October but not yet listed on the distributor's official site.

Phillips will apparently be reusing the artwork in a promotional banner for his artwork, shown below and making its debut at September's Thought Bubble festival in September.

• Kill Or Be Killed & Criminal Fall Short at the Eisners.  The winners of the 2017 Eisner Awards were announced at Comic-Con last Friday night, and Brubaker, Phillips, their collaborators, and their collaborations all fell short in the five categories in which they were nominated -- all against very tough competition.

We congratulate the winners, and we're happy to see Black Hammer win the award for Best New Series: according to The Beat's live blog of the awards ceremony, writer Jeff Lemire said the award was won only because of artist Dean Ormston's incredible recovery from a stroke after finishing the first issue.

We weren't aware of the stroke, we're so glad that Ormston is recovering, and we've been enjoying the series thoroughly.

• Westworld Second-Season Preview.  The Eisner Awards weren't the only big news from Comic-Con, as a lot of film and television projects have been promoted with new footage.  Along with an elaborate installation promoting the fictional, futuristic resort, producers of HBO's Westworld debuted a two-minute trailer of new footage from the upcoming second season.

Ed Brubaker was quite heavily involved in the first season, joining the writer's room, being credited as a supervising producer for five episodes, and receiving a writer's credit for one episode.  It's not clear whether Brubaker is working on the second season, but we're sure we'll find out soon enough.

• New Inventory for Older Hardcover Collections -- and a New Hardcover of Brubaker's Vertigo Comics?  On Twitter, an online friend Kevin Sels has been telling us about some interesting new listings he's found on Amazon.

The Criminal The Deluxe Edition Volume 2 hardcover (the listing has the cover art from volume 1) and Incognito: The Classified Edition hardcover are both scheduled for a January 2nd release date.  These listings might have been the first hints of new printings by Image Comics, but Sean Phillips explains that the books are "just old stock that was found in a warehouse somewhere."

We're even more intrigued by Kevin's tweet about a February listing, for a 272-page hardcover, scheduled for a February 27th release:  Vertigo by Ed Brubaker.  This is the very first we've heard about this.

Classic Vertigo tales by Eisner Award-winning author Ed Brubaker collected for the first time in hardcover edition. The best Ed Brubaker's Veritgo stories are collected together for a wild and sometimes supernatural ride!

It begins with reprinted material from VERTIGO VISIONS: PREZ #1 in election year '96, with the country coming apart at the seams. Prez Rickard, long missing and presumed dead, has been sighted at a roadside diner in the American heartland. A trio of restless young misfits, one of whom believes he is Prez's son, sets out across America in search of answers for their country's woes--answers that only the former Chief Executive can provide. Then, from WINTER'S EDGE #2, a gang of suburban kids devises a fool proof get-rich-quick scheme. Followed by stories from the best supernatural detectives that are not alive, in DEAD BOY DETECTIVES.

These amazing tales from one of the great voices in the comics industry today are collected together in hardcover in VERTIGO BY ED BRUBAKER! Collects VERTIGO VISIONS: PREZ #1, WINTER'S EDGE #2, GANGLAND #3 and DEAD BOY DETECTIVES #1-4.

These kind of listings are always subject to change, but this may give serious fans a second chance to get some oversized hardcovers, stuffed with bonus features, and a first chance to get some of Ed Brubaker's earliest stories, collected for the first time.

We will certainly relay more info about these books as we find it.

And big thanks to Kevin for sharing these discoveries with us and eliciting more info from Sean!

• Solicitations and Preview Art for Upcoming Issues of Kill Or Be Killed.  Finally, Image Comics have released their October solicitations, and they include another issue of Brubaker and Phillips' ongoing vigilante comic.

Caught in the crossfire between the police and the Russian mob—and his sanity—Dylan begins to realize his problems are more dire than he thinks. BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS’ multiple Eisner-nominated series keeps racing from hit to hit in this action-packed third arc!

Lucky number 13 of Kill Or Be Killed continues the connecting cover art which Brubaker previously described as "one long cover image of escalating violence," and the issue is scheduled for an October 18th release.

But even more interesting is a bit of artwork that Sean Phillips posted on Instagram on July 17th, which we're including below.  In a previous tweet showing the work in-progress, we learn that the work is a watercolor, and the artist subsequently reveals that it's for the "Next issue of Kill Or Be Killed."

We're intrigued, to say the least.

Kill Or Be Killed #9 Out Today, Online Preview Available Now!

The latest issue of Kill Or Be Killed is in stores today, from Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Elizabeth Breitweiser.  We see that Image Comics has just posted a four-page preview, showing that the story picks up with the last issue's ominous cliffhanger.

The Image website also shows a slight change to the cover: a blurb has been added to highlight the series' Eisner nominations -- four of the five nods we noted at the beginning of the month, one each for the book and its three creators, with the fifth nomination being for the Criminal 10th Anniversary Special.

Eisner: Nominations and a "Newspaper" Comic!

Just yesterday, the San Diego Comic-Con International announced the nominees for the 2017 Eisner Awards, and we're thrilled to find nods to Criminal, Kill Or Be Killed, and all three of the books' talented creators:

• Ed Brubaker was nominated for Best Writer, for his work on the Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill Or Be Killed, and Velvet.
• Sean Phillips was nominated for Best Cover Artist (for multiple covers) for the Criminal Anniversary Special and Kill Or Be Killed.
• Elizabeth Breitweiser was nominated for Best Coloring for the Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill Or Be Killed, Velvet, and Outcast by Kirkman & Azaceta.
• The Criminal 10th Anniversary Special was itself nominated for Best Single Issue/One-Shot.
• And Kill Or Be Killed was nominated for Best Continuing Series.

In the nominations, both books were credited to Brubaker & Phillips, but we would be remiss not to note that, on the covers to both, Bettie Breitweiser is prominently listed -- quite rightly -- as the the third creator.  We're glad to see her receive her own nomination in recognition of her mesmerizing contributions.

(And we would be equally remiss if we didn't express our firm conviction that Steve Epting was snubbed for not receiving a nomination for his work on Velvet.)

Brubaker and Phillips have been earning awards and nominations and other accolades for well over a decade, including a 2006 Best New Series Eisner for Criminal and a 2012 Best Limited Series Eisner for "The Last of the Innocent."  We're glad to see that they continue to be recognized, both for maintaining their high-quality work and for frequently exceeding the already lofty expectations of their readers.

The awards will be announced Friday night, July 21st, at Comic-Con International.

But now is a perfect time to acquaint yourself (or your friends) to Brubaker, Phillips, and Breitweiser's latest twisted take on crime comics:  Kill Or Be Killed #1 was re-released just today (albeit without the bonus content) in a one-dollar "Image Firsts" edition.

...and, we have more interesting news involving Will Eisner, for whom the comics industry's most prestigious award was named.  

This past March, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival announced a trio of projects to honor the centenary of the comic creator's birth -- namely, an extensive exhibit of Eisner's work; a competition inspired by his famed creation The Spirit, inviting art students to invent their own vigilantes; and a newspaper-style comic featuring new work by some of today's top writer and artists.

Titled The Spirit of  Eisner, this 12-page publication is described as "a celebratory broadsheet comic" that honors both The Spirit and the original format in which the series was published.  The book is officially sanctioned by the Will Eisner estate, its original artwork will be featured in an exhibit in the festival site of Kendal, England, and Sean Phillips recently commented at our blog to elaborate that "a few of the contributors will be appearing in person, some for the first time in the UK."

(Comparing the list of contributors against those already announced as guests, I found five attendees other than Phillips himself:  Sergio Aragonés, Michael Cho, Duncan Fegredo, Jason Latour, and Peter Milligan.)

As a festival patron, Sean Phillips is quite heavily involved with the festival in general and with this centenary celebration in particular.  As well as judging the student competition with crime author Ian Rankin, Phillips is coordinating this comic's publication, and -- as he mentioned in the festival's official podcast, which we referenced last week -- he and writer Ed Brubaker are contributing a page to this comic.

That's news that is definitely worth emphasizing:

Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips are creating a one-page story for The Spirit of Eisner newspaper-sized comic for this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

A few weeks back on social media, Sean posted see two bits of related artwork.  One is a definite in-progress preview of the first panel of what he subsequently describes as "one (giant) page" of a story, which we're reprinting below; the other is reprinted at the top of this post, and it may just be a sketch of Eisner's famous crimefighter.  (But what a sketch!)

The press release announcing these projects also states that the book "will be launched" at the festival, which is scheduled for the weekend of October 13th to the 15th.

Sean Phillips has another quite interesting project, which was also recently announced by the Lakes Comics Art Festival:  he has designed a republication of the first ever book on creating graphic novels, first published by Rodolphe Töpffer in 1845(!!!), with this new edition translated, edited, and introduced by John McShane.

In the press release for this special edition of this historically significant work, we find that the book will be available at the festival, but it "can also be ordered online from Page 45, the Nottingham-based comic shop that has been a longtime supporter of LICAF."

We haven't seen anything similar, stating that The Spirit of Eisner will be available anywhere other than the festival itself, but we're encouraged by the verbiage that the book will be "launched" there.

We'll certainly keep our eye out for any news about the book's availability for fans unable to attend the festival, and we'll be sure to pass along what we find.

THE FADE OUT, 2016 Eisner Winner, Best Limited Series!

We wrote yesterday that we hoped this would happen, and it did, at least for the work if not its creators.  We believe Bleeding Cool announced the winners first, and the official site confirmed it:  The Fade Out has won the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series!

Our hearty congratulations go out to Ed, Sean, and Bettie, and we remind readers that the book's Deluxe Edition is scheduled for October 12th.

THE FADE OUT Deluxe Edition, Due October 12th.

In Image's August solicitations, which was released at the end of last month, we find an advance solicitation for the latest -- and much-anticipated -- deluxe edition from Brubaker and Phillips, a single-volume collection of The Fade Out.

THE FADE OUT DELUXE EDITION HC

STORY: ED BRUBAKER
ART: SEAN PHILLIPS & ELIZABETH BREITWEISER
COVER: SEAN PHILLIPS
OCT 12 / 400 PAGES / FC / M $49.99
ADVANCE SOLICIT

The most ambitious project yet from the award-winning team of ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, with acclaimed color artist ELIZABETH BREITWEISER—finally available in the gorgeous deluxe edition their fans have come to expect! A picture-perfect recreation of a lost era, THE FADE OUT is an instant classic from one of comics most acclaimed teams.

Collects THE FADE OUT #1-12

(It has been overshadowed by the news surrounding Velvet and especially Kill Or Be Killed, we didn't see any mentions on Twitter or in Brubaker's newsletter, and our own personal lives have been quite busy with only three blog posts in June or July, but we still can't believe we overlooked this.)

The cover art originally appeared in the oversized movie-magazine variant for issue #1, and here it appears without the effects that seemed to age and weather the cover.  And, it appears this deluxe edition has at least thirty extra pages of content, at least going by Amazon's page counts for the three trade paperback collections.

Of all of Brubaker and Phillips' collaborations, my favorite remains Criminal, with Sleeper a very close second, but with every reread -- and especially with my lengthy look back at the series -- my esteem has continued to rise for this sprawling noir novel and its look at the corruption behind Hollywood's postwar Golden Age. 

I'm quite looking forward to this release and to rereading this series, all in a single volume that best serves the story and in the deluxe format the story deserves.

...and we hope that our discovering this solicit today might be an omen for the Eisner Awards tomorrow night:  The Fade Out has been nominated for Best Limited Series, with Brubaker and Breitweiser getting nods for their respective work writing and coloring.

UPDATE, JULY 23RD. And it won, Best Limited Series!

Bullets: CRIMINAL Tomorrow, Eisner Nods for THE FADE OUT, and Work Begins on KILL OR BE KILLED!

We begin with four of our favorite words in the English language: new Criminal this week!

• Criminal Tenth Anniversary Special, In Stores Tomorrow!  Our favorite series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips returns with an over-sized one-shot, we see that Image Comics just posted a five-page preview of the issue, and Brubaker tells readers that the 56-page comic is a "full novella."

(UPDATE: The same preview at Comic Book Resources might be easier to read.)

Things had been pretty quiet since "The Last of the Innocent" wrapped in 2011, but that changed last year with the "Savage Sword" one-shot commemorating the series' returning to print under the Image banner.  This new one-shot is a kind of companion piece, once again focusing on the Lawless family's criminal exploits during the 1970's.  As before, there's a comic within the comic, and the issue's magazine-sized variant once again emulates that fictitious work of literature, in what Brubaker recently described as a "meta-variant."

Last year, the "Savage Sword of Criminal" featured Zangar the Valandrian.

This year, the "Deadly Hands of Criminal" features the astounding new character find of 2016, Fang the Kung-fu Werewolf!

Although we mentioned the Final Order Cutoff date for the book, we failed to emphasize why that date was particularly important:  late last month, Bleeding Cool reported a bookkeeping issue with Diamond distributors, one which resulted in the entire advance order being lost and the book subsequently having significantly more advance reorders than expected.  On Twitter, Brubaker predicts that the issue might quickly become hard to find especially since a one-shot is a hard sell.

More than that, retailers tend to be less likely to shelve the over-sized magazine variant, and this variant will almost certainly be too cost-intensive for more than a single printing.

In short, get it while you can!

The book was delayed one week from its solicited April 13th release, but that might be fortuitous:  we're not one to fixate on stoner culture, but it's a happy accident that this book and its kung-fu werewolf are reaching stores on 4/20.

...and it's not the only book that seems just perfect for the unofficial holiday for stoners.  Three of my all-time favorite books are all coming out tomorrow, and they're all appropriately trippy.

• Brubaker and Phillips have the Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, with the 70's kung-fu comic.
• Layman and Guillory are concluding their trilogy of Chew one-shots featuring their cyborg luchador rooster (and secret agent), Demon Chicken Poyo!  Image Comics has a four-page preview up online. (So does CBR, possibly easier to read.)
• And Tom Scioli with John Barber are releasing the penultimate chapter of the brilliant and bonkers Transformers vs GI Joe, which has been more fun than any licensed comic has any right to be. IDW has provided a five-page preview to Comics Alliance.

Go by your local retailer and grab a copy of each.  Sit back, take 'er easy, and enjoy -- and you can thank us later.

• Eisner Nominations for The Fade Out, Brubaker, and Breitweiser!  It's breaking news, trumped only by a new Brubaker/Phillips comic, but the 2016 Eisner nominations were announced today, and once again we find nods for the pair's most recent collaboration along with some of the creative talents behind the series.

• Best Limited Series: The Fade Out, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
• Best Writer: Ed Brubaker, The Fade Out, Velvet, Criminal Special Edition (Image)
• Best Coloring: Elizabeth Breitwiser, The Fade Out, Criminal Magazine, Outcast, Velvet (Image)

The awards will be announced on Friday night, July 22nd, at Comic-Con International in San Diego -- and in the meantime, Image Comics just announced a digital sale for their Eisner nominees.  You can get all three trades of The Fade Out for less than $15 -- or all twelve issues for less than $12 -- and Velvet is similarly on sale with $4.99 collections and $0.99 single issues.

We extend hearty congratulations to Ed, Sean, Bettie, and everyone who was nominated.

• A Second Volume of Image Firsts.  Along with the release of last year's Criminal one-shot, we noted the publication of the first Image Firsts Compendium. The trade paperback included NINE first issues, including The Fade Out #1, all for the low price of $5.99, and we can confirm that the Image Firsts Compendium Volume Two was released just last week.

It's a great introduction to just a few of the off-beat creator-owned titles that Image is producing.

• Kill or Be Killed, Now In Progress.  Finally, we have an update on Brubaker and Phillips' newest project, the ongoing series announced two weeks ago at the Image Expo.  I would say that we have more information, but I suspect that the creators are holding a lot back:  after the initial announcement, Brubaker tweeted that the book is "one of those simple concepts that's actually a bit hard to describe without spoiling all the twists of the first issue."

Or as he intimated prior to the Image Expo, it's "That thing when you're doing press for your upcoming book and realize anything you say will spoil the first issue, so you go vague."

So, there's no new info, just an update.

Sean Phillips has posted a few things on Twitter, including what appears to be the cover art for the first issue, very similar to the promo image, but in a portrait layout.

Phillips has made himself a sketch book for the project, he's already working on layouts, and he began shooting reference photos last week.

I think we can safely say that the cover won't have the only firearm in the book.

A Velvet Preview, A Brubaker Interview, A Criminal Trade, and an Eisner Nod!

Image Comics continues to release new editions of Criminal, and the fourth volume is out today:  "Bad Night" is the first of three stories (and counting?) where the medium of comics strongly intersects with the narrative, and it showed that, with each new story, Brubaker and Phillips would continue to challenge themselves, the readers, and even their deeply flawed protagonists and their tenuous grasp on the world around them.

We believe that the interruption was definitely worth it, but the Criminal Special Edition one-shot was nevertheless a significant interruption in the usual output of creator-owned comics by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and even Brubaker's other collaborator Steve Epting.  The Fade Out #4 came out in the first week of January, and Velvet #9 came out in the first week of February, and we're only now seeing the next installments -- in back-to-back weeks.

The Fade Out #5 came out last week, to very positive reviews, with Comic Book Roundup aggregating views from 11 different critics, all giving the book an 8 or better on a 10-point scale.  The review from Doom Rocket is particularly worth reading for noting the distinction between noir and detective stories, and it dovetails with an excellent, lengthy look at the first trade paperback, in a review published by Hyperallergic earlier this month.  Rhymes With Geek has another good review, but it's worth noting that this issue is more the beginning of a new act in the sprawling drama rather than a "jumping-on" point for new readers.

Hot on the heels of Brubaker's latest work with Phillips is his latest with Epting, closing a chapter instead of starting a new one.  Velvet #10 is in stores today, Graphic Policy has a three-page preview, and All-Comic.com has a quite positive advance review.

Image's July solicitations just came out yesterday, and we see the planned return to a more regular schedule.  Between June and July, we should see the last two Criminal trades released (volumes 5 and 6), The Fade Out #8, and Velvet #14.

Ed Brubaker addresses the schedule in a lengthy interview published by Comic Book Resources last week:  in an image caption for The Fade Out, we find that "Brubaker says the book is set to remain on a monthly schedule for the rest of the year."

The interview also reveals that Brubaker is currently working as supervising producer on an HBO series, set to debut later this year:  he could not reveal further details, but the writer is juggling his work for TV and his creator-owned books.

I get up at 6 in the morning and I write my comics for like three hours, and then I go into a day job. I'm asleep by 10 every night right now.

It's interesting. The structure's been really good for me. We have no phones or computers in the writers' room -- my attention span has totally come back. I really thought I had slowly developed ADD, but it turned out I was just looking at the Internet all the time and checking my email. Once you're untethered from that? Now I'm reading more books, I'm looking at the Internet in general so much less, and I feel so much mentally healthier from that. But it's a lot of work to carry.

In fact, Brubaker says that there is a unique appeal to a creator-owned comic book: "I'll tell you -- working in Hollywood has made me appreciate my comics job a lot. No one gives me notes, I don't have to involve a lot of people in the process. I love the hours of my day when I get to sit and write my comics. I think I appreciate them more now than I did when it was my full-time job."

Does he miss writing superhero comics for the big two publishers?  Not so much.

Brubaker's work in creator-owned comics continues to pay off, in more ways than one.

The Image deal is so fantastic. This year, already, has been my best year financially in comics, ever. And it's only three months in. I've made more money from Image than I made last year when the "Winter Soldier" movie was out, on "Captain America" books.

Every project [Brubaker and Phillips] do sells better than the last one now, and it's not that more of our old readers are coming back. There's just a bunch of new people who are reading comics now. It's pretty fucking amazing.

But it's not just the financial rewards and the increased readership:  critical acclaim is another reward, as The Fade Out joins Criminal, Incognito, and Fatale in being recognized in the list of Eisner nominees.

The 2015 Eisner nominations were released just two hours ago, and Brubaker and Phillips' latest collaboration makes a notable appearance, as The Fade Out is nominated for Best New Series.

As always, winners will be announced at Comic-Con International:  the gala awards ceremony will take place on Friday, July 10th, in San Diego.

We heartily congratulate Ed, Sean, and Bettie for the nomination!

Fatale Finale on May 21st, Winter Solider Book, Appearance in Toronto.

("Fatale Finale."  Say that five times fast, a phrase that looks like it ought to rhyme.)

Last week Image Comics released their May solicitations, which includes the finale to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Fatale.  Issue #24 is an extra-long 48 pages with a higher list price of $4.99. 

Will Josephine's final secrets be revealed? Will there be much tragedy? Will Brubaker and Phillips fans love all the crazy extras jammed into this special final issue? Yes, yes, and yes.

The issue is Multiversity Comics' top pick for May, and it's scheduled to reach stores on May 21st;  this lends some credence to our early guess that The Fade Out will arrive no sooner than July.

(After that?   Brubaker has at least tweeted that there aren't any plans to continue Incognito, "not as of now," but we're rarely privy to their plans beyond the most immediate upcoming project.  While I'd like to see a less open-ended conclusion to Incognito -- and while I can hardly wait to see more of Criminal -- we can trust that we'll continue to see great stuff from the pair.)

In the meantime, Sean Phillips has tweeted that he's received some boxes containing the first deluxe hardcover for Fatale, the series is now being reprinted in Spanish (starting with book one, La Muerte Me Persigue), and the Horror Writers Association has recently honored the series.  Book Three: West of Hell has been nominated for their 2013 Bram Stoker Awards, for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel, with the awards to be announced on May 10th, at the World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon.

Ed Brubaker just tweeted that the Captain America: Winter Soldier deluxe book is (finally) in stores today, and Wil Wheaton praises the book as "one of the best comic stories I've ever read."

And, our friends north of the border should take note that both Brubaker and Phillips are planning to attend the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, May 10th and 11th.   The press release notes that this is their first joint appearance at a Canadian comics event, and it will be the first public appearance together since the announcement of their five-year deal with Image Comics.

A Criminal Revelation, a Preview of Fatale, and Much More!

Archie Lewis, a Fictional Writer in a Fictional World.

There's not much happening in the world of Criminal right now, but one new tidbit is worth repeating.

In the first chapter of "Bad Night," from Criminal Volume 2, #4, we came across a reference to a writer named Archie Lewis.   As we see from page 5 of the preview still in the archives at Comic Book Resources, Jacob monologues about how Lewis influenced his work habits.

I try to always leave a strip in progress, but close to being done.  It's an old Archie Lewis method, according to his biographer.  That way, the next morning you have something to start right in on.  Because that last panel calls out to you... like an unfinished sentence. 

We always just assumed that Brubaker was referencing an obscure writer in real life, but recently he revealed that the name was fabricated, his "riffing on Lew Archer, from the PI novels" -- a private detective created by Ross Macdonald (aka Kenneth Millar) in short stories and books published between 1946 and 1976.

In the Twitter conversation, Brubaker did confirm that the technique Jacob attributes to "Archer Lewis" is "real advice about writing, from someone, and it works to get you going the next day."

That's good, since I use the technique in my own writing, along with Raymond Chandler's "nothing alternative" -- setting aside time where I either write or do nothing productive whatsover, described in Roy Baumeister and John Tierney's book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. 

It's reassuring that this technique wasn't just conjured to add some color to an insomniac's inner monologue.


A Preview for Fatale #18.

For Brubaker fans, the new series Velvet has understandably been getting all the attention of late, but his horror-noir mashup with Sean Phillips keeps rolling along.  A five-page preview of Fatale #18 is now available from Comicosity and CBR.  The issue features one of the most striking covers in an already impressive run, and the preview begins to address that common conundrum in crime stories: what to do with the body.

This new issue of Fatale is in stores tomorrow.


Glowing Reviews for Velvet's Debut -- and a Second Printing.

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's creator-owned spy comic debuted to some very positive reviews, including at The AV Club, Comics Alliance, Unleash the Fanboy, and The Outhousers.  An advance review was featured on We The Nerdy, and the comic is also discussed for a few minutes during a recent podcast by iFanboy, where it ends just behind Pretty Deadly #1 for Pick of the Week.

The good reviews accompany strong sales, and Image Comics has announced an immediate sell-out and second printing for the first issue.

The second printing will arrive simultaneously with Velvet #2, on November 20th.


An Award for Phillips in His Home Country.

With a tip of the hat to CBR's Robot 6, we saw that the 2013 British World Fantasy Awards were awarded this past Sunday at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, and Sean Phillips was given the award for Best Artist.  We congratulate Phillips for another bit of well-deserved recognition for his work.


Interviews with Brubaker, Breitweiser, and the Captain America Filmmakers.

Ed Brubaker has been interviewed quite a bit lately.

• Two weeks ago, We The Nerdy put its Creator Spotlight! on Ed Brubaker. (See below for more.) They conducted a two-part interview at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival; in part one, they focus on Velvet, and in part two, they discuss Fatale, the Criminal film adaptation, and the end of his run on Marvel's Winter Soldier.  They also excerpted from a talk Brubaker gave at the Comics Art Fest, about the origin of Velvet.
• Last week, Newsarama interviewed Brubaker about Velvet, its Cold-War setting and the narrative possibilities in the face of the era's technological limitations.
• Just today, Earwolf released episode #75 of How Did This Get Made?, focusing on the Afflecked Daredevil film; Brubaker guest-hosts the one-hour podcast alongside regulars Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael.

Bettie Breitweiser, the colorist for Fatale and Velvet, is also featured in a podcast.  She's interviewed in the last 20 minutes of yesterday's Giant Size podcast at the online network 5by5.

And, ComicBook.com highlighted part of an October 23rd USA Today story on the upcoming Captain America sequel.  The directors Anthony and Joe Russo have high praise indeed for Brubaker's take on the characters, and they intend to honor his work.

"He's an amazingly drawn character. He's so well conceived," says Anthony Russo of the Winter Soldier, who first appeared in Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Captain America comic book in the 2000s.

"It's one of the best comic runs in the last 20 years, one of our favorite comic runs of all time, and we really want to do it justice. It was important to us to make sure he just jumped off the page to the screen." [emphasis mine]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is scheduled for an April 4th release.


Genre Books for Further Reading.

At the end of the Newsarama interview cited above, Brubaker makes an interesting point about the increasing diversity of genres in comic books.

“I feel there’s a revolution happening in creator owned comics; not about established guys doing books at Image but simply people creating good stories people want to read. I think Kim Thompson said something 20 years ago about how comics would improve in general if more crap was made. What he meant by that is that comics needs its John Grishams; it needs genre stuff that’s not just superhero, and finally that world is starting to happen. There’s stuff aimed at mainstream readers, from thrillers to horror to mystery. Last time I went to a comic store I bought twelve books, and ten of them were creator-owned comics, by some of the best writers and artists in comics.” 

It's worth reiterating, his point about comics: "it needs genre stuff that’s not just superhero, and finally that world is starting to happen. There’s stuff aimed at mainstream readers, from thrillers to horror to mystery."

Indeed it is happening, and vanishingly few of our recent purchases are superhero books.  More and more, my stacks are taken up by pulp and other genres, by creator-owned works and not just the latest reiteration of a long-established property.

What books would we recommend?

The book we've been most taken with lately is Planetoid by Ken Garing, a sci-fi tale that mixes world-building and myth with some quite personal, human touches.  The book isn't controversial, and it doesn't push the boundaries of what the medium can do -- which may explain why it's been somewhat overshadowed -- but it makes the most of the medium and is a book that rewards rereading.   The trade paperback was released just last week, and we expect years of exciting work from its creator.

Darwyn Cooke recently drew the cover art for Fatale #15's ghost variant, and he's been busy with gorgeous adaptations of a few of Richard Stark's Parker books, with the fourth adaptation Slayground due next month.  Just a few weeks ago, IDW Publishing announced that Cooke is designing deluxe, hardcover releases of the original prose novels, complete with color illustrations. (Hat-tip to The Outhousers.) 

The first book, The Hunter, is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2014.  Comics Alliance wrote that Cooke's adaptations are "nearing their conclusion," which is certainly true if the original plan of four books is still operative, but the press release states that Cooke "will continue producing his award-winning Parker graphic novel series for IDW." 

Either way, these illustrated crime novels would make another great bridge between the crime comics of Brubaker/Phillips and the hard-boiled prose in Hard Case Crime.

Finally, for those who are still exploring Brubaker and Phillips' work, I'd recommend the "Brubaking Bad" reading list from We The Nerdy.  It's included in their creator spotlight along with a Captain America reading list, spoiler-ish thoughts on Brubaker's Winter Solder character, and some thoughts on why we should eagerly anticipate the Winter Soldier film.

The Brubaking Bad reading list covers Brubaker and Phillips' work from Scene of the Crime to Sleeper, Criminal, Incognito, and Fatale. 

The pair has been responsible for some 1600 pages of  noir comics, intertwined with espionage, super-powers, and even Lovecraftian horror.  The works are readily available, in deluxe hardcovers for all but Fatale, so what's stopping you?