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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Undertow Podcast, New Kill Or Be Killed, New Twitter Feed, and Catching Up for the New Year.

It's a big week:  Robert has recorded and released an abbreviated episode of The Undertow Podcast, reviewing Kill Or Be Killed #14, and issue #15 is in stores today with a four-page preview already online.

(Preview pages without the obscenities obscured -- and a fifth page -- can be found in the latest newsletter from writer Ed Brubaker; see below.)

The third trade paperback, collecting issues #11-14, is also in stores today.  Ireland's Big Bang Comics and the UK's Forbidden Planet has an exclusive variation on this third volume, with a different cover and a mini-print bookplate signed by the writer and the artist.  Both covers are shown below, along with the eerie artwork for the bookplate.

International orders can be placed at the Forbidden Planet online store or at Big Bang's eBay listing.  (And Big Bang tweets that they still have stock of their previous two trade paperbacks, with variant covers and signed bookplates.)

Interestingly, Forbidden Planet lists a "virgin wraparound" variant for the upcoming KOBK #17, but currently the page has no image preview and no additional details.

In the meantime, we have issue #15 out today. Last Saturday, John Jack at Comic Watch offered a brief "First Watch" advance review of the issue, awarding it a 9 out of 10.  The review has no spoilers beyond what can be gleaned from Image's official preview, with the exception of a single two-panel image, with the Demon suddenly back in the story, following Dylan.

And for those who are looking for a quick refresher after the series' brief hiatus, our good friend Robert Watson covers the previous arc, along with the previous issue, in The Undertow Podcast Episode #19.  As always, as always, the podcast is available on iTunes and Podbean.

--

I'm looking forward to joining Robert again for the next podcast, and it's been far too long since we've last blogged.  As the classic U2 song puts it, we've been "running to stand still" in real life, and there has been a lot of big news over the past few months.

For one thing, we have just created a dedicated Twitter account for the blog, @CriminalBlog, to separate our focus on all things Brubaker/Phillips from our personal account @TigerBeasley and my more idiosyncratic interests in faith, politics, movies, music, sports, and humor.

We do hope to blog much more frequently in the upcoming year, and we recommend that readers "follow" our new Twitter account to be notified of new posts and interesting retweets.

In the meantime, here is a very succinct timeline of the past few months, with the biggest news items highlighted in red.

• OCT 19, Page 45 Comics posted an extensive essay of reviews and photos from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival; among the featured festival-exclusive books is the Spirit newspaper curated by Sean Phillips (and featuring a one-page Brubaker/Phillips story) and Starting, a "one-day collaborative comic" that includes a four-page story from Sean's sun Jacob, and both products are available for international orders at Page 45's online store.

• OCT 30, Arrow Academy announces the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release of Viva L'Italia, a 1961 documentary by Roberto Rossellini; the film is scheduled for a January 29th release and features cover artwork by Sean Phillips, shown below.

• NOV 13, Delcourt releases a 17-page preview of Fondu au Noir, the publisher's French translation of The Fade Out, in advance of its November 29th release.

• NOV 15, Image Comics announces its partnership with the Madefire digital program; details remain scant, but the press release includes Criminal in its reference to the publisher's back catalog.

• NOV 16, Marvel cancels two upcoming books from Brian Michael Bendis, a week after the writer announced his move to DC, effectively signaling the end of Marvel's Icon imprint for creator-owned works, at least for now; the imprint was the original home for Criminal and Incognito.

• NOV 16, Sean Phillips provided more information about the upcoming Criterion Collection release of Night of the Living Dead on DVD and Blu-ray February 13th; Sean Phillips painted the artwork for the cover, the wraparound sleeve, and the booklet -- the cover repurposes the poster for the recent 4K rerelease (also available at Criterion's online store) and the sleeve is the full artwork that Sean previously previewed in October and is reproduced below and on the artist's Twitter profile.

• NOV 21, director and co-writer Nicholas Winding Refn used his Instagram account to announce the main cast of Too Old to Die Young, highlighting the addition of Billy Baldwin; co-written by Ed Brubaker, the series stars Miles Teller and is apparently already in production.

• NOV 21, Image posted its February solicitations, listing a Valentine's Day release for KOBK #16; the cover art is the completed piece we saw as a work in progress, and the solicit confirms a literal interpretation of the artwork, mentioning Dylan's plight in a mental hospital.

• NOV 27, Robert and I released Undertow Podcast Episode 18; the podcast featured a review of KOBK #13 and recommendations for the comic books Whiteout -- artist Steve Lieber put the entire first issue online -- and Slots.

• NOV 29, Image Comics released KOBK #14 with a three-page preview; Hero Collector posted an essay explaining why people should be reading the title.

• DEC 14, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively announced that Chad Stahelski, the director of the John Wick films, is a directing a Kill Or Be Killed film adaptation; the script will be written by Dan Casey, who has written the script for the Incognito adaptation (not yet produced), and Ed Brubaker will be an executive producer.

• DEC 18, subscriber's received the latest installment of Ed Brubaker's email newsletter, his first in more than six months; the issue includes preview pages for KOBK #15, production work for the cover to issue #16, info on the KOBK movie, reposted news on a Velvet TV series, production photos from Too Old to Die Young, confirmation on his absence from Westworld's season two, and info on his research into the upcoming follow-up to The Fade Out.

(Not a traditional sequel, the story will be set in the late 1950's, when television became big in Hollywood, and it features "a side character" from the first story.  In earlier interviews, Brubaker specifically named Phil Brodsky, the studio's fixer.)

• DEC 18, DC Comics' March solicitations include an advance solicit for Sleeper Book One, in trade paperback; scheduled for April 25th, the book collects Point Blank and Sleeper Season One, both written by Ed Brubaker with the latter drawn by Sean Phillips in an early collaboration.

• DEC 18, Delcourt releases a French translation of KOBK #1, available for purchase online at Sequenicity.

• DEC 19, Image posted its March solicitations, with KOBK #17 listed for March 21 and described as "turning-point issue of the series so far;" perhaps meaningfully, the cover art has Dylan removing his now iconic red ski mask.

• DEC 20, Sean Phillips announces his work on the cover art for the Arrow Academy Blu-ray release of the 1947 Western Ramrod, starring Veronica Lake and scheduled for March 5th.

• DEC 20, Phillips also announces his work on a variant cover for Hellblazer #19, written by Tim Seeley; it appears that the issue has been solicited and is still scheduled for a February 28th release.

• JAN 10, the UK's Ink magazine publishes a retrospective review of Brubaker and Phillips' Sleeper, rightly describing the early work for DC's Wildstorm imprint as "a self-contained gem."

• JAN 15, Phillips announces new original artwork at Splash Page Comic Art, including paintings for covers of Kill Or Be Killed and Hellblazer.

• JAN 17, Phillips just announced that he's selling signed posters for Night of the Living Dead, at his Big Cartel store; it looks like quantities are very limited, possibly only two posters.

That just about covers it, but we'll have another blog entry up soon.

Advance Preview of Kill Or Be Killed #7.

In its most recent extended forecast for Image Comics, ComicList confirms that issue #6 of Kill Or Be Killed -- along with its Walking Dead-tribute variant cover -- is on-schedule for its release next week.  In yesterday's email newsletter about Too Old To Die Young, Ed Brubaker reports that Sean Phillips is already close to finishing the artwork for issue #7.

Brubaker included a few preview pages of Phillips' artwork for the March issue, which is told entirely from Kira's perspective, and we would be remiss if we didn't highlight this artwork in a separate blog post.

Kill Or Be Killed #7 interior art, in-progress detail,
  From the Desk of Ed Brubaker

We're quite curious how this issue's change in POV will affect the overall structure of the series:  so far, the story has only been told from a single perspective, and its narration has been surprisingly and humorously direct in addressing the reader with the suggestion that Dylan knows that person is reading a monthly comic book.  That changes with issue #7, and we wonder if the issue will shed any light on just how unreliable a narrator Dylan has been.

The entire newsletter is worth reading, not least for a link to an excellent article on that killer Criminal arc, "The Last of The Innocent."

As always, the newsletters are archived online, and fans can subscribe here:

http://tinyurl.com/edbrubaker-list

Bullets: Second Printing, Reviews, and Appearances!

• KOBK #1 an Immediate Sellout, Gets a Second Printing.  It occurs to us that Kill Or Be Killed debuted in only one format -- a standard cover with no variants, "Just the one cover, the one comic," as Ed Brubaker described it on Twitter.

This hasn't happened with a Brubaker-Phillips project for some time.  Along with the two Criminal one-shots, The Fade Out #1 (2014) featured an oversized magazine variant, and Fatale #1 (2012) came with two covers, one featuring Jo the beauty and the other featuring the beastly Bishop.

You have to go back to Incognito #1 (2008) to find a title's debut issue released without a variant, as even its sequel "Bad Influences" (2010) began with a "pulp" variant cover that was reused as the cover for the deluxe "Classified Edition."  Something of a surprise hit for Marvel's Icon imprint, Incognito #1 went back to press for a second printing, and we see that the same thing has happened with Image's Kill Or Be Killed.

Yesterday, Ed Brubaker announced that KOBK #1 "sold out last week," and this news is on the heels of a press release from Image Comics, that the series is "marked for success" as its debut issue has been rushed to a second printing.  The cover art is shown below, and it appears to be new artwork based on a single memorable frame from page #6.

Image Comics reports that the second printing to issue #1 will be available on September 7th, the same day as issue #2, and the final order cutoff deadline for both books is Monday, August 15th.

• KOBK #1 Review Roundup.  One indication of the book's early success is its positive reviews, and the aggregator site Comic Book Round Up reports an average score of 9.1 out of 10, currently from 23 critics. 

Brubaker has sent out thanks to reviewers who didn't spoil this first issue, and I'm sure we'll see more in-depth analysis as the book's premise becomes more widely known and its implications unfold in subsequent issues.

• Brubaker Appearances.  Finally, a brief review of Ed Brubaker's recent appearances online -- and an upcoming personal appearance later today!

• Last week, Blastr posted a video interview from San Diego Comic-Con, where the writer discusses the research and complexity of The Fade Out, the rapid genesis of Kill Or Be Killed -- including a discussion with Robert Kirkman -- and his other projects, writing the Maniac Cop remake and joining the writing team on Westworld.
• Over the weekend, episode #142 of the podcast How Did This Get Made? was published, a live episode recorded in Los Angeles reviewing the 1996 Billy Zane vehicle and commercial bomb The Phantom.  The episode includes Brubaker's second appearance on the show, this time focusing on one of the biggest characters of the pulp era: in 2013, he appeared on episode #75 to discuss Ben Affleck in Daredevil, after an award-winning run writing for the character from 2006 to 2009.
• Later today, Brubaker is appearing at Collector's Paradise in Pasadena, signing copies of KOBK #1 alongside artist Tomm Coker who is signing copies of his book The Black Monday Murders #1, which arrives today.  The event is scheduled from 6 pm to 9 pm Pacific, just a few hours from now.

Details about the signing can be found on the Facebook page for the event, linked above.

In Stores Today, KILL OR BE KILLED #1 and More!

Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Elizabeth Breitweiser's newest series debuts today, with Kill Or Be Killed #1.  Image Comics features the book on its homepage, describing it as a "new ongoing series" staring "a reluctant vigilante."

Brubaker's latest newsletter was sent out Monday, briefly reminding readers of the new series:  "It's getting amazing advanced reviews, and a lot of great word-of-mouth, so be sure your store is saving you a copy, so you won't miss it."

He tells readers that the series isn't what we expect, but that it's both humorous and dark, and he asks us to spread the word about the book.  He also includes the six-page preview that was featured in the first newsletter, but he points out that a few lines of text had been cut in the meantime.

(Check out the bottom of page 3.)

The newsletter also features behind-the-scenes artwork for two covers for Fatale, for issues #3 and #24, and even some details on a project that never saw daylight, the vampire-pirate mini-series Black Sails!  Interested readers should definitely subscribe and check out the archive.

We see that KOBK is also featured in this week's slideshow of comics that have Paste Magazine's attention, and Newsarama's Best Shots feature has a mostly-positive advance review.  On Sunday, Previews World published an exclusive interview with Brubaker, evidently given prior to the Eisners ceremony on July 20th.

In the interview, Ed Brubaker gives some insight to why KOBK is planned as an ongoing series:

"It just felt like an idea that, once I started digging into it, had a lot of different avenues to explore, and I wanted the freedom of an ongoing series to do that. It's a very 'what happens next?' kind of story, and few things do that as well as a monthly comic book series. Kirkman told me to aim for at least 50 issues, but we'll see."

...and, Jared at OK Comics in Leeds, England, tweets that their copies of the comic comes with an exclusive print signed by all three creators.

All copies of Kill Or Be Killed come with OK Comics Exclusive Print SIGNED by @bettieb @brubaker & @seanpphillips pic.twitter.com/zGffStIdk2

— Jared of OK Comics (@OKComics) August 2, 2016

With all this publicity, we're intrigued, to say the least.

...and reaching your local shop today are a couple other books you might find interesting.

First, there's Liberty from Image Comics -- or more precisely, The CBLDF Presents Liberty trade paperback.  It evidently reprints a book we mentioned a few years back,  the 2014 hardcover collection of the Liberty annuals from 2008 to 2012, benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  The collection includes a rare Criminal story, presumably "No One Rides For Free," which was originally featured in 2008's Liberty Comics and was subsequently collected in the first Criminal Deluxe Edition.

Second, there's the third and final trade paperback collection of Tom Scioli's bonkers Transformers vs GI Joe, which I've mentioned before and recommended in the first Undertow Podcast.  I'll be honest that, after reading all the monthly issues, I'm waiting for the deluxe edition this singular work deserves.

I might have more to say about my hopes for that deluxe edition some other time, but we'll definitely have more about Kill Or Be Killed, as it will be the focus of our next podcast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We plan to pass along any reports on this panel.

Bullets: UNDERTOW PODCAST EPISODE 2, Brubaker's Newsletter and Audio Interview, and More!

We have couple big items to wrap up the month.

• Undertow Podcast Now Online!  The second episode of The Undertow Podcast has been released and is now available on iTunes and Podbean.  Robert and I pay tribute to the late, great Darwyn Cooke, with an emphasis on two acclaimed works that might be of particular interest to our listeners -- and to our readers here:  his work with Ed Brubaker redefining Catwoman for the modern era and his four hardcover adaptations of Richard Stark's Parker series.

We also discuss and recommend two works I mentioned in my last post, both humorous looks at the genre of crime fiction: a new comic called The Fix and the movie (and accompanying novelization of) The Nice Guys.

(About The Fix, it looks like issue #4 is out next week, along with additional printings of the first three issues.  In the meantime, we've noticed, via Ed Brubaker's Twitter feed, that Paste Magazine posted an excellent article on the series early this month, resulting from an interview with the creators.  Nick Spencer is said to be a fan of "crime comic classics such as Criminal and 100 Bullets.")

We anticipate our next podcast episode will be released in late July, after the release of Velvet #15 -- and we're looking forward to it already.

• Ed Brubaker on "How to Be a Person" Podcast. We're not the only one recording audio discussions for an online audience, and last week the podcast, "How to Be a Person," published their episode interviewing Ed Brubaker.  There's not much new about his creator-owned comics, but the wide-ranging conversation covers his childhood and his early encounters with comics, his work on Captain America and Gotham Central, and his recent job as one of the writers for the upcoming HBO series Westworld -- all before less serious segments, a how-to on creating the text for cartoon sound effects and a short game devising supervillain names for people in real life.

In the interview, Brubaker describes Westworld as the most ambitious sci-fi television series since the updated Battlestar Galactica.  A teaser trailer for the series was released just last week, and Ars Technica has more details on the creative staff and premise for the show, which premieres in October.

The one-hour podcast is available on SoundCloud, and we think it's worth a listen. 

• More on Velvet & Kill or Be Killed in the Brubaker Newsletter. We mentioned this in our news digest at the beginning of the podcast, but Ed Brubaker's second full-length newsletter was sent out by email on June 15th.  He discusses DC's latest controversial moves involving the world of Alan Moore's Watchmen, and he's inviting readers to send questions -- and lucky readers who have their questions answered will also win a prize from the writer.

Brubaker includes some great artwork from his current books, both in-progress and in their final version.  There's a couple pages of action from Steve Epting for the upcoming issue of Velvet, and there's an advance look at Sean Phillips' cover art for Kill Or Be Killed #2, which we're reprinting below.

Kill Or Be Killed #2 cover, From the Desk of Ed Brubaker

There are quite a few items of note regarding both series.

• Velvet 15 went to print the week of June 15th, and Ed explains that all of the various delays were due to him, not Steve Epting:  his workload has been too much, and this particular story has been intricate and difficutl to write.
• This upcoming issue is the "grand finale of the first big Velvet story," and Brubaker is just starting the script for his next project with Epting:  this project is "still top secret," and the artist will be drawing something quite different from anything else currently on the stands.
• This new project does NOT mean the end of Velvet, as Brubaker assures us that the series will return -- and that he's been sitting on "huge" news that he can't wait to announce.

We we're quite surprised to see that Velvet is going on a kind of hiatus, and while we have our guesses, we do wonder what the big news is on that front.  As always, we'll relay all news as we find it.

In the interim, one great way readers can keep up with the news themselves is to subscribe to Ed's newsletter.


• The Grand Finale of Transformers Vs GI Joe. Finally, one of our other favorite series -- and the book I recommended in our first podcast episode -- wrapped up yesterday after an amazing two-year run:  Transformers vs GI Joe, a bonkers and brilliant series that pushes the very limits of what comic books can do, a self-contained riff on two licensed properties that has no business being as great as it is.

In that article on The Fix that we mentioned above, Paste Magazine mentions Scioli's "intricate Kirby-esque chaos" that makes it (like The Fix) a meaty book well worth rereading.  In its size and scope, it actually compares to another book we discussed in the latest podcast, Darwyn Cooke's epic love letter to the Golden and Silver Ages of DC Comics, The New Frontier.

On Twitter, series co-writer and artist Tom Scioli highlights a blogger's lengthy review of this last issue that points out that the entire run does things you can only find in comics -- and does it often, about six times an issue.  Printed in a prestige format for its extra-long content, this "Armageddon" issue did have quite a few cards up its sleeve, and -- to my surprise and delight -- it even left me wanting more from this particular universe. 

I've done this a few times before, for the works of Brubaker and Phillips...

- The 30 covers for Fatale's monthly issues and trade collections.
- The 6 covers for Image's reprints of the Criminal trades.
- The 12 covers for The Fade Out.

...but I've been so giddy over this sci-fi series that I made a quick collage of the cover art for the series -- at least of the standard covers for issues #0-#13 by Tom Scioli, and his wraparound variant for the finale.  (There have been more than two dozen other variant covers.)

As before, an extra-large version is available on Google Drive, clocking in at 4-MB.

If you grew up with these characters, and if these covers pique your interest, do yourself a favor and check out the series.

Bullets: Solicitations, Previews, a New Newsletter, and Much More!

There have been some noteworthy news items over the last couple weeks, and we begin our MASSIVE summary with quite a bit about the next series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Kill or Be Killed!

• KOBK #1 in August Solicitations.  On May 17th, Image Comics released its August solicitations:  Comic Book Resources has the full list, and on his blog Sean Phillips reposted all his projects -- including a Criminal trade, which we'll mention again below. 

Along with the debut of Jonathan Hickman's The Black Monday Murders, Kill Or Be Killed #1 is listed as a "Gem of the Month."

KILL OR BE KILLED #1 - GEM OF THE MONTH

STORY: ED BRUBAKER
ART: SEAN PHILLIPS & ELIZABETH BREITWEISER
COVER: SEAN PHILLIPS
AUGUST 3 / 40 PAGES / FC / M / $3.99

The bestselling team of ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS (THE FADE OUT, CRIMINAL, FATALE) launch their new monthly series: KILL OR BE KILLED, the twisted story of a young man who is forced to kill bad people, and how he struggles to keep his secret as it slowly ruins his life and the lives of his friends and loved ones. Both a thriller and a deconstruction of vigilantism, KILL OR BE KILLED is unlike anything BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS have ever done.

Via Twitter, Brubaker relays that he believes the $3.99 cover price will just be for oversized issues, and we can't wait for this series' 40-page debut.


• KOBK "Trailer" in Image+ #2.  Last Wednesday saw the release of issue #2 of Image+, a monthly magazine highlighting upcoming projects from the creator-centric publishing company.  Free with each $3.99 issue of Previews -- or sold separately for $1.99 -- the magazine is interesting in its own right, with interviews, previews, and an original story from The Walking Dead, serialized across the first 12 issues in four-page installments.

The first issue featured Snotgirl from Bryan Lee O'Malley, and this month, the cover features Kill Or Be Killed.  Inside we find a two-page interview with the creators -- Brubaker, Phillips, and colorist Bettie Breitweiser -- and what appears to be the "trailer" for the series.  At six pages, it's the longest such preview for one of their works, and rather than a montage of scenes we see a single, violent vignette that still doesn't reveal anything about why and how our protagonist is forced to kill but permitted to choose his victims.


• More KOBK Info and Previews in the Brand New Brubaker Newsletter.  Image's print magazine isn't the only new source of info, as Ed Brubaker has recently announced the launch of an email newsletter, to be sent out about once or twice a month.  Named "Notes from the Basement" after Brubaker's company Basement Gang Inc., a letter from Brubaker's desk will be sent out about once or twice a month.  Fans can subscribe here; the first newsletter came out Thursday afternoon, and those who missed it can find the archived copy online.

The newsletter includes a quick recommendation (mentioned further down) and a brief comment on superhero books -- prompted by the latest Captain America controversy and the blowback that Brubaker received despite his having wrapped up his Marvel work in 2012 -- but the book focuses on Kill Or Be Killed.

Fans will be particularly interested in learning that the six-page "trailer" is really the opening scene from the book, with a tweak to page #6, suggested by Phillips.  The newsletter includes the same sixth page as it will appear in the book plus another two pages -- all with the additional art uncolored, and with the story's premise still very much a mystery.

(In a quick addendum, Ed Brubaker mentions that this additional artwork should NOT be reprinted without his permission.)

Explaining that the "trailer" is really the opening scene, Brubaker's newsletter sheds light on something Phillips said in the Image+ interview:

"All the creator-owned books Ed and I have done together have employed a three-tier grid.  Originally this was because we'd just come off of Sleeper and I wanted to try something totally different to the wild layouts that book had, and also to make it as easy as possible for our readers, some of whom might be new to comics to follow the story.  Comics can be hard to read for new readers and we always hoped our crime comics might attract crime fiction lovers new to comics.

"Now though, the three-tier grid has become one of the things that go into making our books look distinct, so I'm in no hurry to drop it.  With KILL OR BE KILLED, I've kept the grid but changed other things.  Now all the pages have full bleed with thinner, white gutters.  I thought this might help the pages feel more claustrophobic and chaotic, but still be easy to read.  I'm much more interested in telling the story than showing off how well I can draw an elbow, so as usual, the captions and speech balloons all start in the top left of the panel and never get in the way of the action.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

You can easily see what he means with the images below, spanning Brubaker and Phillips' career.  Left to right, we have Sleeper #1 page 1 (2003), The Fade Out #1 page 3 (2014), and Kill Or Be Killed #1, pg 3 (2016) -- and you should be able to open the full-size version of the image.

Sleeper's layout tended to have panels all over the place -- though with text generally laid out logically for Western readers, going from the top left to the bottom right -- all on top of a single splash-page image that anchored the scene.

The Fade Out carried on the layout that dominated all but the rarest of pages in Criminal, Incognito, and Fatale: a three-row grid that is usually bordered by white.

Compared side-by-side, Kill Or Be Killed is obviously structured on the same three-row framework, but the artwork escapes the frame, even intruding into other panels, as in the bottom right.  My initial impression was just what Phillips intended: the scene feels "claustrophobic and chaotic."

This variation on the team's familiar styles is another reason I can hardly wait for this new book -- and fans should definitely subscribe to Brubaker's free newsletter.


• Criminal One-Shots Collected, Solicited for September.  The other major solicitation that came out in May was for the seventh trade paperback collection for Criminal, collecting the two incredible one-shots that have been released over the last two years.

CRIMINAL, VOL. 7: WRONG TIME, WRONG PLACE TP

STORY: ED BRUBAKER
ART / COVER: SEAN PHILLIPS
SEPTEMBER 7 / 112 PAGES / FC / M / $14.99
ADVANCE SOLICIT

BRUBAKER and PHILLIPS return to their multiple award-winning series for two interlinked tales of the Lawless family in the 1970s. Teeg Lawless is trapped behind bars with a price on his head, doing anything he can to survive, while Tracy Lawless celebrates his twelfth birthday riding shotgun on a mission of death.

Collects CRIMINAL: SPECIAL EDITION and CRIMINAL: 10th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

The two one-shots commemorated two very special events -- the series' republication through Image and its tenth anniversary -- and there isn't an obvious third milestone for another one-shot.  This solicitation seems to confirm that the two issues comprise a single work:  there probably won't be a third issue to round out a trilogy.

(Personally, I thought there was an obvious premise for a third one-shot, featuring another Lawless and a pastiche of another comics genre from the late 1970s:  Tracy's younger brother Ricky could have been reading a sci-fi story from a book resembling Heavy Metal or 2000 AD, the latter of which introduced Judge Dredd in 1977.  We still haven't seen much of Ricky, except in flashback in the "Lawless" arc.)

As one can see from the collage we created for the six Image reprints, the covers tend to alternate between a bluish tint and a reddish tint, so we wonder if this purple cover will remain the final version:  it wouldn't be the first time the cover art changed, and, at any rate, the cover probably needs a comma in its title.

I'm somewhat surprised by the listed price for this collection, since the standard version for each of the two "floppy" issues was only $4.99, but those extra-sized issues might have been sold at a bargain price relative to the amount of content.

Comparing apples to apples -- specifically, the solicited page count for each volume -- we find that this upcoming volume is almost as long as any other volume, and each had been solicited with the same cover price of $14.99.

1. 144 pages for Coward
2. 144 pages for Lawless
3. 128 pages for The Dead and the Dying
4. 128 pages for Bad Night
5. 144 pages for The Sinners
6. 120 pages for The Last of the Innocent
7. 112 pages for Wrong Time, Wrong Place

Evidently, the two recent one-shots together comprise just eight fewer pages than the 4-issue arc "The Last of the Innocent" and just 16 fewer pages than either "Bad Night" or the three intersecting one-shots in "The Dead and the Dying."

Those one-shots are practically novellas.


• Older Collections Re-offered in August Solicits.  In Sean Phillips' summary post on the August solicitations, we see that Image Comics is making a lot more available again.  Specifically, they're bringing back all the creator-owned Brubaker/Phillips projects that have been published or republished by Image -- at least, in one format or another.

• Scene of the Crime HC, with Michael Lark
• Criminal Vol. 1-6 TP
• Fatale Vol. 1-5 TP
• The Fade Out Vol. 1-3 TP

We're still waiting for the eventual republication of Incognito, which was originally produced by Marvel's Icon imprint and has since gone out of print.  At one point, the reprints were planned for 2015, but we're still waiting for them to be formally solicited.


• More Reviews of the Deadly Hands Special. The story will soon be collected along with its "Savage Sword" predecessor, but we're still catching a few online articles about the Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, and they're worth passing along.

First up is an essay from our friend Alan David Doane, this blog's founder and longtime contributor.  His interest in comics has since waned, but he happened upon a copy of the "Deadly Hands" issue, and last month he posted a review at Trouble With Comics.  He praises the book as "a well-deserved victory lap for one of the best creative collaborations in comics," and he gives readers a bit of the inside story behind the series' debut in 2006, relaying that he helped Brubaker and Phillips "create a faux-pirate preview of Criminal that we uploaded to then-popular sites where comic books were available for illicit download (now it can be told!)."

What may be even more interesting than that bit of the history of Criminal is the historical context of the "Deadly Hands" issue, and for that we turn to an essay at HiLobrow on the book's "Lost & Found Worlds," including the kung-fu comics of the 1970's and the cluttered bookstores where they could be found.  Adam McGovern describes some of the books that the one-shots emulate, and he includes a couple interesting images.

Reviewing the book, McGovern compares the comic-within-a-comic to Watchmen's "Tales of the Black Freighter," and he writes about how Criminal comments on the "counterpoint between the squalid escapism of the ’70s and the real-life decline beyond it."

Both essays are worth a look.


• Gotham Central in a Massive Omnibus. We almost missed this entirely, but on May 4th, DC Comics republished all 40 issues in a single hardcover omnibus, ten years after the series concluded.

Five trade paperbacks were originally released collecting 33 of the series' 40 issues.  Between 2008 and 2011, the entire series was collected in four hardcovers which were themselves reissued in paperback.

Going by Amazon's listings for the books, these four comprehensive hardcovers -- Books One through Four -- actually have more pages than the omnibus, a total of 976 pages compared to 957 pages.  There was never any indication that the omnibus contained bonus content that would make it worth double- (or triple-) dipping, but a fellow Twitter user confirmed for us that the book didn't have many extras, just some head sketches and a couple of small character sketches.

(Thanks a million, Fee McBee!)

Also on Twitter, Ed Brubaker relays that DC Comics did not consult him on the collection, as indicated by the his "strange bio," and this follows their usual M.O., as Brubaker doesn't recall ever being consulted on DC collections, presumably including the Sleeper omnibus published through the WildStorm imprint.

Running from 2002 to 2006, the award-winning book was created by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, and Scene of the Crime collaborator Michael Lark.  Other artists on the book included Stefano Gaudiano, Kano, and -- as an occasional cover artist -- Sean Phillips.

The series focused on Gotham City's Major Crimes Unit as it struggled to deal with the city's psychopaths and supervillians, resenting having to work in the shadow of the city's masked vigilantes.  Because Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock were then off the force, the reader could not be assured that even main characters would survive, and "Soft Targets" was a particularly suspenseful story -- and one of the all-time great Joker stories, anticipating Nolan's The Dark Knight by about five years.

The Gotham Central omnibus is DEFINITELY worth checking out if you're not already familiar with the book.


• The Indiscretions of Gerald Ford. The latest issue of Velvet was released a couple weeks ago, and we were surprised to see the book attributing some quite scandalous behavior to then-Vice President Gerald Ford. 

While I have distrust and even contempt for politicians in general, I'm ambivalent about works of fiction that impugn the character of real-life individuals:  they are our fellow human beings, after all, and I have a similarly negative reaction to the insinuation, in Alan Moore's Watchmen, that Nixon killed JFK (if only in an alternate timeline) as I did to Trump's recent insinuations regarding Ted Cruz's father.  Beyond the extremely serious accusation of murder, such myth-making detracts from the known facts that point quite persuasively to Kennedy's being shot by a pro-Castro Communist.

But knowing how well researched The Fade Out was, and curious about what informed this particular wrinkle in Velvet, I did some very brief research to find a 2013 article from the (UK) Daily Mail, reporting allegations that "Kennedy and Ford both had affairs with the same East German female 'spy.'"

Citing a Politico story, the article summarizes the allegations of Robert Gene Baker, formerly a close aide to LBJ who was then arrested for theft and tax evasion in 1967.  Baker claims that Ellen Rometsch, the wife of a West German army officer, had affairs with President Kennedy and then-Congressman Ford; FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover supposedly had recordings of Ford's affair and used them as leverage to get inside information about the Warren Commission, on which Ford served.  Rometsch had been sent to America by Communists in East Berlin, and then-Attorney General Bobby Kennedy eventually had her deported.

Sometimes truth -- or at least alleged truth -- is stranger than fiction.


• Maniac Cop, Written by Ed Brubaker, To Begin Filming.  Almost exactly two years ago, we reported that Brubaker is writing the screenplay for Maniac Cop, a 1988 cult thriller about an urban serial killer posing as a police officer.  The film's director was supposed to be announced at Cannes that year, but the news was delayed to last fall, with /Film reporting that the director will be John Hyams.  The director of two Universal Soldier films, Hyams calls Brubaker's script "phenomenal."

Thanks to Brubaker's Twitter feed, we see that a bit more information has come out in May.

In a news digest published on May 3rd, Screen Daily reports that the film's new script is co-written by Brubaker and Hyams, and the fill is "due to shoot in August."  On May 16th, Variety subsequently reported that the film is the first project for a multi-year first look deal with producer Nicolas Winding Refn's company Space Rocket.  The more interesting news is that the film "will shoot in Los Angeles this summer," and it's described as "the first in a trilogy."

We'll pass along more news as we find it.


• New Online Store for Sean Phillips.  Also on Twitter, Sean Phillips recently announced that he's opened a Big Cartel store to replace his now-closed store on Amazon.

The store can be found here, at bigcartel.com, listing prices in British currency. While its current inventory features books that many fans may already have, Phillips assures readers that more books will be added soon.


• Shane Black and The Nice Guys. Briefly returning to his newsletter, we find that Ed Brubaker strongly recommends the new Shane Black film, The Nice Guys.  He "f---ing loved it" as a movie with more laughs and more heart than Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Fans of Shane Black's films might be interested in the "somewhat brief history" of his buddy movies, published at Devin Faraci's Birth.Movies.Death.

And fans of Hard Case Crime should know that the excellent imprint has published the film's novelization, written by publisher Charles Ardai and with a cover that we're reposting above.

I read the book almost as soon as it came out, and I caught the movie over Memorial Day weekend, and I too recommend both quite highly:  people should catch one or the other, preferably both.
Fans of Brubaker and Phillips might find a couple of hooks in the comedy's premise:  The Fade Out focused on corruption in Hollywood while the Criminal one-shots were set in the seedy Seventies, and this buddy comedy and detective story combines the settings of both.


• The Fix is In and VERY Funny.  Finally, on Twitter, Brubaker strongly recommends Nick Spencer's new crime comic, "The Fix," and we can tell you the book's definitely worth a look.

In April, I had caught CBR's three-page preview for issue #1, for which Bleeding Cool subsequently posted an uncensored and extended version, but I didn't remember to pick up the book.  I've since caught up on the first two issues, and I loved it.

The description for the first issue sums up the book -- a crime comic with a wicked sense of humor -- and compares it to our favorite comic.

From the creators of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, comes a story of the crooked cops, scheming mobsters, and corrupt politicians that run things—and the sex toy that can bring them all down. Oh, and the hero is a drug-sniffing beagle named Pretzels. Bad people do bad things to each other in this frenetic, outrageous, sometimes off-putting new caper! If you liked classic crime comics like CRIMINAL and 100 Bullets we apologize in advance for letting you down!

In the series' announcement, artist Steve Lieber describes the book as "a truly funny story about truly awful people" -- it's intended to be "an endlessly surprising tale full of shining moments of self-centered garbage humanity."

With Chew about to start its last arc and complete its thoroughly entertaining 60-issue run, we've needed another darkly comic crime book, and The Fix fits the bill, with hilarious scenes that I have to share with my wife, whether or not she wants to hear it.

Image Comics recently announced that the first two issues continue to go back to print, and the third printing for the debut issue features a photo of a real dog on its cover, shown above.

The third printing of The Fix #1, the second printing of The Fix #2, and the first printing of The Fix #3 are all scheduled to arrive in stores this Wednesday, June 8th, providing the perfect opportunity to catch up.

The book is already on our pull list, and it might help readers get through the next two months as we wait to Kill Or Be Killed.