Bullets: News on Upcoming Releases, &c.

The second issue of Criminal: The Sinners was originally solicited to be released this week, and it is currently delayed only by a couple weeks, to November 18th. The mini-series should still be on track for a December release for issue #3, and a January release for issue #4 -- about which I have more to say, shortly.

• Update on Incognito "Bookplate" Edition. As I relayed in an update to the previous entry, I confirmed that the limited "bookplate" edition of Incognito will be available to customers outside the UK. For more details, see the blog for Gosh! Comics in London.
  
  
• IGN Review of The Sinners #1. In addition to CBR's excellent review, we have stumbled across a review at IGN, here, for the first issue of Criminal: The Sinners. I frankly agree with its assessment that, compared to earlier arcs, the new story "just doesn't burst out of the gates" with its first issue, but Dan Phillips is right that -- between the story and the extra content -- the series continues to be "the best bang for your buck out of any monthly on the stands."
  
  
• January Solicitations. The next two issues should be out before the end of the year, but after that? Newsarama has published Marvel's January solicitations, which includes Criminal: The Sinners #4. The description reads as follows:

  The Award-Winning crime series continues! Tracy Lawless is getting close to finding the killers he's been searching for... but before he can put all the pieces together, he finds himself in their crosshairs in Chinatown, with enemies all around him. This can't end well, or wouldn't be an issue of Criminal, would it?

  The issue is scheduled for a January 27th release.
  
  
• Cover Art for The Sinners #5. Meanwhile, Sean Phillips is already posting cover art previews for Criminal: The Sinners #5. Along with interior art, presumably of the next issue, in various stages of completion, Sean has posted the sketch, the inks, and the final artwork for the brutal, moody cover -- where things aren't looking good for Tracy Lawless.
  
  
• Criminal Hardcover, at the Printers. The hardcover collection is also on its way, and over on his Twitter page, Ed Brubaker reports that Criminal: The Deluxe Edition is now apparently being published. He's seen a printed copy, "and it looks great."
  
  Brubaker links to Amazon's listing for the book -- blog readers are welcome to visit Amazon through our links -- and the listing includes the first detailed description I've seen.

  A fantastically-designed and printed book showcasing the Eisner and Harvey Award-Winning crime comics from the creators of Sleeper and Incognito, this oversized, deluxe hardback edition features Criminal books 1 thru 3 - Cowards, Lawless, and The Dead and the Dying. Also features many extras, including a Criminal short story and the never-before-printed five page "movie trailer in comics form" that Brubaker and Phillips created to announce the series online, plus illustrations, selected articles, behind-the-scenes glimpses, painted covers, and much more! Features an introduction by comics legend and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. Collects Criminal (2006) #1-10 and Criminal (2008) #1-7.

  We reported earlier that it appears the "selected articles" are only ones that Brubaker himself wrote.
  
  The "Criminal short story" might be "No One Rides for Free" from Liberty Comics #1, or it could the prose story for the very first issue, or the hardcover may well include both.
  
  And, strictly speaking, the "movie trailer in comics form" was previously published, in Walking Dead #30, which our own Alan David Doane predicts will become "the Holy Grail" for Criminal fans.
  
  The page also has a publication date of December 2nd, when the book was solicited for November, but I'm not sure that that date reflects when the book will reach the direct market.
  
  
• More Details about DC's Pulp Comics. Finally, in an update to earlier news about a new DC Comics continuity for pulp heroes like Doc Savage and "The" Batman, Dan DiDio provided a few more details to Newsarama: after November's (The) Batman/Doc Savage Special, the universe will be kick-started in March with a mini-series now officially titled First Wave.
  
  After that, we'll see new ongoing titles for Doc Savage and The Spirit, with a title for The Batman "under consideration." The Spirit monthly will be a genuinely new ongoing title, to be written by Mark Shultz, to replace the series that apparently concluded in August.
  
  This collection of new titles might not be as interesting as Incognito, but -- as with Marvel's reimagined Noir books for its mainstream superheroes -- a successful pulp line from DC might really help broaden the base for Brubaker and Phillips' creator-owned projects.

Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

Bullets: Criminal in Dark Horse Noir, Reviews, Previews, & More.

Our own Alan David Doane highlighted A Criminal Blog at a very new group blog, Comic Book Galaxy's Trouble With Comics. Check it out, for more than just its links to an old-school Batman comic that came with an action figure from Kenner's Super Powers and a track-by-track guide to They Might Be Giants' Flood, which is celebrating its twentieth(!) anniversary.

Of course, we have our own interesting links here...

• Criminal-related comics out this week. Fans should be on the lookout for two different books that were released this past Wednesday. First up is Liberty Comics #2, which we first mentioned in July. The comic book is published by Image Comics to benefit The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
  
  Last year's first issue of Liberty Comics featured "No One Rides for Free," a Criminal "emission" featuring Tracy Lawless. While Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Val Staples didn't contribute to this second issue, the issue includes contributions by Dave Gibbons, Paul Pope, and Neil Gaiman with Jim Lee. The proceeds of the book go to a worthy cause, so everyone should consider buying two copies -- one with cover art by Tim Sale, the other with a "Kick Ass" cover by John Romita, Jr.
  
  Second is Dark Horse Noir -- or, more precisely, Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics by Dark Horse Comics. Those who have been anticipating this book (as we have for some time) might notice that the cover art has changed since the book was first listed. I believe the new cover (on the right) is a dramatic improvement from the plain artwork that we originally saw, as it subtly features an essential "character" to most noir: the city at night.
  
  
  
  The small, relatively inexpensive paperback (MSRP $12.95) is a 120-page, black-and-white anthology of new crime stories by creators such as Brian Azzarello and David Lapham. Most importantly, it features a new CRIMINAL "emission" by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. It's not clear how (or whether) the short story, "21st Century Noir," fits into the larger Criminal universe. Sean posted preview art of the story across four separate entries back in April -- including the completed artwork for the first full page, here -- but there was no indication of just how dark the story would get in its six brief pages. While last week's first chapter of "The Sinners" was well worth reading, this story delivers a far more brutal punch to the gut, and every Criminal fan should track down this book immediately.
  
  
• Criminal Review and Preview Art. On the subject of Criminal: The Sinners, Comic Book Resources has a five-star review of the first issue. Greg McElhatton notes that there is no real status quo for the title's setting, that the series "has always been a moving target when it comes to its stories; you may stop for a second, but it's forever marching forward and changing things up."
  
  That's absolutely right: in every story so far, the protagonist's world is irrevocably changed, and so far it's always been for the worst. While characters do find even years of relative stability tending bar or picking pockets, the stories focus on the events that turn their worlds upside-down, often framed in the context of a personal history that makes the tragedy seem inevitable. For those who want to follow the title beyond each self-contained arc, this tendency makes each story absolutely essential.
  
  What also makes each story essential to the Criminal fan is the interconnectedness of the characters. As Ed Brubaker promised, we're already begging to see in the new arc the "Easter eggs" that reward faithful readers. The first chapter of "The Sinners" found Tracy visiting the Blue Fly Diner, which was a significant locale in "Bad Night." And, the issue reveals that Tracy holds in contempt gamblers who cannot pay back their debts, a very interesting look into his psyche, given his father's motivations in the three stories collected in "The Dead and the Dying."
  
  Over at his blog, Sean Phillips continues to post preview art of upcoming issues, in various stages of completion. (He also indicates the subject matter of an upcoming essay.) One page -- posted as thumbnails, then pencils, and finally inks -- shows the return of "Genuine Jen" Waters. An old friend of Leo and Tracy, she now works in the city police's Internal Affairs Division and is something of a pariah wherever she goes. She made one brief appearance in the fourth part of "Coward" -- Volume 1, Issue 4, from early 2007 -- where she filled Leo in on the crooked cops who double-crossed him. The Gotham Central fan in me finds her to be one of the more intriguing secondary characters, and I'm quite happy to see her return.
  
  
• Limited "Bookplate" Edition of Incognito. Also at his blog, Sean highlighted the sale of a limited edition of the Incognito trade paperback at a London comic shop called Gosh! The store is taking orders for an exclusive "bookplate" edition, which (the site explains) is the regular trade paperback with an extra feature: toward the front is glued a card signed by both Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
  
  I'm not sure whether this book is available only to British customers, but I'm making inquiries and will update this blog entry if and when I find out.
  
  UPDATE, OCT 22. Both by email and through comments at their blog, Gosh! confirms that U.S. residents will be able to order the bookplate edition of Incognito. They only accept payment in British pounds, but using PayPal or credit card should handle the conversion. Check out the link for contact info.
  
  
• Doc Savage, The Spirit, and The Batman in DC Pulp Comics. Finally, there's a couple other bits of comic news that I might document in the comments for my own sake, but there's one announcement that Incognito fans might find particularly interesting: in a news story at Comic Book Resources, Brian Azzarello reveals that we'll soon see a new pulp universe from DC Comics.
  
  The writer of 100 Bullets explains that this new universe will have plenty of villains and heroes but no superpowers, and everything kicks off with November's "Batman/Doc Savage Special," to be followed next year by a six-part prestige-format mini-series called "First Wave." After that, there will be new ongoing titles for Doc Savage and The Spirit. Hopefully -- almost presumably, given how well even mediocre Bat-titles sell -- we'll see an ongoing title for "the Batman," the gun-toting crimefighter who is closer to the hero's original pulp roots.
  
  Read the story for more info on who's in, who's not, and some significant differences between the characters in this setting and those in the main DC continuity.
  
  As someone who's become increasingly disinterested in that main continuity, and who thinks Doc Savage makes no sense in that continuity, I like this news. As someone who's becoming more interested in classic pulp -- in part because of modern works like Incognito, the Gabriel Hunt books from the editor of Hard Case Crime, and Pixar's enchanting movie Up -- I think this might be the best news out of DC in the last three years or so.

I might have more to say later, about the short story in what will probably be colloquially known as Dark Horse Noir. For now I reiterate that Criminal fans should seek out this trade paperback at their local retailers.



Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

Bullets: Criminal's Return, Sleeper's Conclusion, Essays and Reviews.

It's a big week, as Criminal has finally (finally!) returned with a new arc.

• The Sinners #1 In Stores Now. After a nine-month hiatus, Criminal has returned with new issues, and with a new format where issues will be numbered by mini-series rather than as an ongoing title.
  
  Issue #1 of Criminal: The Sinners hit stores today. In addition to the main feature -- the second story arc for Tracy Lawless -- the issue features an essay by Michael Stradford on Sam Peckinpah's 1975 crime film, The Killer Elite. The issue also includes excerpts of a lengthy interview that Tom Spurgeon conducted with Ed Brubaker; the two talked with Darwyn Cooke about his adaptation of Richard Stark's The Hunter, and the complete interview (which we mentioned in May) can still be found online at The Comics Reporter.
  
  It's worth reiterating what we reported last month, that Sean Phillips posted a five-page preview of this first issue of "The Sinners."
  
  
• Sleeper: Season Two. DC has been publishing new trade collections for Sleeper over the summer, and the final collection reached stores last week. The series, a twisted espionage story set in the super-powered WildStorm universe, was Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' first major collaboration, and it remains one of my favorite series all-time.
  
  The trade paperback collects material from two compilations released in 2005, "A Crooked Line" and "The Long Way Home," but it does so with an MSRP of nearly $8.00 less. The material appears to be mostly unchanged, with slightly better paper quality, different cover pages, and slight revisions to the introduction of "what has come before."
  
  The most important change is something I mentioned earlier: the inclusion of a prelude story from WildStorm's "Coup D'Etat: Afterword." The six-page story begins this collection and serves as a bridge from the shocking conclusion of the first 12-issue "season" to the next twelve issues in the second and final season.
  
  Fans of Criminal and Incognito should check out Sleeper if they haven't already.
  
  
• Brubaker Essay on Philip K. Dick. Brubaker and Phillips' monthly work for Icon is uniquely attractive to readers in part because of the additional material that isn't collected in the trades, primarily essays about crime fiction. Boom Studios using a similar draw for their illustrated edition of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
  
  The 24-issue maxi-series is apparently including literally every word of the novel on which Blade Runner was based: as the Boom CEO put it, "It's the full novel, fully illustrated." That sounds precisely like the sort of project for which I would wait for the trade -- a collection that would ultimately fit nicely alongside Steve Niles and Elman Brown's adaptation of I Am Legend -- but the title is drawing monthly readers with additional backmatter: the first three issues include essays by Warren Ellis, Matt Fraction, and Rockne S. O'Bannon, respectively.
  
  Issue #4 came out last week, and it includes an essay on Philip K. Dick by our own Ed Brubaker. The essay notes that Dick often made corporations the villain, and he did so -- correctly -- for their lack of empathy, but I would add that public bureaucracies can be as cold as their private-sector counterparts, and that their incentive structures are different but often no less imperfect. Though neither writer is my north star by any means, in some respects Heinlein and Dick make a good pair of well-balanced skepticism toward authority in its many guises.
  
  Brubaker also writes that, with Blade Runner, Hollywood missed the "small details" that make Dick's work so rewarding. If there's anything that makes me wary of any adaptations of Criminal -- even compared to the superhero noir of Sleeper and Incognito -- it's that: it's the details and the careful characterization that allow the book to soar above what could easily become hard-boiled cliche.
  
  
• Christopher Allen Reviews Angel of Death. Finally, I meant to write about this much sooner, but a couple weeks ago, Christopher Allen -- who contributes to the excellent new blog Trouble With Comics at Comic Book Galaxy -- posted a brief review of Ed Brubaker's Angel of Death, now available on DVD.
  
  Allen writes that he hopes the project leads to bigger and better things for all involved, and that hope may reflect its final place in Brubaker's body of work: it's almost certainly a minor work, but hopefully one that will end up being seen as the prelude of things to come.

I'll link to any interesting reviews of "The Sinners" as I find them, and I'll cover the other crime comics that are soon to be released, including Dark Horse Noir, which features a short-story Criminal "emission."


Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

Scheduling Update.

Very briefly, last week was the original scheduled release date for both the final Sleeper trade and the return of Criminal. Obviously, neither came out, but they're due very soon.

Alongside upcoming arrival lists from Great Escape Comics (Marietta, GA) and Comix Experience (San Francisco), DC's official site confirms that Sleeper: Season Two is in stores this week, Wednesday, September 30th.

And, in a comment for a blog entry announcing a NEW POSTER of the upcoming issue's cover art, Sean Phillips corroborates the listing at Marvel.com: the first issue of Criminal: The Sinners will reach stores next week, October 7th.

The second issue is still currently scheduled for October 28th, but since the third issue has been solicited for December 23rd, I wouldn't be surprised if this second issue gets pushed just a few weeks, to mid-to-late November.

The return of Criminal is just around the corner.

Cover Art, Solicitations, and Interviews.

Sean Phillips has already posted the cover art for the fourth issue of the upcoming Criminal arc, "The Sinners:" the preliminary rough, the in-progress pencils, and the final cover, above.

Marvel's December solicitations have been released, and the third issue of "The Sinners" is initially scheduled for a December 23rd release.

And, at his Twitter page, Ed Brubaker highlights a couple recent interviews. First is a text interview at IGN, where he discusses how his past informs the ideas in Criminal. What I find most interesting is a vague allusion to what may be the series' final arc:

"There will eventually be a story in which we see almost the entire cast in one big story. I'm hoping to get to more stories before then, but I do have this story in mind that's sort of a mid-eighties period piece where our main characters are all teenagers and their parents are the main characters. That's the duel-tiered story I've been sketching out in my notebook. But that's at least a few Criminal stories away, because that'll be the biggest thing page count wise that we're going to tackle. I need to keep building up the fan base before we do that."

This sounds like more information about a story that Brubaker already mentioned, for instance, in a CBR interview we mentioned last year.

On the release of the trade paperback for "The Dead and The Dying," Brubaker was asked about subsequent flashback stories. He relayed that we'd probably see more such stories, but that they were not currently in the planning stages. The interview's final paragraph documents one notable exception.

"Although there is one big story that will probably end up being the longest story we do in the book. It will be about Leo and Tracy and Ricky's parents' gang and about them as teenagers. It's basically the story of how Leo's screw up ended up fucking up everyone's life. If we ever decide to end the book that will probably be the last story we tell." [emphasis mine]

It's entirely possible that I'm reading too much into these two interviews. Though it seems clear that both interviews allude to the same lengthy flashback story, that story may no longer be -- and may never have really been -- the planned finale.

The line, "I'm hoping to get to more stories before then," doesn't help things: one can very easily read into these statements the possibility, at least, that while the conclusion to Criminal remains on the definite but far horizon, it may be approaching sooner rather than later.

And, second, is the first segment of a two-part Word Balloon podcast interview with John Siuntres at Newsarama. The 100-plus-minute mp3 file includes talk about Criminal and Incognito, along with Captain America Reborn, The Marvels Project, and Brubaker's take on the Marvel/Disney deal.

In the long chat about Criminal [2:00-36:30], Brubaker reveals that the next arc was going to be "Coward's Way Out," about Leo's prison break, but that's been pushed back in favor of "The Sinners."

This new arc is planned to cover five issues -- then again, so was Incognito -- and, like all the previous arcs, it will push out the boundaries of what the creators and the series can do, this time by having a much larger scope in terms of characters and locations in the nameless city.

Those who are purchasing Criminal: The Deluxe Edition should take note that, although there appears to be enough room, Brubaker confirms that the hardcover will not contain all of the essays published for the periodical "crime magazine" version of Criminal. The hardcover will only include essays that Brubaker himself wrote, including -- presumably -- the prose story written from Gnarly's perspective, found in the debut issue. Other essays, such as Patton Oswalt's essay on Blast of Silence, will remain exclusive to the monthly issues, at least for the moment.

(He did mention that, in the far future, he may end up publishing all of the essays in an art book, something like "The Criminal Guide to Noir.")

Brubaker also discusses the pleasure of serialized crime fiction and the sources of inspiration for some of the comic book's heists.

About Incognito [36:30-42:30, briefly at 19:30], he discusses the thematic overlap between his Icon mini-series, the Marvels Project, and Alan Moore's Tom Strong -- and the unique approach Incognito takes, in combining elements of both Doc Savage and of Black Mask to create a modern, apocalyptic pulp noir. He confirms that he owns the characters in the series and that they are not in the public domain.

About the Icon imprint [46:30 - 51:00], Brubaker relays his hope that the Disney-Marvel deal will increase the visibility of the "creator-driven" line which helps Marvel by giving creators room to take a break from mainstream titles to work on their own projects.

And, in both interviews, he highlights the most recent Criminal arc -- the intricately plotted "Bad Night" -- as one of the best things he's ever written.

Bullets: Auction, Interview, Preview, & Gotham Central.

Busy week.

• Update on Criminal Auction for Ostrander. The auction we mentioned Monday wrapped up the next day, selling three opportunities to have a Criminal corpse named after you, to benefit comics writer John Ostrander as he struggles with very serious medical bills.
  
  I wonder if the auction's short span over the Labor Day weekend kept it from raising even more, but the three eBay listings -- here, here, and here -- raised $2,240. It appears the auction was quite successful, and Ed Brubaker has relayed his thanks to everyone who bid.
  
  
• Criminal Interview and Preview. We've begun to see some promotional work for the return of Criminal, as late last week Comic Book Resources published an interview with Ed Brubaker on "The Sinners."
  
  The interview seems to confirm a suspicion I had in May, that the title will no longer be numbered as an ongoing monthly.

  "Criminal: The Sinners" marks the beginning of a new publishing model for the series. Instead of an ongoing series with continuous numbering, the book will now operate similar to "Hellboy" in that it will become an ongoing series of miniseries. "The idea is we’ll do 'Criminal' and then another project, the next one being a follow up to 'Incognito.' Then we'll do another 'Criminal' story and after that something else," Brubaker explained. "That way we can keep changing things up. Doing different projects helps revitalize us, and keep us excited about bring good stories to our readers. I always joke that our books are like public radio, in that we’re reader-supported, but it really is true. So we always want to make sure we’re giving our all to the people who are making our collaborations possible."

  This quote also suggests that Criminal will alternate with other projects rather than be interrupted only occasionally. This approach heightens risks that I outlined in December, that creator interest and reader interest might wane if the title shares too much of the spotlight with other works, with the end result being that fewer Criminal stories are told. I continue to hope that these risks are worth the reward.
  
  On a more immediate subject, Brubaker relays that "The Sinners" will provide a wider view of the comic's universe, including reappearances of Sebastian Hyde, his muscle Chester, and even Gnarly and the Undertow. As with previous arcs, the story is self-contained, but it rewards faithful readers: "You can grab 'The Sinners' and just start from there and hopefully it will be the kind of thing where if you’ve read all the 'Criminal' stories you’ll find Easters [sic] eggs here and there."
  
  
  The interview includes a five-page preview of the new issue -- a preview that's also available at Sean Phillips' blog -- that may already show some of the subtle ties to earlier stories.
  
  Tracy Lawless has proven to be an inconsistent hitman for Hyde, deciding to kill only those he deems deserving of death. We're told, "Tracy wouldn't just erase a guy who stood in the way of some real estate deal," which may be an allusion to the same shady deal that drove "No One Rides for Free," the Criminal short story in Liberty Comics #1.
  
  But the narrator also notes that Tracy has no qualms about killing "a scumbag, a degenerate gambler who wouldn't pay." That's a potentially revealing detail into Tracy's inner psychology, considering the gambling debt that motivated the brutal actions of his father Teeg Lawless, in the trio of stories under "The Dead and the Dying".
  
  
  
  And, I believe the interview gives us the first look at the full cover art for issue #3, complete with the title branding. Earlier Sean showed us a preview sketch and the completed artwork, and the new image -- posted above -- confirms that issue #3 has its title in a more traditional location.
  
  
• Second Gotham Central hardcover, in stores now. I had first noticed this in April but failed to add it to the extensive fall schedule, which I'll update shortly: the second hardcover collection of Gotham Central is hitting comic stores this week.
  
  The forty-issue series was written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, illustrated primarily by Michael Lark, and eventual had cover art by Sean Phillips. It focused on Gotham's Major Crimes Unit and its difficult cases dealing with the city's infamous psychopaths and caped vigilantes. My first extensive encounter with noir comics, Gotham Central served as a "gateway drug" of sorts, leading me from traditional superhero fare to work like Criminal, Sleeper, and Greg Rucka's Queen & Country.
  
  Gotham Central is probably the main reason I was so eager for Criminal. (For what it's worth, subsequent stories involving some of its originally down-to-earth main characters is a big reason I've largely soured on the "DC Universe.")
  
  This volume -- Book Two: Jokers and Madmen (no relation to the lackluster Batman Confidential arc, "Lovers and Madmen") -- collects issues #11-22, complete with cover art and an introduction by Duane Swierczynski. In addition to "Soft Targets," a Joker story that may well have informed The Dark Knight, the book includes four issues that haven't been previously collected, including a personal favorite, Ed Brubaker's quiet stand-alone story, "Daydreams and Believers."
  
  I got my copy last night, and I confirmed that it corrected a problem with the trade paperback collection, "Unresolved Targets," where there was a page where almost all the dialogue is missing. In a thread at the Comic Bloc forums, Greg Rucka explained that the problem affected the entire run, and another forum member provided a .jpg file of the original issue's dialogue.
  
  With that issue resolved, I could not recommend this book more highly. Hopefully the rest of the series will be collected in another volume or two over the next couple years.

Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

NEWS FLASH! Criminal Auction for John Ostrander.

As Newsarama reported this weekend, Ed Brubaker is auctioning off three opportunities to be "killed off" in an upcoming issue of Criminal, to benefit the extensive medical costs for legendary writer John Ostrander.

Here are the details, from one of the eBay listings.

"The eagerly anticipated upcoming story in CRIMINAL features three dead mobsters. Each of the three winning bidders will not only be donating to this great cause, but will have their name (or the name of their choice) given to one of the dead mobsters in the comic itself! Ed will also create a 'mobster nickname' for each winning bidder, making this one of the most fun and rare comic-related items ever auctioned!

"Finally, winning bidders will receive a copy of the issue that their dead mobster appears in, autographed and personalized by Ed Brubaker himself!"

As of the writing of this blog entry, there's just over 15 hours left to bid.