Bullets: Digital Editions, Interviews, Conventions, and More.

The oddest bit of recent news is that, though the online preview doesn't indicate it, Ed Brubaker is heavily featured as a character in Marvel's self-parody comic, Captain America: Who Won't Wield The Shield?

The debut issue of Criminal also makes a cameo appearance, in a lengthy scene set in a real-world comic shop.

On to more important items.

• Digital Editions for Criminal and Incognito. Recently on Twitter, Ed Brubaker has been relaying his experience with the iPad and digital comics, and his doing so has served as an obvious prelude to his announcement on April 17th -- beginning here -- that comics printed under Marvel's Icon banner are being re-released in a digital format.
  
  Newsarama covered the story Tuesday, with comments from both Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Brubaker apparently led the charge, and he and Phillips both seem pleased with the results.
  
  Chris Arrant reports, "The plan, as revealed this weekend at C2E2, sees both series serialized on the iTunes and PSP platform with the first issue of Incognito and first two issues of Criminal debuted Saturday for $1.99 each. Future issues are tentatively scheduled to be released on a weekly schedule with these digital versions catching up to its print counterparts by the end of the summer."
  
  Both titles appear to be available in multiple digital-comic applications, including Comixology, Iverse and Panelfly.
  
  
• Brubaker Interviews on Marvel Projects. There's little other news on the Icon front, but with convention season upon us, Ed Brubaker has given a couple interviews for some upcoming projects for Marvel, both involving Steve Rogers, the original Captain America.
  
  Last Friday, Newsarama published an interview about the four-issue mini-series, Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier. Then on Sunday, Comic Book Resources published an interview about Brubaker's new ongoing series, Secret Avengers.
  
  
• Phillips Projects and Books Sales. Over at his blog, Sean Phillips announced a project titled 7 Psychopaths, to debut in May, published by Boom! Studios.
  
  Details of the project were made clear in a subsequent Newsarama interview with Phillips: the book is a reprint of a 2007 French comic, drawn by Phillips and written by Fabien Vehlmann, now being translated for American audiences. Originally published in an over-sized album, it appears the English version will be released (at least at first) as a three-issue mini-series.
  
  The book tells the story of seven madmen on an impossible mission to assassinate Adolph Hitler during the height of World War II: the solicitation is frank about its being "In the vein of Inglorious Basterds, with art by the critically acclaimed Sean Phillips."
  
  In the interview, Phillips also revealed, "I'm working with the same editor and colourist again at the moment on a sci-fi book for Delcourt."
  
  Back at his blog, Phillips announced cover duties for The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles, also by Boom! Studios, to debut in July.
  
  He has continued to add books to his Amazon page, and each book purchased from that page includes an original sketch by the artist.
  
  
• Greg Rucka and DC. The most surprising news of the early convention season is probably Greg Rucka's announcement, made at WonderCon at the beginning of this month, that he has left DC comics. He has set aside plans to complete the third arc in a twelve-issue run focusing on the (relatively) new Batwoman, to devote his energies to creator-owned work, such as a Queen and Country novel that might lead to a relaunch of the espionage comic. He notes, "I haven't been able to work on a lot of the projects that I've wanted to do," and at his website he reassures fans that there is no "drama" behind the scenes.
  
  It appears that Batwoman is moving from a headlining stint in Detective Comics to an ongoing series of her own, to be co-written by J.H. Williams III, whose critically acclaimed artwork for Rucka's first Batwoman arc garnered multiple Eisner nominations. Newsarama has an interview with Williams about the new title.
  
  Hopefully, Rucka's departure will not affect DC's plans to collect in hardcover editions Gotham Central, which he co-wrote with Ed Brubaker. The third of what I presume will be four volumes, released annually, is still scheduled for a June 9th release, but its contents remain unclear.
  
  
• Cooke, Ardai, and Parker. Comic Book Resources covered Darwyn Cooke's "spotlight panel" at WonderCon. There, Cooke relayed how he fought with Ed Brubaker (and won) to improve the finale of their four-issue arc in Catwoman, and he notes the striking visual similarity between their prelude story and his current work adapting Donald Westlake's Parker novels.
  
  The second adaptation, The Outfit, is due in October, but WonderCon attendees were treated with an advance preview, titled "The Man with the Getaway Face." The "prelude" contains an entire chapter from the upcoming book, and it covers the key events from the novel of the same name, bridging the novels The Hunter and The Outfit. The preview comic will be available nationwide in July, at the same low price of $2.00, and in the same over-sized 8-by-12-inch format.
  
  (The blog at The Violent World of Parker may have the first look at the cover art for Cooke's The Outfit, from the back cover of the WonderCon preview.)
  
  Cooke isn't the only one with Parker on the brain. Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai was interviewed about Parker by The Chicago Blog, of the University of Chicago Press. He discussed working with Donald Westlake (a/k/a Richard Stark), who passed away at the beginning of 2009.
  
  Readers might remember Brubaker's interview with Ardai in Criminal Volume 2, Issue #4, which had the first chapter of "Bad Night." His crime fiction imprint Hard Case Crime is now publishing Memory, Westlake's final novel, a noir story that Ardai describes as "a heartbreaking, beautiful book" that was too existential to find a publisher in the 1960's.
  
  Meanwhile, the University of Chicago Press is republishing the Parker novels, and it is in the process of releasing its fourth set of three books.
  
  
• 4thLetter Podcast on Criminal and Parker. The very worthwhile blog 4thLetter has a "fourcast" devoted entirely to Criminal: The Sinners and the WonderCon preview for The Outfit. I need to get around to commenting on the discussion: they contrast Tracy's patronizing approach to protecting women and Parker's willingness to kill without any regard for the person's sex.
  
  
• July Solicitations. Finally, we've recently seen the release of a few solicitations for July, and there are some noteworthy books coming out in the middle of the summer. From Newsarama, we see that Dark Horse is releasing the first two volumes of a newly redesigned third edition of Sin City, and IDW lists the Parker preview among its July releases.
  
  (A careful eye might note that the solicited image has IDW's new logo, while the advance release for WonderCon has the older "lightbulb" logo. The difference might eventually matter to collectors.)
  
  Between the two of them, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have six books in Marvel's solicitations, but there are no collaborations listed, and nothing from the Icon imprint.
  
  The trade collection for Criminal: The Sinners was announced for a June release, but that won't be followed up immediately by the sequel to Incognito.

The digital editions of Criminal and Incognito are to be released weekly, "with these digital versions catching up to its print counterparts by the end of the summer."

I hope it's not too much to infer that this means that Brubaker and Phillips' Icon work will resume by then as well.


Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

Eisner Nominations for Brubaker, Phillips, and Incognito.

Nominees for the 2010 Eisner Awards were just announced -- hat-tip to CBR -- and we have numerous reasons to congratulate Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

In addition to a nomination for Best Single Issue (for Captain America #601), Brubaker has been nominated for Best Writer for his work on Cap, Daredevil, The Marvels Project, Criminal, and Incognito.

Phillips has been nominated for Best Cover Artist for the two Icon titles and 28 Days Later.

And, Incognito has been nominated for Best Limited Series.

This makes the fourth consecutive year for recognition by the Eisner Awards. In 2007, Criminal won Best New Series while Brubaker won Best Writer, an award he won again in 2008. In 2009, Val Staples was nominated for Best Colorist.

The winners of the 2010 Eisner Awards will be announced Friday, July 23rd, at Comic-Con International.

Bullets: Sinners Reviews, Trade Solicitation, and More.

A few noteworthy items since the conclusion of Criminal: The Sinners earlier this month:

• Reviews for The Sinners. Alongside our discussion here [SPOILERS], I've read two quite positive reviews of the conclusion to Criminal: The Sinners.
  
  In Newsarama's "Best Shots" reviews, Brendan McGuirk praises the story arc as the series' most ambitious to-date. At IGN, Dan Phillips gave the final issue a 9/10, praising Sean Phillips for his atmospheric art and Ed Brubaker for his grasp of noir and for the inevitability of the story's tragic conclusion. Like me, Dan Phillips is anguished over the title's upcoming hiatus.
  
  
• Details on Sinners Trade Paperback. Marvel's June solicitations were released this week, and while the return of Incognito was nowhere to be seen, the trade collection for "The Sinners" was finally announced.
  
  The single-volume collection of Criminal: The Sinners will include an introduction by crime novelist Ian Rankin, and it is scheduled for a June 16th release date, with an MSRP of $15.99.
  
  
• Personalized Books from Sean Phillips. As our own ADD mentioned this morning, Sean Phillips has reposted the cover art for "The Sinners" trade paperback.
  
  Visiting Sean's blog is strongly encouraged: he's recently opened his own Amazon (UK) shop, and lately he's been posting custom sketches that he's drawn in the front of individual books purchased through this site, including the Incognito paperback and the Criminal hardcover. If only this shop were opened earlier...
  
  
• The Best of 2009 Meta-List. Finally, thanks to Marc Sobel at our sister blog, Trouble with Comics, I came across a "meta-list" for the best comics of 2009, collating the selections from 130 individual lists into a ranking of 100 titles. Criminal and Incognito both made the list, the former having done so every year since its 2006 debut. One bit of the compiler's commentary is worth repeating:
  
  "Where's Marvel? Two of Marvel's top three comic books are creator-owned: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's Incognito (#39) and Brubaker and Phillips's Criminal (#48). Not until Daredevil (#43) do you see a Marvel-owned property, and that too was written by Brubaker for the majority of the year. Note to Marvel: don't fire Ed Brubaker."
  
  An update accounting for an additional 15 lists rendered the analysis somewhat obsolete, but it's still the case that Ed Brubaker has been involved in quite a few of Marvel's most acclaimed works in the past year or so.

I imagine that news will be light at least until new issues of Incognito are announced, probably no sooner than mid-April, but we'll be here through this upcoming quiet spell and the return of the pulp-superhero hybrid, all the way to the return of Criminal -- and beyond.


Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

The Sinners Finale in Stores Tomorrow.

Along with the retailer sites I check from week to week, Ed Brubaker confirms that Criminal: The Sinners #5 is in comic shops this week -- tomorrow for most retailers.

I haven't been able to find any online previews of the story's finale, but I'll update this entry if that changes.

Dark Tower for Phillips in May, Incognito in "July or August."

As I noted earlier, Marvel's solicitations for March and April include no Icon material from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The publisher's May solicitations, published this week at Newsarama and elsewhere, continue that trend.


In addition to the beginning of the "Heroic Age" for Brubaker's Captain America and the debut of his Secret Avengers, the solicitations mention a project that Sean Phillips also announced at his own blog -- Dark Tower: The Gunslinger #1.

"Join Robin Furth, Peter David and Richard Isanove as they welcome superstar artist Sean Phillips (INCOGNITO) into the ka-tet of creators entrusted by Stephen King himself to bring the adult adventures of his most personal creation to life!"

Phillips joins Richard Isanove in creating the interior art and the cover for the debut issue, and he will presumably work on the entire five-part mini-series.


On his Twitter page, Phillips responds to a fan's inquiry about potential delays for Incognito and posts the first clear announcement about what's next for Ed and Sean.

"Incognito returns in July or August"

On his own Twitter page, Ed Brubaker confirms that more of Incognito is "coming soon."


The trade paperback for Criminal: The Sinners hasn't yet found its way to Marvel's solicitations. Trade collections for Brubaker and Phillips' Icon work have historically been released only a month or two after the story arc's last monthly issue, and this delay might be intended to encourage readers to collect the monthly issues, to tie the trade to the return of Incognito, or both. Sean Phillips has already posted work on the cover art (a subdued recoloring of the first issue's cover) and so I'm guessing that the trade paperback will reach stores sooner rather than later -- July, August, probably before the return of Incognito.

The more important thing to note is this.

Going by past trends, the follow-up to Incognito will probably run five or six issues, released no more frequently than once a month, so I figure that the mini-series will run to about the end of the year.

Except for maybe another short-story "emission," the fifth and final issue of Criminal: The Sinners, due in just a few weeks, will almost certainly be the last new material for Criminal until 2011.

To be clear, I quite enjoy Incognito, but the "apocalyptic pulp noir" doesn't have quite the punch of Criminal, and so I'll be anxiously waiting for its return.


Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

Bullets: Incognito, Interviews... and Politics.

Note: Following the list of bullet items this week are my personal thoughts on a recent controversy involving politics. This marks the first time I've broached that subject here, in a blog where politics largely has no place, and though I do not think I've written anything controversial, I want to make clear that the views I express in this commentary are my own. I want to make doubly clear that this disclaimer is entirely my own doing.


It's been a busy couple weeks since the release of the penultimate issue to Criminal: The Sinners -- and we are not without some controversy, as you will see.

• Criminal in March. First, Marvel's official website now lists a a March 10th release date for Criminal: The Sinners #6, the "action-packed and twist-filled finale." This is a very slight delay from its original, solicited release date: I would have been surprised to see two issues released in the same month.
  
  
• Personalized Trades from Sean Phillips. Last week, Sean Phillips announced that he's selling a few copies of the Incognito trade paperback, each with an original character sketch of the customer's choice. In the comments in a subsequent post featuring a sample sketch of Fu Manchu, he implies that the sale also includes a personalized sketch in each copy of Criminal: The Deluxe Edition, and he writes that there are still "plenty of both" for interested parties.
  
  If only this were announced when the books first came out...
  
  
• First Hints of the Incognito Sequel. While we're on the subject, Sean Phillips also recently revealed "doodles" from brainstorming about "the next Incognito series covers."
  
  That description and the rough sketches suggest that "Incognito" might be the title for the overarching story rather than just the first six-issue mini-series. More importantly, Sean relays in the comments that the follow-up might be next but not immediately.
  
  "I think we're doing Incognito next. Up to Ed though. I've got a new project to do first though to give Ed some breathing space. Should be announced soon..."
  
  We'll post updates on the sequel and Sean Phillips' other project, as they are made available.
  
  
• Brubaker Interviews on Mainstream Marvel Work. Earlier this week, Newsarama posted two interviews with Ed Brubaker about his upcoming work in the Marvel Universe. Brubaker will be writing a new ongoing title, Secret Avengers, which is now being promoted through some rather cryptic teaser images.
  
  And, Ed Brubaker will continue writing for Captain America, but Butch Guice will now be joining him as the regular artist. Bucky Barnes will continue to "wield the shield," and he'll face a new antagonist in Baron Zemo.
  
  
• Controversy in Captain America #602. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a controversy about possible political commentary in the pages of the most recent issue of Captain America. Fox News spoke with Ed Brubaker about protest scenes in the issue, and he explained that he did not write the content of a sign alluding to the Tea Party movement.
  
  "I don't know who did it, probably someone who thought it was funny... I didn't think so, personally. That's the sign being changed to something more generic for the trade reprint, because I and my editor were both shocked to see it."
  
  Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada also discussed the issue with Comic Book Resources, assuring readers, "Our books are no one’s soapbox."

As a matter of full disclosure, I don't believe I see eye-to-eye with Ed Brubaker or our own Alan David Doane, at least in terms of political beliefs.

And I don't keep up with even Brubaker's work in the mainstream Marvel universe. I've been pulling away from more mainstream superhero titles, even those featuring Batman. Still, I'm hoping to get one of Sean Phillips' art books for my birthday, and I've been slowly making my way through Brubaker's older work -- Scene of the Crime, Catwoman, Dark Horse Presents, even Dead Enders -- so I might make my way to his Marvel work at some point. His writing for Daredevil seems especially suited to my interests in his noir work, and I've heard enough great things about Captain America to make me reconsider my reluctance to get into a series that might hip-deep in Civil War and every other mega-crossover event.

Though I have only a passing familiarity with his writing for Marvel's mainstream superheroes, I did quickly read through that issue in the shop this week, and I can see reasons to object even beyond the protest signs that were filled in without the writer's and editor's oversight. And I can think of a couple reasons to question Quesada's claim that the publishers avoid all political grandstanding.

But, for the most part, I'm just reticent about any sort of overt political commentary in fictional entertainment.

For one thing, it's just too easy to be coy about the political commentary, to condone taking the commentary seriously only when people agree with it. The writer can share a figurative high-five with those who cheer the content but still dismiss substantive disagreement. It's only a TV show; I'm only a comedian; or, it's only a comic book.

More than that, it's too easy to engage in blunt caricature when the issues usually require much more care than that.

I certainly don't think comics and politics must not mix. Editorial cartooning is a powerful form of expression, and beyond that, I certainly think serious ideas can be discussed in the medium of long-form comics, as one can see in The Cartoon Guide to Physics or in Action Philosophers. There's nothing preventing a comic book from describing political theory with wit and even humor, and I imagine one could use the medium to persuasively advocate for a specific philosophy or policy.

But attempting that in the context of a fictional narrative would either grind the story to a halt or gloss over difficult issues with glib generalizations. And, either way, the reader would probably be pulled out of the story -- the suspension of disbelief and the story's "flow" -- to be lectured by the writer.

The writer's certainly free to do it, but that doesn't mean he should. It's not always good art when he does, and it's almost certainly heavy-handed when it's tried.

One of the things I most appreciate in Brubaker and Phillips' collaborative work is that it's quite understated and even subtle. For instance, there's a page in "Coward" that conveys a great deal of brutal violence after the fact, but it does so very carefully and without any undue extravagance. I would hate for that "spell" to be broken for needless political commentary.

I think that there's a lot that could be drawn from Criminal that is political, philosophical, and even theological, but I think it should be left to the readers to draw their own conclusions. Barring that, I would actually love to see some thoughtful analysis along those lines where they would really belong: in the essays in the back of the monthly issues.

I just hope that we never have to deal with controversies like this in Brubaker and Phillips' work in Icon Comics.

...And Looking Ahead to 2010.

There's only so much public information about what's coming in the next few months, but I'll review what's already known and what's likely.

First -- and most immediately -- issue #4 of Criminal: The Sinners is in stores February 3rd, and yesterday Comic Book Resources posted a six-page preview of the story's penultimate issue, which resolves last issue's cliffhanger with a little violence and a surprising amount of humor.

It's worth noting that the second and third pages -- presumably facing pages -- break somewhat from the series' familiar three-row pattern. This is only the second time that page layout has changed, the first being in the first page in "Second Chance in Hell," from Volume #2, Issue #1.

After that?

The fifth and final issue of Criminal: The Sinners should be released in just a few more weeks. As of the time of this writing, Marvel.com has the issue still scheduled for its original solicitation date of February 24th, and Sean Phillips is already working on the finale.

Marvel's solicitations for March and April mention no new Icon material from Brubaker and Phillips. If history is any guide, we should still see the trade collection for "The Sinners" sooner rather than later -- May would be my guess.

The next arc after "The Sinners" may well be the sequel to Incognito, if plans haven't changed from interviews Brubaker gave last April and August. Brubaker may have alluded to this sequel in the afterward to the mini-series' trade paperback, apparently written this past October.

"If you like Incognito, you'll be pleased to hear there's more coming next year. Hopefully a lot more, because I've got quite a few ideas that I want to get in this little pulp world we created."

A five- or six-issue sequel that is published monthly and begins in April or May will get us to fall.

Beyond that, who knows? I do hope that Criminal isn't eclipsed by the Incognito universe, and I hope that we're still going to see "Coward's Way Out," the story of Leo's prison break, which was, according to Brubaker, pushed back in favor of "The Sinners."


What I find really interesting is DC's April solicitations [link corrected Feb 16], which provide an advance solicitation for the third hardcover collection for Ed Brubaker's Gotham Central.

GOTHAM CENTRAL BOOK 3: ON THE FREAK BEAT HC
Advance-solicited • On sale JUNE 9 • 224 pg, FC $29.99 US
Written by GREG RUCKA & ED BRUBAKER
Art by MICHAEL LARK, JASON ALEXANDER & others
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG

Detective Renee Montoya investigates the disappearance of evidence amid a gang war and travels to Keystone City in an attempt to unveil the truth about a fellow officer’s strange mutation in this collection featuring issues #23-31 of the award-winning series. Plus, the dead body of Robin, the Boy Wonder, is found on the streets, forcing the detectives to solve the case while dealing with Batman and The Teen Titans.

The first two volumes collected ten issues and twelve issues, so if the entire, 40-issue series is going to be collected in hardcover editions, one would expect the third collection and the final collection each to contain nine issues. This solicitation meets that expectation.

Even though this book contains fewer issues, its retail price is still $29.99, but the price didn't go up for the twelve-issue second volume, either. If all forty issues are released in four volumes at this price, then the MSRP is essentially $3.00 an issue, which isn't bad considering the series' original cover price of $2.50.

What's really odd, though, is that the solicitation mentions "issues #23-31" but clearly alludes to the story, "Dead Robin," found in issues #33-36. Presently the official site has the same discrepancy, but I suspect that these hardcover collections will contain the entire run -- as the softcover volumes did not -- and that the "Dead Robin" arc will be left for the final nine-issue volume.

(Leaving "Dead Robin" to the last collection makes sense in terms of trade dress, anyway: it's Brubaker's last arc on the series, so saving it for Book Four will allow all the covers to give the same prominent attribution to both Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka.)

I'll update the blog if and when the discrepancy is addressed -- or, in the worst case, when I buy and open my copy of the book.


In the meantime, Criminal: The Sinners #4 is in stores this upcoming Wednesday.