Bullets: Fatale Preview, Deluxe Sleeper, and Catwoman Collected.

Good stuff this week.

• Fatale #12 Preview.  Both Comicosity and Comic Book Resources have a five-page preview of the latest issue of Fatale.  The stand-alone issue takes us all the way back to the Middle Ages, and it reaches stores this Wednesday, February 13th.
• Sleeper Omnibus Photo.  On Twitter, Ed Brubaker recently posted a grainy image of the upcoming Sleeper Omnibus, writing that DC/Vertigo did a "great job" on the collection.  Fans will be happy to hear that the hardcover's dimensions match the deluxe editions of Criminal.  Featuring plenty of extras, the book collects all of Point Blank and Sleeper, including the Coup D'Etat one-shot and afterward, the former of which had not been collected under the Sleeper banner.  The 720-page hardcover is due in stores on March 6th.
• Catwoman Volume 2 in June.  Finally, CBR has DC Comics' May solicitations, which include an advance solicitation for Catwoman Volume 2: No Easy Way Down.  The trade paperback follows up on the first volume, "Trail of the Catwoman," released early last year.  The two books collect Darwyn Cooke's tale Selina's Big Score, Secret Files #1, and the first 24 issues of Ed Brubaker's run on Catwoman.  This second volume is due out on June 12th.

Brubaker has recently tweeted that the first 18 issues are the high watermark of his run on Catwoman, and those who don't have the issues or the earlier trade collection should put this second volume on their to-do list.

Bullets: New Colorist, New Art from Sean, Etc.

The next issue of Fatale is currently listed with a February 13th release date -- just in time for Valentine's! -- so here are a few brief news items in the meantime.

• AV Club looks at Fatale #11.  The Onion's AV Club takes a closer look at the latest issue, praising the single-issue story for capturing the dread of Lovecraftian horror.  The article ends by highlighting a detail in the art that I missed the first time through:  we could use more thoughtful essays like this one.
• New Colorist for Fatale.  In his Twitter feed, Ed Brubaker relays that Elizabeth Breitweiser will be the new colorist, beginning with Fatale #12.  Replacing Dave Stewart, Breitweiser has already worked with Brubaker on Captain America and Winter Soldier, and he has praised her as a "genius."
• New Artwork from Sean Phillips.  Finally, Sean Phillips' blog was quiet in December, but the artist has been featuring quite a lot of new work lately, including thumbnails, art for an upcoming essay, and  cover art for Fatale #15 and the third trade paperback, "West of Hell." (In contrast with East of Eden?)

Going by that cover, issue #15 returns us to the main narrative.  On Twitter, Ed Brubaker is somewhat ambivalent about the series' status as an ongoing title:  "There's still an end in mind, but I decided to let the story have more space and not specify its length."

We're hopeful that the return of Criminal won't be indefinitely postponed, but we're looking forward to this horror story unfolding at its own pace.

Preview of Fatale #11.

The new year begins with a double dose of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Fatale.  New readers can catch up in a hurry as Wednesday sees the release of the second trade paperback, "The Devil's Business," and the next issue in the noir-horror series.  Fatale #11 is the first of four stand-alone issues, and Comic Book Resources has just posted a five-page preview.

Warm Christmas Wishes from A Criminal Blog.

Brubaker and Phillips' Fatale didn't quite catch up with the original schedule, after all.  The original solictations had a December 19th release date for the 11th issue and the second trade paperback, "The Devil's Business" -- which would have been just in time for Christmas -- but the Image Comics website now lists January 2nd as the sale date.

The new year will begin with the collection of the most recent arc and the first of four stand-alone issues.  We'll link to any previews that we see, as we find them.

Until then, A Criminal Blog wishes everyone a very safe and happy holiday season.

"His Fear Took Its Proper Place:" Previews and News.

The latest issue of Fatale is indeed in stores today, concluding the second arc and putting the title back on schedule.  A five-page preview of issue #10 is available at Comic Book Resources and at Comicosity, where it is grouped with previews for other books released today by Image Comics -- and there's already an early review at Unleash the Fanboy.

(This will be a good week, at least for my reading habits.  Along with Fatale, we have Chew #30 and Planetoid #4.  The dark comedy completes the first half of its planned 60-issue run, and writer John Layman marked the occasion with an interview with CBR.  Meanwhile, the stark sci-fi comic is resuming after a brief delay, creator Ken Garing has confirmed that this five-issue mini-series is only the beginning of a "larger story," and he's provided a striking piece of artwork to mark the new issue.)

Readers should note the publication of the second collection of Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier title, featuring art by Michael Lark.  Upon his return from Thought Bubble, Sean Phillips has put a few more books in his Amazon store, each including a signature and an original sketch.

On December 12th, Image Comics will publish another round of "Image Firsts" comic books, full first issues for only one dollar. Chew will be one of two titles that will see "Image First" reprints, and -- more importantly -- Fatale will be one of five titles to be newly featured in their line of inexpensive introductions.  I'll sample a few titles I haven't yet tried, and the Fatale issue would be good to buy for friends.

After that, we have the four stand-alone issues, featured in a news story at Image Comics.  Fatale #11 is evidently still planned for December, but the second trade collection, "The Devil's Business," will be in stores on January 2nd.

Fatale has been nominated for Best Crime Comic (or "Mystery" comic) for the 2013 Angoulême International Comics Festival.  The nominees have been announced in French, and we're grateful that Comics Beat has translated the announcement into English.  The festival will be held January 31st to February 3rd.

Finally, Sean Phillips has created the cover art and additional material for another fine entry in the Criterion Collection: eight-time Oscar-winner On the Waterfront (1954), starring Marlon Brando.  This makes the fourth such commission for Phillips, who has created artwork for Blast of Silence (1961), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), and 12 Angry Men (1957).

The Criterion Blu-ray and DVD will both be released on February 19th.

November Bullets: Scene of the Crime HC, More Fatale, and Phillips Appearance.

A few brief notes:

• Scene of the Crime Hardcover, In Stores This Week.  As we reported in August, a new edition of Scene of the Crime is coming out.  The short-lived detective series was written by Ed Brubaker with pencils by Michael Lark and inks by Lark and (for the last three issues) Sean Phillips, and the book is the first of many collaborations for Brubaker-Lark and Brubaker-Phillips.  Originally published in 1999 by DC's Vertigo imprint, the deluxe, oversized hardcover is published by Image Comics and designed by Sean Phillips; Comic Book Resources has a six-page preview of the book, which reaches stores tomorrow.


• More Fatale on the Way.  A couple weeks back, Comics Alliance posted an interview with Ed Brubaker on the occasion of his last issue of Captain America, and it broke the news that Fatale is becoming an ongoing series.  I honestly think CA makes too much of the news.  The number of issues has never been part of the book's solicitations, and from the beginning we were told that it would run "at least 12 issues." Brubaker relays that the series will focus on Josephine, and he probably still has an end in mind for the title.  And, in light of the first two volumes of Criminal, it's not at all accurate to describe the book as Brubaker and Phillips' first ongoing title.  Still, it may be some time before we see the doubtlessly brutal end of this horror noir comic.


• Sean Phillips at Thought Bubble Convention.  Finally, Sean Phillips just announced that he'll be attending this weekend's Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds, England.  He'll be bringing plenty of books, and he'll be ready to draw sketches for fans, but he plans to limit sketches to characters in which he has a stake.

It appears that Fatale catches up completely this month, as issue #10 is currently listed for the last week of November, along with new issues for the other two books I've been digging, Chew and Planetoid, both also from Image Comics.  We'll post a preview as soon as we see it.

An Outstanding October.

September saw the release of Incognito: The Classified Edition, but not much else, as Fatale slipped its schedule a little bit.

On the subject of Incognito, fans -- and those who haven't yet read the book -- should check out a few links marking the occasion of the hardcover release, all from the website for the crime and suspense imprint Mulholland Books:  Joe Hill's essay on "Under The Influences," originally published with the second trade paperback; a brief exclusive interview with Ed Brubaker; and a five-page preview of the hardcover collection.

October was a better month for Brubaker and Phillips, and it ends with the latest issue of Fatale going on-sale today -- appropriately enough, on Halloween.  It's the second issue out this month, and Comic Book Resources has a five-page preview for issue #8, out October 3rd, and now a six-page preview for issue #9.

These last two issues have really ramped up my enjoyment of the series, and those who have found the story to be less immediately engaging than Criminal should stick with the book.  This second release in this month with five Wednesday's also allows the series to make up some lost ground:  the second arc concludes with issue #10, and this issue must be out in November to meet the schedule set in the December solicitations, where the second trade and the first stand-alone issue are out before Christmas.

Alongside Fatale #8, the second oversized hardcover collection for Criminal was released on October 3rd.  Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume 2 completes the deluxe treatment for Brubaker and Phillips' creator-owned output for Marvel's Icon imprint.


On his blog, Sean Phillips reminds us that the Marvel Zomnibus was evidently released that same week.  I couldn't find as much official information on the book as I would like, but it appears to be a massive, 1200-page hardcover collecting most/all of the Marvel Zombies saga, including Phillips' work early on in the series.

And I would be remiss not to note that the finale to Ed Brubaker's eight-year run on Captain America also came out, as did the third hardcover collection of his "Cap" saga.


Starting at the end of September and running through this month, John Suintres' Word Balloon podcast has featured a massive, MASSIVE "marathon interview" with Ed Brubaker, five or six hours of conversation spread across the first half of four separate audio files.  The final segment was released just last week.

In Part One, the pair covers Fatale and creator-owned comics.  In Part Two, they discuss Brubaker's move from DC to Marvel.  In Part Three, they discuss his work on superhero titles including Catwoman, Captain America, and Winter Soldier.  And in Part Four of what was originally planned to be a three-part series, they discuss the finales on his Marvel titles and the two pilots he wrote for the broadcast television networks.

In the backmatter of today's issue, Brubaker assures readers that his television work doesn't threaten his career in comics:  "This actually allows me more time to devote to comics like Fatale and a secret project I'll be announcing early next year."


Next month, we have the hardcover collection for Scene of the Crime:  I just noticed that the book is being published through Image, as it's listed in their November solicitations.  Brubaker writes that the creators were finally able to secure all the rights to the book that was originally published through DC's Vertigo imprint.  And in January we'll see the publication of Winter Soldier #14, Brubaker's last issue for the Marvel universe, for the foreseeable future.  Brubaker's transition to purely creator-owned work through more independent publishers is almost complete.

For now, I've thoroughly enjoyed having two issues of Fatale this month, and a reader could get used to two truly independent comic books from Brubaker each month.