Notes on Other Crime Comics.

As I just wrote yesterday, I plan to continue focusing on Brubaker and Phillips' collaborative work: their Wildstorm comic Sleeper, and especially their recent work under Marvel's Icon imprint. I'll briefly note their other projects as time permits and as events warrant it, and -- as I did in February -- I'll occasionally make note of other crime comics, which are the subject of this brief blog entry.

First, alongside issue #3 of Incognito, the final issue of 100 Bullets was released Wednesday. The award-winning Vertigo series by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso concludes with issue #100. I couldn't find any online previews, but CBR and IGN have already posted very positive, spoiler-filled reviews.

There have been some developments for the upcoming projects I mentioned earlier. First, a website devoted to the criminal character Parker, created by Donald Westlake (as Richard Stark), has pointed out some new images of Darwyn Cooke's first Parker adaptation, and the site also highlighted a brief introduction to Parker and Cooke. The first graphic-novel adaptation, Parker: The Hunter, appears to be scheduled for a July 14th release.

And, Dark Horse's Noir trade paperback is now listed at the official website. The listing features apparent cover art and a link to pre-order the book, which is scheduled to be released on September 30th. The anthology will include work from both Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, but it's still not yet clear whether they will be working together, much less whether we'll have another "Criminal emission" as we did with Liberty Comics.

[UPDATE, Apr 20: Sean Phillips added a comment to this blog entry, confirming that Dark Horse Noir WILL include a "Criminal emission," a black-and-white short story, without colors from Val Staples. (Thanks, Sean!)]

(As a brief aside, issue #1 of Liberty Comics, featuring a short Criminal story starring Tracy Lawless, went to a second printing with new cover art, and it's available for sale here, to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Though they mistakenly include this second printing's cover art, Newsarama recently reported that a second issue is scheduled to be released in October. This new anthology comic will accompany The CBLDF Liberty Series, "a series of high-end variant covers featuring Image's strongest titles with exclusive artwork not available anywhere else.")

It's a good time to read crime comics, and if I come across any other projects that might interest Criminal readers, I'll point them out.

Bullets: Eisner Nomination, Interviews, and Incognito Previews & Reprint.

It's been quiet around here, but the Criminal creators are keeping busy. Ed Brubaker's Angel of Death, the online live-action mini-series starring Zoe Bell, debuted at Crackle over the first few weeks of March. Meanwhile at his blog, Sean Phillips has been showcasing preview art for "The Brothers MacKenzie," which Sean explains is "a cowboy story for Outlaw Territory written by Pete Doree," and which he first mentioned in early February.

If I had the time, I would consider providing more regular coverage of all the other great work that the guys are doing, especially Ed Brubaker's many high-profile projects for some of Marvel's most popular characters.

But, if I had that kind of time, I wouldn't try to cram a month's worth of updates into a single blog entry. As it is, I'll continue to focus on Brubaker and Phillips' collaborations, and I'll catch up with a "bullet" list.

• Eisner nod for Val Staples.First, the 2009 Eisner Award nominations were announced, and Val Staples was nominated for Best Coloring for his work on both Criminal and Incognito. (h/t Newsarama)
  
  Criminal won the Eisner for Best New Series in 2007, and Ed Brubaker won Best Writer that same year -- and again in 2008 -- in part for his work on the Icon series. Though I think his work on the recent Age of the Sentry "throwback" mini-series was good, his work on Criminal and Incognito has been exceptional. I personally think the coloring for "Bad Night" is particularly striking, and we congratulate Val for the well-deserved nomination. The awards will be announced at the San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 24th.
  
  
• Brubaker interviews reveal an Incognito sequel. I've caught a few recent interviews with Ed Brubaker, focusing on other topics but revealing new information about his creator-owned titles. First, two of the big comic news sites interviewed Brubaker in early March, focusing on Angel of Death. Newsarama asked about adapting his comic books to other media, and Ed relayed that he has "several deals in the works in various stages out there." While one cannot count on these projects coming to completion, Brubaker assures us that comics is still his life: "I want to work more in film, and I'd love to do more screen writing, but I can do anything I want with Sean right now, and that kind of freedom is not widely available in Hollywood."
  
  Comic Book Resources asked Brubaker about his current work in comics. After briefly teasing "huge stuff" for Captain America this summer, Brubaker revealed that the next issue of Incognito will contain some "major twists" and "goes even darker." His recent body of work has been quite dark and twisted already, so that might be saying quite a lot.
  
  Then, at the end of the month, it was announced that Ed Brubaker's popular run on Marvel's Daredevil will be coming to a close with issue #500, which I believe corresponds with the second volume's issue #23 (correction, #120), at which point the original numbering will resume. Newsarama interviewed Brubaker about his leaving the title with the conclusion of the "Return of the King" storyline, passing the title to Andy Diggle. He confirms that he will remain quite active with Marvel, on Captain America for the foreseeable future, the Marvels Project which was announced in February, and "one other big Marvel project" that remains a secret.
  
  (Captain America fans should note that an enigmatic teaser image started appearing a few weeks ago and points to a major event in July. It's not clear whether Brubaker is directly involved in this event.)
  
  After discussing his mainstream Marvel work, Brubaker discussed Incognito at length. He talked about the mini-series' surprising success and mentioned that one theme is its exploration of its protagonist Zack, "why he is the way he is" and why that prevents him from a life of bourgeois normalcy. He confirmed that the story would conclude at six issues rather than five, because its pace ended up being slower than he expected. And, he revealed that a sequel to Incognito is fast on its heels.
  
  Earlier, we reported that the next arc of Criminal should feature the return of Tracy Lawless. In this most recent interview, Brubaker teased the Incognito sequel that will likely follow this arc: "It's a weird story that just appeared to me while plotting out the first issue, and I've got this burning desire to get to it quickly."
  
  Brubaker hopes Incognito fans will try his crime series, and he reassured Criminal fans of his love for the older title: "Criminal does really well, and our trade sales are incredibly steady on it, as are our European sales, and it's really the comic I've been wanting to do for a long time, so I'll always come back to it."
  
  
• Incognito #3 preview. At the end of the most recent Newsarama interview, Brubaker teased an online preview of the next issue, and the site provided a then-exclusive preview the next day.
  
  (The preview includes some blacked-out text and a black box over some partial nudity. CBR's subsequent preview of the same material -- plus one extra page -- confirms that the obscured text was some hasher profanity, and its lack of black boxes strongly suggests that this editing was for the Newsarama preview only, and not for the actual issue.)
  
  The cover features the beautiful but deadly (aren't they all?) Ava Destruction and is shown above. The new issue is scheduled to go on sale tomorrow, April 15th.
  
  
• Preview art at Sean's blog. Over at his blog, Sean Phillips continues to feature preview art for Incognito. In addition to showing work-in-progress for the main story, he has shown both the sketch and the final art for the image that will apparently accompany the essay on the pulp hero, "The Spider." I suspect the essay will be in tomorrow's new issue. Phillips has also shown a very arresting preliminary sketch for the trade paperback cover art. It's unique from the perspective of art design, it quickly conveys the anonymity in Zack's witness protection program, and it will certainly stand out on the comic-book racks.
  
  
• JUST ANNOUNCED: Incognito Must-Have One-Shot. Finally, I just noticed that, today, Marvel has announced an Incognito Must-Have One-Shot, a double-issue reprint of the first two issues of the mini-series, both of which have already sold out. (h/t CBR)
  
  The cover art is reprinted here. As of this blog entry's writing, the press release lists two final order cutoff (FOC) dates, which I suspect is an error. If it is, the later date might be the sale date; this double-issue reprint might go on sale on Wednesday, May 13th.
  
  I'll post an update on the sale date as soon as I have more information.
  
  UPDATE: I confirmed this suspicion, as detailed here.

Quite a bit's happened over the last month.

To review very briefly, previews for Incognito #3 are already online, and the issue goes on sale tomorrow. An extra-length reprint of the first two issues has been announced, and it appears that it may go on sale in about a month. The Eisner Awards will be announced at the end of July, and Val Staples has been nominated for his coloring on Brubaker and Phillips' two Icon titles. Around this time, we will probably see the Incognito trade and the first new Criminal story arc for 2009. After that arc wraps, we should see the strange sequel to Incognito.

In the meantime, I'll keep posting updates, even if they aren't exactly the most timely announcements.


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CONFIRMED: Sixth Issue for Incognito.

The suspicion which I wrote about earlier this week has just been confirmed: though originally described as a five-issue mini-series, Incognito will have (at least) a sixth issue, after all. Over at his blog, Sean Phillips has just posted his sketch for the sixth issue's cover art.

The sketch looks more like what I would expect from a final issue: a dramatic image of the protagonist rather than a sneering secondary character. My guess is, this issue will see publication around June, and Criminal will probably resume in July or August.

As always, I'll post more details as I find them.


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May Solicitations: Incognito and Sleeper.

As Newsarama reported earlier this week, Marvel and DC released their May solicitations earlier this week. In Marvel's solicitations, Incognito #5 is listed, currently scheduled for a May 27th release. The most interesting thing is that description doesn't suggest that the fifth issue is the final issue. We reported, way back in September, that Incognito was planned to be a five-issue mini-series, but this description doesn't sound like the climax and conclusion:

Doc Lester is the mad scientist's mad scientist, and he may just be the only person who knows the truth about Zack Overkill and his twin brother...A truth that Zack will soon have to kill for, as all sides are closing in on him.

It's possible I'm reading too much between the lines, but I'll see if I can confirm that the mini-series has been lengthened.

Over at DC's side of things, we have an advance solitication -- which has now been posted at the official site -- for the first volume in a new edition of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Sleeper. We first reported the new editions in September, and we finally have some details.

This first volume, Sleeper Season One (buy Sleeper: Season One from amazon.com) is scheduled to be released on June 17th. It's a trade paperback collection of material that was previously available in two trade paperbacks, "Out in the Cold" and "All False Moves." While those two volumes retailed together for $35.98, it appears that this new collection will sell for only $24.99.

Comparing page counts, it appears that this new volume will not contain much extra material, if any. Earlier, Ed Brubaker mentioned the inclusion of a rare story from a WildStorm sampler, but since that story is apparently a prequel or prelude to Season Two, it will almost certainly be included in a follow-up Season Two volume, which has not yet been announced.

Personally, I would love to see an "Absolute" edition of Sleeper, including what I believe is the essential prelude of Point Blank, written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Colin Wilson. A hardcover collection this summer might make such a high-end collection less likely; I'm hoping that an "Absolute" edition will become more likely if and when the film adaptation comes closer to becoming a reality.

UPDATE: I missed this when it was originally solicited, but it appears that a new trade-paperback edition of Point Blank is also in the works, scheduled for a May 6th release. The heading appears to have an error, as the description rightly describes the release as having new cover artwork by Sean Phillips -- art that he showcased at his blog, also in September, first as a rough sketch and then in as a complete but uncolored work.

It appears that this collection will contain about the same number of pages and for about the same price as the original trade paperback, but it will be officially branded on the front cover as the "prelude to Sleeper." Going by this collection's early May release and Season One's mid-June release, I'm guessing Season Two will come out by late July.

Those fans of Criminal and Incognito who haven't read this dark, self-contained tale of super-powered espionage will have an excellent opportunity to catch up this summer.


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Bullets: New Incognito, Brubaker Interviews, Crime Comics.

The Incognito express keeps rolling on, and -- despite my being sick this week -- we're here to cover the highlights..

• New Incognito in stores now. Two issues of Brubaker and Phillips' "Apocalyptic Pulp Noir" mini-series were released this past Wednesday: the second printing of issue #1 and a new chapter in issue #2. Comic Book Resources has a five-page preview of the second issue. This issue has already received very positive reviews from CBR and The Savage Critics, and if sales of the first issue are any indication, this issue will probably go pretty fast. If you don't have it already, you should probably buy it soon.
  
  
• Brubaker interviews. There have been a few recent interviews with Ed Brubaker that I didn't mention in my last blog post. Brubaker talked with Atomic Comics about Incognito, Captain America, and the new Sleeper film. Newsarama posted an hour-long Word Balloon podcast with Brubaker, where he discussed the pulp noir comic and his work on the online live-action mini-series Angel of Death. And, since I last wrote, the New York Comic Con saw the announcement of The Marvels Project, an upcoming mini-series about the orgins of Marvel's earliest superheroes; Brubaker is writing the story, and Newsarama conducted a lengthy interview about the project.
  
  
• Other crime comics. In the back pages of the latest issue, Ed Brubaker writes about Donald Westlake, who passed away at the beginning of the year, and whose many psuedonyms apparently inspired Tracy Lawless' alias in Criminal. He mentions that Darwyn Cooke will be adapting the first four volumes of Westlake's "Parker" novels (written under the psuedonym, Richard Stark) and now is as good a time as any to mention that, later this year, we'll see quite a few crime comics that might appeal to Criminal fans.
  
  Cooke's adaptation of the first "Parker" novel, The Hunter, should be released in late 2009; the project was announced at last year's San Diego Comic-Con and was covered by Newsarama and CBR, among many other online newssites. A new "Parker" fansite has recently displayed what appears to be the cover art for the first adaptation, which is now scheduled for a July release, and they point to a recent interview with Cooke at Wizard.
  
  (Those who are interested in Darwyn Cooke's "Parker" adaptations might be interested to know that, last year, The University of Chicago Press began republishing the earliest novels in the series, in order. The next group of three novels should be released this May.)
  
  During this past weekend's New York Comic Con, two other high-profile crime comics were announced. DC's Vertigo comics will release a series of black-and-white hardcover graphic novels under the heading Vertigo Crime. The first two graphic novels are scheduled to be released in September, and five other titles were announced as being in the pipeline, with more being planned.
  
  And, also in September, Dark Horse Comics will release a crime comic anthology series called Noir, and it features our own Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. It's possible that this anthology will include a Criminal "emission" just like last year's Liberty Comics anthology for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; we'll post more details as they become available.

Personally, I think the growing interest in pure crime comics can only be a good thing for Criminal, which is proving to be the gold standard in monthly crime titles. We could be witnessing the birth -- or, more accurately, the rebirth -- of a comic-book genre.


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Bullets: Criminal, Incognito, and Sleeper.

It's been a busy month, so here are the highlights.

• Criminal: "Bad Night" trade and Year-End Reviews. The trade paperback for the four-part arc "Bad Night" is scheduled to be on sale tomorrow, January 28th. It's a stunning story, and it caps off a very successful year for Criminal. The year saw the start of the second volume, with its longer page-count, and the seven issues released in 2008 were all incredible: we began with the trio of interlocking single-issue stories, now collected as "The Dead and The Dying," and this was followed by the dark humor and twisted character study of "Bad Night."
  
  The series has been noticed in year-end reviews. The blog Warren Peace put it in its top ten, and at RevolutionSF, the title was named the best Marvel comic for 2008. A little more prominently, Comic Book Resources called the series the second best of the year, behind All-Star Superman, and Newsarama's Jeff Marsick named the title the year's best, writing that Criminal is "consistently worth every cent thrown across the counter." (Thanks for the tip, Jeff.)
  
  
• Incognito: reviews, second printing, and upcoming issues. The first issue of Incognito was released this month, and while critics were praising the last year for Criminal, the reviews I initially saw for the debut issue of this super-powered mini-series tended to be luke-warm. Both at CBR and at The Savage Critic(s), critics didn't say the issue was bad, just disappointing. Personally, I suspect that the mini-series is a bit of a slow-burner, in part because it has to provide the context of the pulp-derived superhero universe in which the stories take place -- something that Ed Brubaker hasn't had to do for work within the established universes of Marvel and DC, or for the stories set in the naturalistic universe of Criminal. Brubaker added a couple comments to the Savage Critic blog entry, reassuring readers that the first issue is "just the tip of the iceberg."
  
  There have been more positive reviews, at AICN and at Geoff Boucher's blog at the LA Times, which also features a trailer for Angel of Death, an online live-action mini-series which Brubaker has written for Sony's site, Crackle. More impressive than the critical response has been the reader response. For the first time for any of Brubaker and Phillips' work at Icon, an issue has sold out and is going back for a second printing. Newsarama conducted a brief interview with Ed Brubaker, who provided some details about the sell-out. The final orders for the issue were about 25 percent above the very stable sales for Criminal, and Brubaker had overprinted an additional 20 percent. Despite all this, the issue sold out of many stores within hours of its release, and it sold out entirely within five days. This new printing will feature new cover art, and at his blog, Sean Phillips has featured a fairly high-quality image of the striking artwork, which we're reprinting here. The second printing of Incognito #1 appears to be currently scheduled to be released on February 11th, alongside the second issue.
  
  Preview art and works-in-progress continue to be showcased at Sean Phillips' blog, which is always worth a quick visit. Recent highlights for Incognito include several views of the interior art for an upcoming issue or two -- pencils, partial inks, and final inks -- and similar progressions for the art for the upcoming essay on Doc Savage and the cover art for fifth and final issue.
  
  
• Sleeper: Brubaker interview. Finally, Scifi Wire reports on an interview the press conducted with Ed Brubaker during his promotion work for Angel of Death. The film adaptation of Brubaker and Phillips' WildStorm collaboration is still being fast-tracked for production, but Brubaker reveals that he's not interested in having a significant role in development. Sleeper fans will be happy to know that Brubaker confirms a new "special edition" release of the series for this summer. We first reported on new editions of the series last September, including word from Brubaker that the books will feature a rare prequel story from a WildStorm sampler. (h/t CBR)

In brief, the "Bad Night" trade should be in stores tomorrow; early February should see the release of the second printing for Incognito #1 and the first printing of issue #2; and a new special-edition printing of Sleeper appears to be scheduled for the summer.


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Brubaker Speaks on the Release of Incognito.

The first issue of Incognito, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, is in stores this week. For many comic book retailers, the New Year's holiday has postponed the delivery and sale of this week's new comics until today, but my store was lucky enough to have their merchandise shelved this past Wednesday, the last day of the year. I read the issue just a few hours before New Year's, and that's good enough in my book, for the issue to meet the cover's stated publication date of December, 2008.

Having finally seen the issue, I definitely believe that this mini-series should be considered part of Sean and Ed's larger body of work, particularly their work for Icon that is clearly growing beyond Criminal. Beyond the wraparound covers and the extra content, the best reason to see Criminal and Incognito as parts of a whole is this: the title for the author's page at the back of this issue is a riff on what has become the author's page in Criminal.

"The Secret Ingredient is Pulp."

Today, Newsarama has published a brief interview with Ed Brubaker, about seven things new readers should know about the mini-series, including its genre. The book is "Apocalyptic Pulp Noir," a noir story set in modern times, in a world that remains firmly rooted in Depression-era pulp heroes like The Shadow and Doc Savage.



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