Gotham Noir and Gotham Central, In Stores Now, More or Less.

I've seen a few more reviews for the latest issue of Incognito: Bad Influences #4 than I have for the last few issues: specifically, IGN and Comic Book Resources have both posted fairly positive reviews.

Looking to older material for a moment, on Monday Sean Phillips announced that his Amazon store was offering "a few copies" of his first major collaboration with Ed Brubaker, the prestige-format Elseworlds story, Batman: Gotham Noir, published in 2000.

(I say "major" because, the year before, Phillips inked Michael Lark's pencils for the last three issues of Brubaker and Lark's regretfully short-lived Vertigo series, Scene of the Crime. All four issues and a rare short story are available in a trade paperback.)

It wasn't there yesterday, but it's there now. I wouldn't bet on its being available for long, because the pulpy mystery has never been republished. I was lucky to find a copy at Dragon*Con a year or two back, and I recommend die-hard fans to check it out.

Easier to find this week is Gotham Central, Brubaker's acclaimed collaboration with Greg Rucka. The fourth and final hardcover collection reached retailer shelves today, along with a softcover reprint of Gotham Central Book 1, collecting the first ten issues.

Gotham Central Book 4: Corrigan (an unfortunate title) features the last nine issues of the title's forty-issue run. Ed Brubaker left before the end of the series, but this volume includes the excellent "Dead Robin," his last collaboration. Starting with that arc and issue #33, Sean Phillips created the cover art for all but one issue, and this artwork should be included in the collection.

It's Coming...

Along with the latest issue of Chew and (finally!) the last issue of DC's First Wave, the fourth and penultimate issue of Incognito: Bad Influences is in stores this week. At least, it's arrived at the Brubaker residence, has a March 2nd release date listed at Marvel.com, and is included in Brian Hibbs' weekly list of books arriving in San Francisco's Comix Experience.

I think the mini-series is picking up steam, and the last issue's vignettes were thought-provoking in suggesting that a person may be defined, in part, by how he diagnoses life's problems.

Still, I crave more Criminal. We've seen only five full-length issues of the pure noir series since 2009, and I'm happy to document some more rumblings of the title's eminent return.

From his Twitter account, Ed Brubaker confirmed -- twice -- that more Criminal is on its way.

"Yes, Criminal in June."

As of last week, at least preliminary work on the mini-series has already begun.

"I can't wait until we can show you all the new Criminal cover."

Over at his blog, Sean Phillips notes that he completed the last issue of "Bad Influences" Monday.

"Got another little project to do for the next couple of weeks, and then back to Criminal."

Incognito Out This Week (and More Soon), and Interesting Links.

Both Great Escape Comics in Marietta, Georgia, and San Francisco's Comix Experience confirm that Incognito: Bad Influences #3 is in stores tomorrow, February 9th.

Ed Brubaker has relayed the same news, adding that Issue #4 is already at the printers.

And, along with more sketches for the following issues, Sean Phillips has posted a two-page preview of tomorrow's release. Frankly, it's the best two pages I've seen from this mini-series, and I can't wait for the new issue.

But wait we must, and while we do, Brubaker's Twitter page has highlighted a couple worthwhile destinations on the World Wide Web.

PopMatters features a review of "Bad Influences." I think it stretches credibility to tie the appeal of pulp to a particular decade's political context, but Michael Stewart is right to note that the heroes in the Incognito universe are presented as consistently brutal and cynical, all the way back to the older generation's origins. Unlike the mainstream books, here we have a super-powered universe with depth and history, but we see no softening from being subjected to the now-defunct Comics Code.

Over on Vimeo, we have two trailers for In the Dark, a short film written and directed by Brubaker and starring Wil Wheaton. The film is a production of "Basement Gang, Inc.," Brubaker's company that also owns the rights to Incognito. (Check the copyright.) This is the same short film that premiered at last year's Seattle International Film Festival.

Finally, Eric Skillman, the graphic designer for the Criterion Collection, highlights the process for creating the cover to Sweet Smell of Success. As we reported in November, Sean Phillips created the cover art, and Skillman's blog post features quite a bit of Phillips' work. We find sketches, partial work, the complete and unadorned painting, and one of two bonus paintings to be included in the February 22nd release.

Incognito: Bad Influences #2 Out Now... Sorta.

After a brief delay caused by "a shit couple of months with family stuff" for both creators, Sean Phillips relays that the next issue of Incognito: Bad Influences is out today.

Elsewhere, Ed Brubaker explains that the issue isn't out in all markets. It has reached West Coast stores, evidently including Chris Hibb's Comix Experience in San Francisco.

The issue wasn't available at my store, Great Escape Comics in Marietta, Georgia; I haven't seen any previews online; and Marvel's official site still lists a December 29th release date.

It suffices to say that the new issue should be in stores everywhere by next Wednesday, during the last week of 2010.

Bullets: Incognito Reviews and More.

Lots of links from the past few weeks.

• A Criminal Comeback, Part 1. From my point of view, the best thing about the Newsarama interview that ADD highlighted earlier is the eminent return of Criminal.
  
  Ed Brubaker relayed that we will soon see the story that might still be titled "Coward's Way Out" -- and even that story might not the last we'll see of Leo.

  "Depending on how I feel by the time I finish Issue #5 of Bad Influences, we may do an Incognito Annual first, before we go back to Criminal, but we'll be going back to Criminal as the next thing. Right now, it's looking like it's going to be the sequel to Coward, which is Leo in prison. But until I actually sit down to write it, it could change. I've had that mapped out since before I wrote Coward. I've had the idea for three stories with that character."

  Brubaker reiterates this plan on his Twitter page, telling Brad Meltzer that Criminal will return "As soon as Incognito is done."
  
  I really like Incognito, and along with titles like Chew and Scott Morse's Strange Science Fantasy, it's a book I look forward to reading every month, but it's no Criminal, and I wish Brubaker and Phillips didn't have to choose between the two titles. Their straight-up crime comic is like a pure, uncut narcotic, and I've been having withdrawal symptoms for far too long.
  
  
• Bad Influences, Mostly Good Reviews. Quite a few reviews have been posted for the debut of Incognito: Bad Influences, and the ones I've seen have been mostly positive, but not without reservations.
  
  The most enthusiastic review I've seen is at A Comic Book Blog, where John Barringer admits that he would pay double for the issue.
  
  Comics Alliance lauds the issue as "a great read that's a welcome return to a well written, beautifully drawn and colored series." The critic notes the emerging similarities with Sleeper but trusts that the story will stand on its own.
  
  At IGN, the issue is given an "impressive" 8.0 review: compared to previous collaborations, the story "doesn't quite sing as loudly or as beautifully," but the issue "succeeds largely because Brubaker and Phillips again compliment each other so wonderfully."
  
  The Comics Panel at The A.V. Club gives the issue a solid B: "In spite of the rehashed plot elements, Incognito: Bad Influences has enough of its own identity to set itself apart from its predecessors, and looks to be the start of another memorable Brubaker-Phillips partnership."
  
  In their "Best Shots" reviews, Newsarama praises the artwork of Sean Phillips and the "seedy, subversive" colors of Val Staples while noting the issue's relative inaccessibility to new readers.
  
  And, Comic Book Resources gives the issue only two-and-a-half stars, praising it as "skillfully constructed" but describing its plot as mostly set-up and exposition.
  
  Even at our sister blog, Trouble With Comics, Christopher Allen praised the book as "better than a lot of what’s out there," but he still couldn't shake the similarities to earlier work.
  
  
• An Award Nod, a Feature Article, and Preview Art. A few more miscellaneous links regarding Incognito, things I noticed from following Brubaker's Twitter posts and Sean Phillips' blog.
  
  First, the original mini-series has been included in the Official Selection for Angoulême 2011, a French award from the world's largest comic-book convention. Other noteworthy nominees are Asterios Polyp, The Walking Dead, and Darwyn Cooke's The Hunter. Awards will be presented at the end of January.
  
  Prompted by the sequel "Bad Influences," Comics Alliance posted an article listing some of the more notable instances of comic-book villains becoming heroes.
  
  And, while Incognito: Bad Influences was absent from Marvel's February solicitations, Sean Phillips has already posted the striking cover art to the fifth and presumably final issue.
  
  
  
  
• Phillips Art for the Criterion Collection. As he did for Blast of Silence, Sean Phillips has created the cover art for another release from the Criterion Collection: Sweet Smell of Success, a 1957 film starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. The Blu-Ray and the two-disc DVD will be released, separately, on February 22nd.
  
  
• A Criminal Comeback, Part 2. Finally, Hard Case Crime is back on track, with new material on the way. Its original publishers ceased production of mass-market paperbacks this year, but the imprint will be published through Titan Books, beginning in the fall of 2011.
  
  As before, The Violent World of Parker has the details, first with the breaking news, then with the full text of the newsletter email. Reading further down the latter, it seems that new material will be released as trade paperbacks, possibly with a MMPB reprint to follow.

More Criminal and more Hard Case Crime? It looks like 2011 is shaping up to be a great year for crime fiction.


Buy Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comics from Amazon.com

INCOGNITO: BAD INFLUENCES #1 in Stores Today.

The first issue of the Incognito sequel reaches stores today, and MTV.com has an exclusive interview with writer Ed Brubaker, along with an eight-page preview of the issue.

In the interview, Brubaker had no further details regarding a change in writers for the Sleeper adaptation, but he did relay that the film adaptation for Incognito is "full steam ahead so far." He also explains that the comic-book sequel features the collision of the central themes of the two stories -- a good guy corrupted by working undercover with the bad guys, and a bad guy growing a conscience working with the good guys.

Conclusion to Word Balloon Interview, Cooke's Parker, and Liberty Comics.

Very quickly, Ed Brubaker's Word Balloon interview concludes -- here, here, and here -- in a 70-minute podcast, out this week.

Also out this week? Darwyn Cooke's second adaptation of Richard Stark's Parker; Comics Alliance has a very lengthy interview with Cooke, about The Outfit.

And, the 2010 edition of Liberty Comics was released yesterday. Liberty Annual 2010 benefits the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and while this issue lacks any contributions from Brubaker and Phillips (unlke the inaugural 2008 release), the book features a Who's Who of writers and artists.