We're writing very briefly to note that the latest Brubaker-Phillips collaboration came out this week:  Night Fever is a stand-alone original graphic novel following one man's descent into decadence and violence while on a business trip to Europe. It's worth noting that the cover art has changed from what was originally announced, with the orange and blue image of protagonist Jonathan Webb's back, shown on the left, replaced by the image shown on the right: the gray and white image has Webb facing the reader, still carrying a knife, standing in shadow, and obscured by a mask one woul ..read more

Note: If you've received a copy of the Neo Noir comic book, see my previous post for more info. Our friend Robert Watson has just posted the latest episode of the Undertow Podcast, where we focus on Follow Me Down, the fifth book in the Reckless series. This is the final book in this particular run as Brubaker and Phillips take a break to publish Night Fever and possibly other books, including perhaps the long-awaited follow-up to The Fade Out. This seems as good a time as any for me to summarize some notes I've taken, to produce a timeline (or three!) for the main characters and the central ..read more

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm using the $1 Image Firsts Neo Noir comic book to introduce friends to one of my great interests, the crime comics of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. I'm sending them the comic book and directing them here for more info, at least to reveal something about my personality and hopefully to get them hooked on my favorite comic books! What's the BLUF, the Bottom Line Up Front? If a particular book by Brubaker and Phillips caught your eye in that Neo Noir comic or in our bibliography, do check it out: you can't go wrong, their books run from very go ..read more

We would be remiss if we didn't briefly mention the output of a very busy week and change. Follow Me Down, the fifth Reckless original graphic novel, reached retailers this past Wednesday, revealing what Ethan was up to during the events of The Ghost In You. In the afterward, Ed Brubaker tells readers that they're taking a break from the series for another project -- as yet unannounced, "a new hardback graphic novel" due in the spring and already in production -- but he promises that Ethan and Anna will return in a story set in the 1990s. The previous week saw the arrival of a quite uniqu ..read more

The Ghost In You, the 4th Reckless OGN from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, arrives this week, and so Robert Watson has released another episode of The Undertow Podcast: this time, Robert and I review the previous volume, Destroy All Monsters. There were a few more items that didn't make the recording, all worth mentioning briefly. We recorded Sunday night, and Ed Brubaker sent out another Monday with a few of those items. • Reckless Bookplate. Stores with large enough orders will include an autographed bookplate with The Ghost In You. For this release, the bookplate features a young Anna ..read more

I know, it's been forever. I even have an unfinished draft from when Friend of the Devil was due to be released, announcing that my life in the real world has just been keeping me entirely too busy to blog -- but further noting this isn't the worst possible time to post intermittently, with Brubaker & Phillips having made the move from releasing monthly issues to publishing original graphic novels. For the time being, A Criminal Blog is unofficially going into a partial and indefinite hibernation: Partial, because I'll still post as time permits and circumstances require it ..read more

It's been a while, but we're back, and I'll be brief. (Yeah, right.) Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return today with their first new comics work in literally six months, the hardcover, original graphic novel, Pulp! Announced last December and originally planned for a May 20th release, Pulp is the third slightly oversized "graphic novella" for the team, following 2018's My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies the expanded edition of Bad Weekend released last July.   Image Comics prominently features the book on its website, and there are a number of signed ..read more

Early April saw the release of the latest Undertow Podcast, featuring our review of Criminal #12, the explosive finale of the sprawling "Cruel Summer" arc.  We hope our listeners enjoy the discussion even half as much as Robert and I did. During the podcast, we raised some questions we had about Amazon listings for upcoming releases, and we happened to get some answers last week from an sent out by Ed Brubaker. That newsletter opened with bigger, MUCH more immediately pressing news, and we'll follow suit here, with the Criminal news at the end of the post. Ed Brubake ..read more

and, we're back! We have more to cover, hopefully later this week, but we would be remiss if we didn't post today. We're greatly anticipating tomorrow's arrival of Criminal #12 -- the grand finale to the ambitious "Cruel Summer" arc, which also serves as the final issue of this particular volume of the long-running series and covers the momentous death of that infamous, fan-favorite anti-hero Teeg Lawless. First, before fans pick up their copy of the book, they could do worse with their time than checking out the latest episode of The Undertow Podcast.  Back after a brief, un ..read more

We've been expecting another email newsletter from Ed Brubaker -- so far, nothing yet -- but we have plenty to cover as the latest issue of Criminal reaches stores today. Yesterday, Newsarama posted an extensive preview of Criminal #7, a six-page preview supplementing the three pages already seen at Image's website. The preview focuses on four very familiar faces, and we believe this is the first time we've seen the entire group of friends together -- Leo Patterson, Ricky Lawless, Jacob Kurtz, and Jenny (Jen) Waters. (L-R) Jenny, Leo, Jacob, Ricky (Tracy continues to ..read more