If you are, great! If you aren't, you should be! Awesome crime drama from Brubaker and Phillips! Here's some information:
That’s right, the most acclaimed crime comic in the industry is giving readers and retailers a second chance to get onboard as we relaunch with a new format, featuring more pages, longer main stories, and an expanded magazine section! “Second Chance In Hell†begins the first of three standalone issues, this one focusing on Gnarly the bartenders and telling the story of the last days of his life as a boxer and revealing how the Undertow bar came into his hands. It’s a hard-hitting period-piece, set in the grimy early 70s, where crime, seduction and betrayal go hand-in-hand. And on top of this longer-than-usual length main story, CRIMINAL now features an expanded back-pages section, as well – with articles by Brubaker and other top crime writers, from novelists to screenwriters to comic writers. These noir articles have become a popular piece of the CRIMINAL package, and are something that can only be found in the comics, not in any collections. So please take this SECOND CHANCE IN HELL to find out what everyone’s been talking about!
Mature Content …$3.50
The first trade has sold pretty well so far, and we got good advance orders for the second one, still waiting for my first quarterly report on reorders and such.
But to give you a rough breakdown, we'd need to sell 25 thousand or so trades right out of the gate (and I'm just thinking off the top of my head here) to be able to afford to do the book if monthly sales didn't support it. We're nowhere close to selling that many of the first trade, even.
Trades is a long-view publishing plan, and we will eventually sell a lot of them on this book, I'm sure, but since we don't get page rates and no publisher is financing this series, it only exists because of the people who buy the monthlies and the retailers who order them. It's those people who make the book happen, and who make those trades possible to exist.
That's why there are extras in the comics to reward those who support the series. Also, they would make no sense in the trades. It's articles about the noir genre and movie reviews and stuff. It's for the Criminal magazine.
If this book dies because people trade-wait, I'm going to lose my mind.
Posts
One of the points of the second series is to expand the back pages, which are purposefully left out of the trades, since they had to increase price anyway.
Anyway, if you have to ask if I read it you haven't been paying attention.
An interview with Brubaker, with preview pages and a bunch of other things? Wow, you should totally click that link and check it out!
See, I thought so as well (on both counts), but it never hurts to get the word out and make sure, y'know?
So....if you like IMMORTAL IRON FIST, or CASANOVA, or the current runs on CAPTAIN AMERICA or DAREDEVIL, or maybe you dig crime noir books like TORSO and JINX, I think you should give CRIMINAL a shot.
And here, another interview with Brubaker!
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Criminal/Ed_Criminal.html
Gigantic interview (part 1 of 2) posted today on Newsarama. The CRIMINAL information will be in part 2, but it's still a huge interview, and a nice look into what makes Brubaker tick. It's worth checking out (if you haven't already).
If you like that movie, and movies like it, you'd really enjoy Coward. Lawless is like one of those 70s movies, even some blaxploitation, where a Delta commando learns his brother was murdered, goes AWOL and hunts down the murderer.
Part 2 of the gigantic Newsarama interview, including information on CRIMINAL, IMMORTAL IRON FIST, and more!
For emphasis.
Who can resist a hook like that? Who?
*Starts looking around his one room apartment for things to sell*
I guess I don't "need" a fridge, it is winter right?
http://media.libsyn.com/media/wordballoon/WBbrubakercap34spoilers_.mp3
I'm confused is Criminal put out my marvel or someone else?
The relaunch starts with three one-shots: Gnarly, the owner of the Undertow (the criminal bar); Teeg Lawless himself; and the femme fatale who has ties to Gnarly and Teeg and, well, everyone; and . There is also an interesting dynamic involving the crime boss in the city, Sebastian Hyde, and how his life has threads from these other families (Gnarly's father was his father's bodyguard and right-hand man, so he and Gnarly grew up together).
As Bru has described it, he could do 50 issues (10 arcs) just telling these peoples' stories, and they are all related.
http://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Vol-Coward-Ed-Brubaker/dp/078512439X/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201833959&sr=8-1
That's the first trade.
Spoilered for size:
http://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Vol-Lawless-Ed-Brubaker/dp/0785128166/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201833959&sr=8-2
That's the second trade.
But remember - BUY THE FLOPPIES! You get extra stuff, AND you get the warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing that you're supporting a great book.
Oh, shit. I just saw this on CBR: "Criminal" Hijacks MySpace in Bold New Promotion
http://www.myspace.com/comicbooks
I love the badges. I was thinking about making a couple myself, but I could never do it justice compared to this.
This is Teeg, btw.
You can read the first chapter of the first trade, COWARD, at that link.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=353411232
You can read the first chapter of the second trade, LAWLESS, at that link. Thanks, Crimson!
A ten-page preview of CRIMINAL #1, Vol. 2, in stores February 27th!
However, he did post some badges a long fucking time ago that are still up.
New Sean Phillips interview, including lettered previews of the first four pages of issue #2 (on sale March 26th).