Pre-Order Pick For July 2019: CRIMINAL: BAD WEEKEND hardcover

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Month Three of the revised feature titled PRE-ORDER PICKS. I will recommend books that I know are really good because I’ve either read an advanced review copy of a single issue - - or I’ve read all the individual issues that comprise a new trade paperback or hardcover being offered.

With all of these PRE-ORDER PICKS keep in mind - - if you are interested, don’t take a chance on the store having a copy. Make sure by pre-ordering. Your local comic shop will thank you. Guaranteed sales help make them profitable. Please place your order before Wednesday, MAY 22 - - which is the cut-off date. Here’s recommendation #3 . . . . . .


CRIMINAL: BAD WEEKEND Hardcover (Image Comics, Preview Item # MAY 190040, release date July 10, 2019) Writer:Ed Brubaker. Artist: Sean Phillips. Colorist: Jacob Phillips. $16.99 Reprints CRIMINAL #2-3 with new expanded content.

The current series of CRIMINAL is off to a great start. Writer Ed Brubaker postpones the tale begun in Issue #1 to tell this complete side story from Issue #2 and #3. I’m assuming it’s being solicited now as the comic convention season is about to begin and it’s the right time for a crime story involving a comics convention and stolen art. This one is a winner, and provides some fascinating insights into the comics business of bygone days and the unfair treatment of artists.

Despite the reference to well-known artists, writers, and publishers in the BAD WEEKEND storyline, the characters involved in the story are all fictional — although legendary artist Hal Crane will remind older enthusiasts of more than one legend of comics lore.

The crotchety, chain-smoking alcoholic gambler Hal Crane is scheduled to finally get some recognition for fifty years of service to the comics industry. He’s been chosen to receive a prestigious award, and asks specifically for his old assistant Jacob to be his escort/driver/babysitter for the event. Along the way readers get a history lesson of the old days of comics publishing including anecdotes involving crooks, con men, criminal organizations, prostitutes, and art thieves as well as back-stabbing and depriving creators of royalties, etc.

Brubaker covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time and manages to wrap events around a crime caper involving an attempt by Crane to steal back some important work that was stolen from him and sold on the underground market. There are also two familiar characters for regular readers of the CRIMINAL series to see in action at different points in their lives.

I loved this story, and loved the art as well. Sean Phillips is the ultimate illustrator of crime stories, always enhancing the scenes with little details that help to create the proper atmosphere. The coloring is muted and subtle in most places, in keeping with the darker mood when required, and more colorful when it needs to be. The comics included a back-up feature on classic crime movies, with cutting edge analysis and gorgeous illustrations, also by Phillips.

There are bound to be all kinds of theories on who the character of Hal Crane is based on, especially when a lot of the situations and past events referred to seem to recall historic incidents. Brubaker sets it straight in the text column in Issue #2:

“ . . . . This issue’s story isn’t based on anything or anyone in particular. It’s got bits and pieces of reality and history sprinkled in around the fictional ‘comics world’ of CRIMINAL that we saw previously in BAD NIGHT and WRONG TIME, WRONG PLACE, but it isn’t meant to be an expose of the comics industry. It’s really a crime story wrapped around a character study about a young guy and his one-time idol, which is something I think a lot of us can identify with (regardless of your interest in real or fake comics history). I point this out because there are names of real comics people next to made up ones in this story, and I just want to be clear that as far as I know, no one ever pulled a gun on Gerry Conway when he worked at Marvel Comics in the 1970’s.”

I couldn’t have described the story any better than that. It is indeed a very compelling character study that ends with a twist that I didn’t see coming. Yet, in hindsight the conclusion seems completely appropriate considering the nature of these characters.