Late to the party: CRIMINAL

[Tiplodocus]

Yes, I know you all read this a couple ofyears back but I'm just working my way through a load of issues that Trout leant me.

I must say it's absolutely brilliant stuff. I thought it would be a bit too normal for my liking but it's had me hooked from issue one.

Brubaker manages to wring some new angles out of what could be a very tired genre, the way his characters whirl about each other and slide and interconnect reminds me of nothing so much as a Robert Altman film and of course the real crimes are what they do to each other rather than who they rob.  The characters are well motivated and complex and the dialogue is just the right side of hard boiled (i.e. believable).

OK, OK, honourable criminals like these are as much of a myth as the cartoon characters that inhabit Sin CIty but he still does a good job making you think that somewhere out there are "rogues" who might not just be mindless, self-serving thugs.

Sean Phillips art is asolutely spot on; he captures the urban backdrop perfectly and fills it with shadows like you wouldn't believe.  He draws low lifes and femme fatales and street level corruption exactly as you want it for this kind of tale.

The tonal colouring is excellent as well; moody rather than realistic (some particular brilliant bits where the mood seems choreagraphed to the flashing of police lights) and takes me back to the days of Battle (Darkie's Mob for some reason).

So thank you, Your Highness - definitely a comic highlight of the last year for me (and that's ayear that has included Alice in Sunderland, The Boys and Ennis on Dan Dare).

[Ignatzmonster]

Brubaker and Philips have yet to screw up.

[PreacherCain]

Their new series Incognito started last month and starts rather splendidly.  Still too early to tell if it'll reach the heights of Criminal but if the first issue is anything to go by, then it's off to a damn good start. Think the second issue is out this week actually.