Criminal Vol.2 #1 - Marvel/Icon

Feb. 2008 - If you'll indulge me for today, I wanted to talk about a really great comic that, to me, cries out to be in the magazine format.

Criminal is from Marvel's Icon imprint, written by Ed Brubaker (whose Captain America run, in my mind, is about as good as any Cap run, ever) and drawn by Sean Phillips.

The title is an anthology of sorts, featuring different multi-issue storylines featuring different characters, all of them living in the hard-bitten crime noir world that the title suggests.

This is the third series so far (the first two being Coward and Lawless), and this time focuses on a boxer, his best friend, a criminal enterprise, and (of course) a thick-skinned dame who the boxer can't get out of his mind.

The art by Phillips is superb, as is the moody coloring by Val Staples. I especially love this sequence, where even though the dame is beautiful, she still has that beaten down look that everyone in crime fiction does:

The reason I say this should be in the magazine format is because of the presentation. Not only is the story for and about adults, but it also features editorial pieces about crime movies (in this case "The Secret Ingredient of Crime"), as well as an "appreciation" of genre author David Goodis. The ads in the book are not your typical comic book ads for candy and video games, either--they're for crime fiction magazines like Crimespree or book publishers like the Hard Case Crime series.

In fact, the only thing I don't totally love about the presentation is the paper stock--it's shiny and bright, and even though I'm sure it highlights Phillips' beautiful work better, this kind of story cries out to be on that cheap newsprint stock Marvel and Warren used to use.

This is the kind of comic that would appeal to non-comic-book readers, since it assumes a familiarity with crime novels and movies that, say, the average Amazing Spider-Man reader probably doesn't have. It's an ideal candidate to be a breakout book, the kind that gets sold in regular bookstores and even (gasp!) newsstands and drugstores.

I know from previous examples that the magazine format is a hard sell(notice IDW's attempt with Doomed), but nevertheless I'd love to see Criminal give it a shot sometime.