Image Comics; $29.99 

Criminal: The Knives is the first new Criminal story from writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips in five years, and it will make fans of the series forget about the time away as it dives back into the worlds of characters we’ve met previously: cartoonist Jacob Kurtz, Angie from the Undertow bar, and Tracy Lawless, home from the special forces. From the outset, I should say this new story is accessible to new readers as well as longtime fans of the series. 

Launched in 2006 under Marvel’s Icon imprint for creator-owned material, the original Criminal series ran 10 issues. It quickly established a pattern. The series focused on different characters for each arc, yet it painted a consistent picture in terms of its gritty tone and the city in which the characters dwell. 

The story, Brubaker’s dialogue and Phillips’ art – and the overall mood of the tales – have been greatly enhanced by the coloring in the series. First by Val Staples, then by Elizabeth Breitweiser, and now by Phillips’ son, Jacob (the artist of That Texas Blood), the deep, subtle colors have always burnished Criminal’s noir credentials.  

That’s absolutely true for The Knives as well. 

Knitting the three disparate storylines into one compelling graphic novel is no small feat, but this creative team makes it look easy. The pacing is spot on, and the characters are so compelling that it was virtually impossible to put it down. 

It would seem likely that this will be the last original Criminal graphic novel we get before the debut of the Amazon Prime series (produced and at least partially written by Brubaker himself), so maybe it’s a good time to re-read – or discover for the first time – all of the previous material. 

The original series was followed in 2008 by a seven-issue series, and then by Criminal: The Sinners (2009). Numerous trade paperbacks and a pair of hardcover omnibus editions followed. The duo also collaborated in two Incognito series for the Icon imprint during their years at Marvel. 

In 2019 Brubaker and Phillips launched a 12-issue run of Criminal at Image Comics, where they eventually switched to an original graphic novel format instead of serialized comic books. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, Bad Weekend, (an expanded version of Criminal #2-3 from Image) were among the earlier graphic novels. Cruel Summer collected Criminal #1 and #5-12 from the Image run. They also released a third omnibus edition, reissues of the first two, and lots of trade paperback collections. 

Criminal and Incognito are far from their only collaborations. Along the way, they’ve produced 12 issue of The Fade Out, 24 issues of Fatale, 20 issues of Kill Or Be Killed, the original graphic novels Night Fever, Pulp, and Where The Body Was, and five Reckless graphic novels.  

They also released Pulp: The Process Edition, which brilliantly details their collaborative process. Given their body of work to date, other creators can probably learn a thing or two from their example. 

– J.C. Vaughn