Coward

Crime comics are back, and a great example of this is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip's amazing series Criminal. Coward is the first chapter of what promises to be a long-running, complex tapestry of crime and mayhem on the level of 100 Bullets. Leo Patterson is the coward to which the title refers. He is a professional pickpocket who learned the art from his father and uncle. He's never been arrested because he's meticulous about following the rules of his profession. (Like Lee Coburn in Harry in Your Pocket, right?) Of course, trouble begins when two former associates try to recruit him into an armored-car heist. Leo initially refuses because a dirty cop is involved, which is obviously a violation of his rules. But a beautiful former heroin addict named Greta is able to persuade Leo to participate in the crime. Needless to say, Leo is not able to make the scheme follow his 'rules'. Although Leo correctly surmises that there will be a double-cross, he's not exactly sure when the trap will be sprung. After a shootout which leaves Greta wounded and one of his 'friends' dead, Leo and Greta are able to escape with the score (which turns out to be heroin instead of diamonds). After a brief interlude, there are numerous heart-breaking plot twists and further spasms of violence. The ending is extremely dark, but surprisingly hopeful.

Part of the appeal of Criminal is the way each chapter fits into a much larger family saga. Each story arc is self-contained, but the central characters live in the same world and share a similar criminal background. For example, Leo Patterson is led to a life of crime when his father is sent to jail for the murder of Teeg Lawless, who is also a criminal. Future stories revolve around the criminal activities of Teeg's sons, Ricky and Tracy. Each cycle of crime leads to the next, each generation passes its crimes on to the next.

Criminal is everything we expect from noir crime fiction, and the entire series is true to the misanthropic themes of the genre. But we also see that Brubaker's broken misfits are capable of a tremendous amount of honor. And that's what makes it interesting, and cool.

The crime fiction of Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson (1906-77) was a very innovative writer whose life and career took him from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma all the way to Hollywood. Mostly known for his crime fiction, Thompson was not well particularly well regarded during his own lifetime, but he has received a great deal of critical appreciation since his death in 1977. Writers such as Ed Brubaker and James Ellroy have acknowledged his influence, and the movie industry continues to mine his work for screen ideas.

Before he turned to fiction, Thompson had a very versatile career as a newspaper writer and true crime author. This experience gave him a lot of insight into the criminal mind, and he had the ability (and the courage) to really get into the head of psychopathic killers. He was ahead of his time in this respect.

His best known work is probably The Killer Inside Me (1952). The narrator, Lou Ford, is a small-town sheriff who appears to be slightly dull-minded. Yet, in reality Sheriff Ford is very intelligent and experiences a nearly-constant urge to act violently; Ford describes his urge as the sickness (always italicised). Ford is a stereotypical serial killer, created by Thompson before that term even existed.

Other key works include The Getaway, which was adapted for the 1970 movie starring Steve McQueen and directed by Sam Peckinpah. Thompson wrote a script based on his novel, but McQueen rejected it as too reliant on dialogue with not enough action. The script was rewritten, and Thompson eventually sought, but lost, a Writers Guild arbitration to get script credit for the film. There is no question that the original story was greatly altered, but there is also no question that the original book would have been difficult or impossible to film.

Also noteworthy is The Grifters (1963). The narrator is Roy Dillon, master of the "short con", who has a romantic entanglement with another expert grifter, Moira Langtry, who sells sexual favors to her landlord in return for the rent money. Roy's mother, also a grifter, is in the picture as well. Together, the three characters get caught up in a crime spree which culminates in betrayal, infamy and murder. The Grifters was made into a movie in 1990, and this time there were very few changes to Thompson's original story.

Thompson's stories are usually first-person narratives which reveal a nihilistic world-view and a frighteningly deep understanding of the warped criminal mind. There are no good guys in Thompson's literature — most everyone is abusive, opportunistic, or simply waiting for the opportunity to pull a fast one.

Although Thompson was a prolific and generally successful writer, he was always broke and could never really get on his feet financially or otherwise. He acquired a drinking habit from the time in his youth when he worked as a bellboy in a rough Texas hotel, and later as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oilfields. He died from alcohol-related illnesses in 1977 at the age of 71.

Lawless

Lawless, the second volume of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal, begins shortly after the events of Coward. Tracy Lawless is AWOL from military prison, determined to find out who murdered his brother, Ricky Lawless. To get started, Tracy pulls a strong-arm robbery on the mob and tracks down an old acquaintance who specializes in forged identity documents. (If you think all of this will come back to haunt him later, you're right.) In short order, Tracy tracks down Ricky's old crew, murders their wheelman, and infiltrates the gang as their new driver. Tracy then gets close to Ricky's old girlfriend Mallory, who is also a member of the gang. Much mayem ensues, Tracy ends up finding out a lot more than he bargained for, and the ending leaves him with more questions than ever.

Incognito

Incognito is a new series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Scheduled to begin in December 2008, the five-part story will be released under Marvel's creator-owned imprint, Icon. In a nutshell, the story is about a super-powered villain attempting to hide out in the witness protection program. Like Sleeper, the protagonist of Incognito has super-powers. However, according to published reports Incognito will be more of a crime noir story, where Sleeper was a bit more like Watchmen-- an exploration of human nature in a world much like our own where some people just happen to have super powers. The new story will also have somewhat of an espionage theme, not unlike Bruabaker's current presentation of Captain America. Suffice it to say that we will see a very dark and pulpy blend of genres.

Like Criminal, Incognito will fill out the 36 pages with prose articles in the back. Reportedly, there will be more articles about the pulp realm, such as Doc Savage and the Shadow, as well as articles about the world that the comics industry grew out of.

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=6451

Hollywood discovers Ed Brubaker's 'Sleeper'

Tom Cruise and Hollywood have discovered Ed Brubaker, but comic book fans have known about Brubaker and his crime comics for quite some time. According to wire reports, Cruise is seeking the film rights to Brubaker's Sleeper, and the property does seem perfect for the big screen. Sleeper features a secret agent (Holden Carver) whose fusion with an alien artifact makes him impervious to pain, gives him a powerful healing factor, and allows him to store pain and pass it on to others through skin contact. Carver goes undercover in a super villain’s powerful organization and is eventually caught between two warring sides with unclear allegiances. Mayhem ensues. I'm sure this was one of the most successful Hollywood pitch meetings of all time. It's a 'high concept', easily translated to the screen, and it's a great role for somebody like Tom Cruise. Warner Brothers thinks this might be the next big movie franchise, on the level of the Bourne movies.

So who is Ed Brubaker, and what else is he working on? By his own admission, as a teenager he was 'kind of a thief and a drug-addict...and lived in a really ugly world of speed-freaks and scumbags.' Fortunately, he turned himself around. But he retained a somewhat bent perspective as well as an interest in dark subject matter such as pulp crime fiction. (In his autobiography, My Dark Places, crime author James Ellroy describes a similar scenario, with similar results.)

Brubaker is probably best known for 'killing Captain America'. Except it was actually Steve Rogers that was killed, and the Captain America persona was taken over by his sidekick, Bucky. All grown up now, Bucky was previously known as the Winter Soldier, a programmed Soviet assassin. Let's just say that he has some issues. He is a much darker character than Steve Rogers, and is much more suited to Brubaker's noir style. In the hands of Brubaker, Captain America has become a pulpy blend of sci-fi and espionage.

Brubaker is also one of the creators of Criminal. A straight-ahead crime series, Criminal features career criminals and ordinary people who get in over their heads, with violent and unpredictable results. One volume centered on a prizefighter who runs into some problems with the local crime bosses. Another story is about a Vietnam veteran who gets involved in a heist. Criminal is sharply written, beautifully illustrated by Sean Phillips, and is a worthy homage to the crime fiction of Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson. Each issue also has a prose section in the back, highlighting subjects such as the Black Lizard reprints of classic crime novels, or Harry-O, the classic TV crime show from 1974-75.

Brubaker and Phillips are also working on a new series called Incognito, which Brubaker says is "about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection."

See links below for more information. No word on exactly when Sleeper will come to the big screen, but it looks like things are coming along nicely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/books/08capt.html
http://criminalcomic.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_%28comic_book%29