Since debuting in 2006, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have created four separate volumes of Criminal through two publishers, multiple awards and countless glowing reviews. Now the duo returns in January with an ongoing Criminal title.
“Criminal was where Sean and I really established our brand as a team, and while writing My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies (which takes place in the Criminal world), it just suddenly felt like the perfect time to bring it back to the monthly comic shelves. But this time I wanted it to be different—not just serialized graphic novels, but also single-issue stories and even the odd two-issue story sometimes,” said Brubaker. “I love the elasticity that Criminal allows me—because this world we’ve created gives me a place to tell any kind of crime story and to focus on different characters, both old and new—and I want to really embrace the monthly comics format, and try to create a series where readers will never know what’s coming next from issue to issue.”
The first double-sized issue will again focus on Teeg Lawless, “whose teenage son is causing him trouble that he may not be able to fight his way out of, for the first time in his violence-fueled life.”
Phillips added: “It’s a pleasure to return to the world of Criminal with new stories of familiar characters and new characters too. I’m back to drawing on paper after a few years drawing The Fade Out and Kill or Be Killed digitally, so it’s also a welcome return to inky fingers and white-out.”
Check out the first issue’s cover below.
