Comic Book Candy

My pulp novel / crime noir kick does not seem to be ending anytime soon. I stumbled across a first print hardcover of Darwyn Cooke's Parker: The Hunter this week at a local comic shop, and this was one impulse buy I could not resist. Cooke's graphic novel adaptation of the pulp novel classic was unsurprisingly fantastic, as pretty much everything I've heard / read about it guaranteed that it would be a good read. That being said, a review isn't necessary. The accolades and praise heaped upon this novel from the past year pretty well prove that if you haven't read it yet (like me) that's probably because you've had a hard time getting your hands on this oft-sold out graphic novel. I will give you the "reading rainbow" version of a review: Parker is a hardened professional thief who specializes in one time heists, and never takes on a setup with too many risks. When a job falls through, Parker goes against his gut instincts and joins an operation...

Sometimes its easy to see patterns in what you like. Garth Ennis is writing a new book? I'll check it out. Steve Dillion is drawing it too? Well, that makes it "the team that brought you Preacher". But this post isn't about Ennis and Dillion (expect that post in the future). No, this is about the noir loving, femme fatale fearing duo: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. As each issue of Criminal reminds us, the secret ingredient is crime. And these two definitely share a passion for the genre that shines through in each of their collaborations. Here's a look at what they've done so far, with a peak at the wonderful things to come: Batman: Gotham Noir Publisher: DC (2001) If you like: What if? comics, alternate universe reads, Jim Gordon centric stories. This Elseworlds one-shot shows us Gotham as imagined in the late 1940's. It isn't a stretch to see the caped crusader in this time period, especially considering that Batman was created in 1939. T...