Comic Book Candy

Publisher: Dark Horse Artists: Eduardo Barreto, Stefano Gaudiano, Rick Geary, Paul Grist, Joelle Jones, Kano, David Lapham, Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba, Dean Motter, M.K. Perker, Hugo Petrus, and Sean Phillips. Writers: Brian Azzarello, Ed Brubaker, Alex De Campi, Matthew & Sean Fillbach, Jeff Lemire, Ken Lizzi, Chris Offuit, and Gary Phillips. Lettering: Ryan Hill, Tom Orzechowki, and Clem Robins If you like… Criminal, Mister X, 100 Bullets, Stray Bullets, if you take your noir black, no sugar. 2009 was clearly a good year for noir. Enter this black and white compilation of short crime stories  released by Dark Horse back in October. I’ve only recently finished the 13 tales of betrayal, seduction, violence, and of course, crime! Just glancing at a few of the creators involved made me pick this up without hesitation. Here you’ll find noir for every mood: classic, always with a twist ending; stories with confrontational subject matter; morally ambiguous characters galore...

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...