Posted in: Comics, Image | Tagged: criminal, ed brubaker, forbidden planet, image comics, sean phillips

Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips' Criminal (Briefly) Returns For Christmas

Criminal is a creator-owned comic book by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips originally published by Marvel Comic in 2006 and later by Image Comics from 2014. But we haven't seen a chapter for a while as the pair have concentrated on graphic novels including the Reckless line. Their 2017 graphic novel, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, featured a minor character from Criminal in a more central role, and in 2019 Criminal returned for a new mini-series, which ran until January 2020. However, there has been no new Criminal since before the pandemic. But talking to Andrew Sumner on the Forbidden Planet video podcast, they revealed that they have a special Christmas Criminal story appearing in December's Image! anthology from Image Comics for December for which Sean Phillips has also done the cover. Presumably Jake Phillips as well.

Criminal tells stories around a set of characters who grow up in the fictional city of Center City, frequent the same bar, and share a common history of two generations of crime. Initially, it focuses on Tommy Patterson running a proficient crew of pickpockets working the city, who teaches the trade to his young son Leo. When Tommy is arrested and imprisoned on charges for the murder of one Teeg Lawless, Tommy's partner Ivan takes care of Leo, and explains to him how following certain rules can keep a criminal "out in the world", out of both prison and the morgue. At the same time, Teeg Lawless' two sons were arrested. The fifteen-year-old Ricky was sent to a juvenile work camp while Tracy Lawless joined the U.S. Army, rather than going to jail. And the sins of the fathers are revisited upon the sons. And now we get to see what they all get up to at Christmas. Or at least, *a* Christmas.

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