Posted in: Comics, Image | Tagged: criminal, ed brubaker, sean phillips

Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips' Criminal: Five Gears In Reverse In June

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal: Five Gears In Reverse in June 2026 from Image Comics

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal is coming to Amazon Prime. But so are the comic books. And in June, they have a new Criminal graphic novel coming to bookstores and comic book stores a couple of weeks before. And all as part of Image Comics' February 2026 solicits and solicitations. Perhaps we'll receive a new round of advertisements in The Guardian newspaper as a result.

Five Gears In Reverse: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips
Hardcover – June 23, 2026
A brand new CRIMINAL graphic novel featuring the legendary RICKY LAWLESS and the crazy tale of how he and MALLORY fell in love in the midst of a crime spree. In one of the wildest, most action-packed books that Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, we delve deep into the life of one of CRIMINAL's most complex and tragic characters, Ricky Lawless as he tries to pay off a deep debt to a mobster, while things just keep going from bad to worse. FIVE GEARS IN REVERSE will have long-time CRIMINAL fans cheering the return of RICKY LAWLESS and new readers will find it a perfect jumping-on-point for the greatest crime comic series of the 21st century. "Brubaker and Phillips don't hit a wrong note." – Shane Black

And here's a look ahead…

Criminal began in October 2006 from Marvel's Icon imprint, as a meditation on the clichés of the crime genre while remaining realistic and believable. Pickpocket Leo Patterson got involved in an armoured car heist that is not what it seems. Tracy Lawless infiltrates his brother Ricky's former gang to find out who murdered him. More stories spilled out of these, in the Center City, the same bar, and a common history of two generations of crime, as Tommy Patterson, with his partner Ivan, ran the city's most proficient crew of pickpockets and taught the trade to his eight-year-old son, Leo. When Tommy was arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Teeg Lawless, Ivan took care of Leo and explained to him how following certain rules can keep a criminal "out in the world", out of both prison and the morgue. The series returned in 2019 with Teeg Lawless, and more series have kicked off since, with new collections this year to coincide with the upcoming TV series, along with a new graphic novel, The Knives, published in August. The TV series created by co-showrunners Ed Brubaker and Jordan Harper stars Charlie Hunnam as Leo, Richard Jenkins as Ivan, Adria Arjona as Greta, Kadeem Hardison as Gnarly,  Logan Browning as Jenny, Emilia Clarke as Mallory, Luke Evans as Tracy Lawless, and Gus Halper as Ricky Lawless. The series has yet to be scheduled…

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