Search Results for: baker

THE KNIVES: A CRIMINAL BOOK by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips!

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A new CRIMINAL book from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is coming! Titled THE KNIVES, it will drop September 9, 2025.  Here’s the lowdown…

THE FIRST NEW CRIMINAL BOOK IN FIVE YEARS!

With the Prime Video adaptation premiering soon, crime comic grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return to their most acclaimed series with a new standalone graphic novel: THE KNIVES.

A sprawling Criminal epic, THE KNIVES is the most ambitious tale Brubaker and Phillips have ever tackled. Three dark journeys wind around each other over a decade, like sharks hunting for a kill.

Cartoonist Jacob Kurtz goes to Hollywood in the era of peak TV to work on an adaptation of his comic strip, only to find himself caught up in the life of his aging aunt and the vultures circling her estate. Angie was raised at the Undertow, but now everything she loves has been taken from her. She’s on the streets with vengeance on her mind, her eyes set on the city’s kingpin. And finally, Tracy Lawless is home from the Special Forces, finally a civilian again, but he’s in bad shape and this city has always brought out the worst in him.

These three tales collide in THE KNIVES a breathtaking noir story about greed, ambition, heartbreak, and blood ties. A must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips fans!

  Deal me in.  Pre-Orders are available now.

YOU ARE HERE by Kyle Baker

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YOU ARE HERE by Kyle Baker

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Noel Coleman has it all. He’s a successful artist. Helen, his beautiful fiancée, loves him. He owns an attractive house in the country.   For the past year that Noel and Helen lived together, life has been perfect.

Noel plans to ask Helen to marry him.  It’s just… he has secrets.  Noel wants to come clean.  But how do you tell your future (hopefully) wife that you were a criminal when you met her?  Noel decides he’ll figure out how to tell her when the time comes.

So Noel informs Helen that he’s going into the city to clean the last things out of his apartment. When he gets back, he’ll pop the question.

Noel heads in to the city and runs into his old crime partner.  They decide to have a drink.  The more they talk the more Noel realizes he misses the life.  His partner talks about a job he’s set up. He offers Noel a piece of the action if he wants to come.  Noel is tempted.  He decides once he comes clean to Helen, her reaction will decide the life he’ll live.

Then Noel learns that an infamous serial killer just got released from prison.  The killer has made it known he’s going to kill the bum that slept with his wife.  Noel is that bum!  Noel realizes he needs to get out of the city and quick.  Thank God Helen didn’t come with him.

Noel sees Helen at about the same time as he catches sight of the killer.  Unfortunately the killer has seen them.

Noel will have a lot of explaining to do if they survive.  And odds are they won’t.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The art feels very Disneyish and yet the story is noir.  The combination works.  Baker sets us up to expect one thing and gives us another.  The bathtub scene (in the preview below) is just one example.  I love the cartoony style used in this tale.  I also thought telling the story without word balloons was creative.  Having the serial killer resemble Robert Mitchum was icing on the cake.

This isn’t a story for kids.  There is sex and violence.  Happy endings are for Disney and this is noir.

YOU ARE HERE gets my highest recommendation!

YOU ARE HERE by Kyle Baker rates 5 of 5 stars.

Rating:

SCENE OF THE CRIME by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark & Sean Phillips / Z-View

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SCENE OF THE CRIME by Ed Brubaker (writer), Michael Lark (artist), Sean Phillips (artist)

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Jack Herriman is surprised when he gets a call from his dead father’s former partner, Detective Paul Raymonds.  Jack’s dad was assassinated in the line of duty when Jack was a teenager. Jack didn’t deal with the loss well and made some bad choices. Detective Raymonds helped Paul along the way.

But that was years ago.  Jack turned his life around.  He got clean.  Jack began working as a Private Investigator.  Detective Raymonds wants Jack to find a missing woman named Maggie. Maggie is the daughter of Raymonds’ mistress.

Finding Maggie is surprisingly easy.  She’s a free spirit. Jack follows the leads and meets her.  After some back and forth, they decide to talk over a meal.  Maggie agrees to call her mother and reassure her she’s safe.  There’s chemistry between Jack and Maggie.  As he drops her at her hotel room, they both agree they’ll see each other again.

The next morning Maggie is found murdered in her hotel room.  In a bag is $10,000 in cash.

Now the case is personal.  Jack is determined to find Maggie’s killer.  The trail will lead to other crimes, a family conspiracy and secrets that are as sickening as they are shocking.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

SCENE OF THE CRIME was the first time that Ed Brubaker worked with both Michael Lark and Sean Phillips.  Brubaker would go on to have celebrated runs on Daredevil and Gotham Central.  Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips would go on to create the Criminal series and so many other classic tales.

The book also contains the following extras…

  • Intro by Brian Michael Bendis
  • Covers from the original comic series
  • Gods and Sinners, a heartbreaking short tale featuring Jack Herriman
  • The Untold Story of Scene of the Crime by Ed Brubaker
  • Examples of Michael Larks pencils and Sean Phillips inks

SCENE OF THE CRIME by Ed Brubaker (writer), Michael Lark (artist), Sean Phillips (artist) rates 5 of 5 stars.

Rating:

HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is Coming!

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Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips next collaboration has been announced.  HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY will drop on August 13, 2024.  Here’s the lowdown…

HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY is a riveting horror thrill-ride from bestselling creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the award-winning team behind CRIMINAL (soon to be a TV series on Amazon Prime), RECKLESS, NIGHT FEVER and WHERE THE BODY WAS.

An FBI agent from the cult crime beat and a woman with a past linked to the Satanic Panic are drawn into a terrifying hunt for an insane killer hiding in the shadows of the underworld. Can you ever escape your past, or are all your bad decisions just more ghosts to haunt you, wherever you go?

WHERE THE BODY WAS by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips!

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Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have announced WHERE THE BODY WAS, a new original graphic novel that drops December 12, 2023.  Here’s the lowdown…

A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she’s a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories collide one fateful summer in WHERE THE BODY WAS, a tale of love and murder in the suburbs, told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?

WHERE THE BODY WAS is a tour-de-force from grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Starting with a map of the crime scene, this murder mystery follows the ripples of this killing as they echo through decades of love and loss and passion and violence. Like a true crime podcast crossed with a long-lost diary, WHERE THE BODY WAS is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, and a must-have for all their avid fans!

WHERE THE BODY WAS is available for pre-orders now.

NIGHT FEVER by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips is Coming!

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Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have announced their next graphic novel, Night Fever.  Here’s the lowdown…

Who are you, really? Are you the things you do, or are you the person inside your mind?

In Europe on a business trip, Jonathan Webb can’t sleep. Instead, he finds himself wandering the night in a strange foreign city, with his new friend, the mysterious and violent Rainer as his guide. Rainer shows Jonathan the hidden world of the night, a world without rules or limits. But when the fun turns dangerous, Jonathan may find himself trapped in the dark… And the question is, what will he do to get home?

Night Fever is a pulse-pounding noir thriller from grand masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. A Jekyll-and-Hyde story of a man facing the darkness inside himself, this riveting tour of the night is a must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips readers!

Night Fever drops June 20, 2023.  Pre-orders are available now.  Deal me in!

“The Last Son” (2021) Starring Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane & Heather Graham / Z-View

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The Last Son (2021)

Director:  Tim Sutton

Screenplay by:  Greg Johnson

Starring: Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane and Heather Graham

Tagline:  None.

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Isaac LeMay (Worthington) is a heartless, wicked outlaw.  When a curse is placed on him, that he will be killed by one of his off-spring, LeMay decides to track down and kill the many children he left behind.  So he travels from town to town, locating and killing each of his off spring.  Until…

I thought The Last Son had an interesting premise.  I’m also a Thomas Jane fan.  Neither could keep me watching.  The Last Son moved at a snail’s pace.  Worthington played LeMay as a man of few words and when he did speak the words were hard to understand and gruff.  Think of the, “I’m Batman” voice by Christian Bale but as if Bale had chain smoked for 50 years.  There’s a scene where LeMay finds one of his off spring (he’d already killed a few).  It’s a daughter.  He decides not to kill her and instead puts his gun in her hand.  I was thinking, “Pull the trigger and end this mess.”  She doesn’t.  I didn’t last much longer.

The Last Son earns 1 of 5 stars.

FOLLOW ME DOWN: A RECKLESS BOOK by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips is Coming!

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The next Reckless book, Follow Me Down by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is set for release on October 18, 2022.  It sounds like another winner…

In the wake of the 1989 earthquake, Ethan takes a trip to San Francisco to search for a missing woman. But almost immediately he finds himself going down a path of darkness and murder in her wake, in a case unlike anything he’s faced before.
FOLLOW ME DOWN is the most intense of the Reckless books so far, and yet another hit from the most-acclaimed team in comics, creators of PULP, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, CRIMINAL, THE FADE OUT, and KILL OR BE KILLED. A must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips readers!

Like with all of Brubaker & Phillips’ books, deal me in!  If you feel the same pre-orders are available now!

RIP: Philip Baker Hall

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Philip Baker Hall died last night peacefully in his sleep surrounded by loved ones.  Mr. Hall was 90.

While you may not recognize Philip Baker Hall’s name, you surely recognize his face if you’re a movie or tv fan.  Mr. Hall was a character actor in the truest sense of the word.  With 185 roles on his resume, Mr. Hall alternated between feature films and television.

Some of the television shows featuring Mr. Hall include: Emergency!, Good Times, Man from Atlantis, MASH, The Waltons, Quincy, Cagney & Lacey, TJ Hooker, Benson, Miami Vice, Family Ties, Flacon Crest, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Seinfeld, Cheers, Chicago Hope, Third Rock from the Sun, Monk, Boston Legal, The West Wing and Modern Family.

Mr. Hall also appeared in his share of feature films, including: Midnight Run, Say Anything, Ghostbusters II, An Innocent Man, Kiss of Death, Hard Eight, The Rock, Air Force One, Boogie Nights, The Truman Show, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, The Sum of All Fears, Rush Hour 3, Zodiac and Argo.

Philip Baker Hall was an actor that you’d see and think, “It’s THAT guy!”  I loved him as Lt. Joe Bookman in the two episodes of Seinfeld that he did.  He was also excellent as the star of Hard Eight, where he played a tough professional gambler.  Whenever Philip Baker Hall was in the credits, you knew the show or movie would be better for it.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Philip Baker Hall’s family, friends and fans.

Deathcathlon by Kyle Baker is Available Now!

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Deathcathlon is already available for purchase and I just found out about it.  How did that happen?  I’m a Kyle Baker fan and am surprised I’m late to the party.  Here’s the synopsis…

So what if nobody likes her and everyone wants her to fail? Detective Shakuntala Mahoney, the Last Honest Cop in the Most Corrupt Precinct is poised for a career-defining bust that will demolish the sports-rigging mafia in the city of Los Serafines. So what if her own team is sabotaging her and helping the bad guys? She’d rather be right than liked. Rules are rules and cheaters are cheaters. Only her obsession matters: Destroying the mafia.

She never counted on the brooding sinewy stranger with a haunted past who shatters the detective’s brilliant plans in an instant. An intriguing broad-muscled rogue who slaughters all of Mahoney’s suspects using sports equipment then vanishes into the night like a chiseled rugged ghost with a secret torment locked away in a hardened heart.

Someone’s wiping out the mafia, and it isn’t Mahoney. She’s finally found the only other person in this crooked town who shares her obsession, and he’s a damned serial killer. A damned hot serial killer doing the job she dreams the broken system would allow her to do. It definitely shouldn’t matter that he’s a world-famous athlete worth a fortune. The Last Honest cop will not tolerate vigilantism, especially if it screws up her promotion.

Rules are rules. Cheating is cheating. But the heart wants what the heart wants.

If Deathcathlon sounds like something you’d like, why deny yourself a little pleasure?

Reckless: The Ghost in You by Brubaker & Phillips is Coming!

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It’s been announced that the next Reckless graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips has been announced.  It is titled Reckless: The Ghost in You.  That’s the cover above.  Here’s the synopsis…

The fourth book in the best-selling Reckless series is here!

Bestselling crime noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips bring us yet another original graphic novel starring troublemaker-for-hire Ethan Reckless.

Except this time it’s the winter of 1989 and Ethan is out of town, so Anna must tackle this job on her own. When a movie scream queen asks her to prove the mansion she’s renovating isn’t haunted, Anna will stumble into the decades-long mystery of one of Hollywood’s most-infamous murder houses… a place with many dark secrets, some of which might just kill her.

Another hit from the award-winning creators of RECKLESS, PULP, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, CRIMINAL, and KILL OR BE KILLED — and a must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips fans!

Reckless: The Ghost in You will be released on April 26, 2022.  Preorders are available now.

“The Last Son” Starring Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane & Heather Graham – The Trailer is Here!

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The Last Son looks interesting.  I want to see more.

Isaac LeMay (Sam Worthington) is a murderous outlaw cursed by a terrible prophecy, hunting down his offspring to prevent his own murder before targeting his son Cal (Colson Baker). With bounty hunters and the enigmatic U.S. officer Solomon (Jane) on their tail, all are set on a collision course.

Director: Tim Sutton
Writer: Greg Johnson
Actors: Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane, Heather Graham

The Ghost in You (A Reckless Book) by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips is Available for Pre-Order!

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The next Reckless book, from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips will be titled The Ghost in You.  That’s the cover above and here’s the synopsis…

Bestselling crime noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips bring us yet another original graphic novel starring troublemaker-for-hire Ethan Reckless.

Except this time it’s the winter of 1989 and Ethan is out of town, so Anna must tackle this job on her own. When a movie scream queen asks her to prove the mansion she’s renovating isn’t haunted, Anna will stumble into the decades-long mystery of one of Hollywood’s most-infamous murder houses… a place with many dark secrets, some of which might just kill her.

Another hit from the award-winning creators of RECKLESS, PULP, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, CRIMINAL, and KILL OR BE KILLED — and a must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips fans!

I’m a fan of everything from Brubaker and Phillips and can’t wait to get my mitts on The Ghost in You.