Wednesday 20 February 2013

So I Read Criminal: Bad Night


A 250 word (or less) review of the fourth Criminal collection
By Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Icon Comics



I remember reading a book introduction written by Ed Brubaker where he discussed the downward spiral of the protagonist as a formative element of good Crime/Noir fiction. You know, that particular way in which the "hero" of Noir stories are often undercut by events and then pummeled and dragged through the mud before being buried in their hubris, poor judgement, or just plain shitty luck? Well, Criminal: Bad Night has always exemplified this genre trope for me. In Bad Night Jacob Kurtz, a former counterfeiter turned legitimate newspaper cartoonist, is accidentally dragged back into his life of crime. While trying to walk off his insomnia at a local diner Kurtz accidentally gets caught in a domestic dispute between a thug and his ravishing lady friend. Kurtz tries to give the drunken damsel in distress a ride home and... events spiral out of control. Criminal bad night is another excellent book from Brubaker and Phillips which drags you into their booze and blood and sex filled world of violent criminals. The art is incredible, the writing superb, and the world created endlessly fascinating. I love these books, and I suspect you will too.

Word count: 192


Previously:
So I Read Criminal: Coward
So I Read Criminal: Lawless
So I Read Criminal: The Dead and The Dying
So I Read Fatale: Death Chases Me

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