Criminal 10th Anniversary Special #1

I feel like the writer just wanted to make something "deep", but in their pursuit of depth they created a shallow story, with uninteresting characters and a brief sex scene which just feels completely gratuitous and out-of-place.The art is good and easily understandable. But aside from this and some good writing, it's difficult to really praise anything about Criminal. The comic doesn't seem to say anything, or speak in any volumes about anything. It's just "here are some characters, this is what they do." Even more difficult than to specifically say anything good or bad about it, is to just say something about it. It's hard to say things about a comic that doesn't say anything, and Criminal is so flat and lifeless it feels like a day at Keira Knightley's acting academy. 1/5 stars. Read Full Review

KittyNone

Sep 18, 2024

Woof, that one (one??) critic review of this comic has to be one of the worst misses I've ever seen on this site. This is a tenderly observed story of brutality, slice-of-life by way of Scorsese, and it's one of the highlights of Criminal

BrightestDaycare.com

Apr 29, 2016

Brubaker and Phillips start their longstanding criminal noir relationship out on a high note in Criminal, enough so that they have made, what, FOUR more noir series together? with Kill or be Killed making their newest outing coming soon? this first issue is great art, and tight writing, with some really beautiful, vintage comic book art used as a means to transition scenes in the story. things start off really dark, and just keep that darkness about them throughout. this is not a story for kids, even though it is about a kid and his dad on a road trip. but not ANY road trip, they're hunting down a criminal who would implicate the young man's father in crimes he and his boss have committed. we learn a lot about him and his father, and see th em doing all sorts of criminal activity. we see that the boy watches and learns a lot from his father, but that he is still not ready to dive headlong into the criminal world his father inhabits. it seems like things are very lonely for his father, and that he does all sorts of terrible, unspeakable things to achieve his endgame. but what does that leave him? probably just another road trip to do more of the same, or defending himself against someone else who wants to put his body in a trunk and dump it in a lake... the kung-fu werewolf comic is really funny and weird, it definitely feels accurate for how the kid describes it "a kids comic pretending to be for grown ups". this book is decidedly adult- only for grown-ups not kids, at all. it is dark, and creepy, and violent and showcases the underbelly of society in a really engaging and unique way. the end of the issue is really a heart wrenching turn, and one i didn't expect. i love this story, and even though I've never read a criminal book before (i started reading brubaker and phillips' work with Fatale) and can't wait to read more of this and to continue on with Kill or be Killed. these two have a great chemistry, and it is obvious. this is a great book, and more

Gizmo

Apr 26, 2016

Not sure why there aren't more reviews for this, Ben Seeka missed the mark big time, I wonder if he even realizes that there is more history to these characters. This is a boyhood story about Tracy trying to subsist under his father's criminally poor parenting; Tracy discovers escapism for the first time in the form of a comic book magazine and it leads him down a path to the childhood he never knew he was missing. The story is well executed by Sean Phillips who thrives with sequential story telling in a way that is easy to under-appreciate. Definitely read this in the Magazine format if you can, the art is larger and makes good use of the format with the pages depicting the comic within the comic. Check this out if you like Criminal or noi r stories, or if you are smarter than Ben Seeka of Comic Crusaders and enjoy subtext ;) more