Criminal Volume One
Ed Brubaker (w), Sean Phillips (a)
Image Comics

Liz says: If you’ve ever wondered how Brubaker and Phillips’s names became synonymous with hardboiled crime noir, Criminal is where they first made their stamp on the genre and simultaneously set the gold standard. Now being reprinted in numbered volumes by Image, “Coward” (Vol. 1) is the story of Leo, a career criminal who started as a pickpocket before moving on to heists. Leo lives by a set of rules that generally see him running away each time he is confronted with danger. Is it cowardice or practicality? And when a big heist goes wrong and he has to throw out the rulebook, will he live long enough to see his ill-gotten gains? Each volume of Criminal stands on its own, with the common thread that your protagonists are not the good guys. The characters in this series are drifters, junkies, and thieves driven by greed, lust, and desperation; if you’re looking for heroes and happy endings, read something else. But if you want pathos, character, and a riveting plot, read this.