Brubaker And Phillips’ Five Gears In Reverse Hits Shelves

More Criminal Behaviour

Brubaker and Phillips’ latest Criminal graphic novel, Five Gears In Reverse is out now and here’s a preview from it from a little commentary from Ed Brubaker himself…

It’s launch day for FIVE GEARS IN REVERSE, our new CRIMINAL graphic novel, and I couldn’t be more excited for you all to get this one in your hands. I had hoped the CRIMINAL show on Amazon would be out by the time this book hit, but with the big shake-up over there on the TV side, things were in flux for a while. The show was showcased on the upfronts a few weeks ago, and I do have an airdate now (but it’s top secret so I can’t share) but I think in a few months more news and teasers will start appearing. I’m really proud of the final result. It really feels like the comics brought to life, and I’ve been dying waiting for it to get released, finally. But soon.

The process of making the show was at times the worst and other times the best, which I think is probably just how TV goes, mostly. But as part of that process, I got to work with the actors who played Ricky and Mallory, Gus Halper and Emilia Clarke, both of who did amazing work in the show. And in spending time with them, hearing their questions about their characters and their past, I began mulling a Ricky and Mallory book, because I wanted to answer those questions the best way I could, with a story.

FIVE GEARS IN REVERSE is like a strange combination of the early CRIMINAL stories – books like COWARD and LAWLESS – with the introspection and tangents that started taking over the series around book 4, BAD NIGHT. It was actually both fun and heartbreaking to write, so hopefully both those feelings come across when you read it.

Anyway, here’s a random sampling of pages for you, some of my favorites from different places in the book…

As you can see, Sean and Jacob just continue to blow the doors off the art here. I honestly thought this was the best art Sean had maybe ever done until I saw the pages from our next book, that he’s just about to finish drawing.

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You may not be able to tell, but for this book Sean decided to draw the pages the size of comics art from the 50s, which is 200% of printed size. If you have any of those Artist Edition books, the Wally Wood one is the size Sean’s drawing on this book. Truly awe-inspiring.

So when you’re in the shop this week picking up the new CRIMINAL book, please tell your retailer to get a copy of UNFINISHED TALES for you, too. It’s out in November, and I promise that most of it doesn’t take place at a sci-fi convention. No, it’s a very weird book about a couple of writers, somewhere between a thriller and a character study, I think anyone into comics and books will be drawn in by this bizarre tale of failure and success.