The early works were colored by Val Staples, who did excellent work, followed by legendary Mignola-verse colorist Dave Stewart. It’s also important to call out the colorists who have worked on their creator-owned books especially, as Phillips inks his own line work in most cases, and both creators speak highly of their colorists as collaborators. His characters can be handsome, sexy or hideous as suits the piece, and each seems as real as the last. The grit of the streets feels so real you look at some of his pages and think if you run a finger over them, they’ll come away dirty. 10Īnd while Brubaker has worked with many stellar artists, Phillips completely gets Brubaker’s worldview, and his art suits it perfectly. RELATED: “My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies” and the rest of our top picks for Oct. You usually root for Brubaker’s flawed protagonists because they are fighting people far worse than they are. Worlds crafted by Brubaker very rarely feature black and white: They are worlds of gray, where the hero can be a killer and the villain can be, well, usually a killer, too. They are as comfortable in a big, corporate superhero universe as they are in their own, creator-owned tales.īrubaker’s protagonists are often criminals, but even when they are not, they all share one thing: They are deeply flawed.
Sometimes their stories are set in Hollywood in the days after World War II, sometimes they’re in modern New York City. They move across genres with ease, sometimes telling stories of hard-bitten criminals, sometimes tales of supernatural horror. But their work is so much more than that. And, yes, a lot of their comics would be considered crime stories.
When people talk about Brubaker and Phillips, most would say they write crime comics. Of today’s creators, one pair will likely go down in the same storied history: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Some comic creators’ names are eternally linked. By MATTHEW LAZORWITZ, WMQ Comics senior contributor
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