Criminal: The Sinners

Ed Brubaker isn't a good writer. He's a great writer. He's the kind of writer you sit and read and are just in awe of. The kind of writer who makes you think you're wasting your time even trying to be in the same profession that he's in. And when he writes Criminal, he's flawless.

I love this series. It actually very well may be my favourite comic series, and I know that if I ever try to tackle the noir genre, this is going to be my first reference.

It's hard to tell if Brubaker is wrapping the series up with this instalment or if it's just another part of the world - a lot of shit goes down here, and if this is how it ends - it's not a bad way to go out. It's full of all the stuff we've come to expect from this series and noir in general, and it outdoes our expectations. If you have a sense of the rules of noir, you know how things are going to go down sooner or later, but what the great noir writers know is that it's the telling of the tale, that makes it all worth while.

I love this book about as much as anyone can love a book. Once I get through my stack I'm going to revisit this series. It's just so goddamn good.