Original Art: Criminal (Series #3 | Issue #2 | Page #8) by Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker
August 4, 2020
The Preamble
Yesterday afternoon, I happened to come across (what seemed to be) a two-issue “character study crime story” that I simply couldn’t put down. Those are the best stories, the ones that keep you thinking. The ones that make you want to stretch out your arms and say, “I want to explore every single corner of this universe.”
Described by series writer and co-creator Ed Brubaker as “a crime story wrapped around a character study,” Bad Weekend is a stand-alone story that focuses on veteran cartoonist Hal Crane and his desire to reclaim his stolen art. Told through the lens of his one-time assistant, Jacob, the reader is taken through the dark corners and horrors of the comic book industry.
Page 8
One of the things I enjoy doing is looking for the story within the story in each page of sequential art. For instance, take a look at Page #8, the convention floor scene. As one initially breezes through the story, their eye may have missed a detail or two laid out by the artist.
In this case, series artist and co-creator Sean Phillips gave us A LOT of eye candy!
From my perspective, we have an unknown character on the leftmost side of Panel 1. She is followed by Batman, Robin, Poison Ivy, and what looks to be a random Jedi Knight. In Panel 2 we have Anakin Skywalker, while Panel 3 features Mario, Princess Peach…and if we stretch it a bit the overalls of Luigi.
Finally, Panel 4 gives us a glimpse of a cosplayer in Princess Leia’s slave outfit, a character dressed in green and sporting what looks to be a beanie (Hancock?), a couple of Ghostbusters, Ecto-1 (sans the instruments located on its hood), a female superhero dressed in pink and white (Hit-Girl?), and lastly, Hellboy.
But don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself below.
Any idea who our mystery characters may be?
Well, that’s it for now.
About
Tedi Villasor is—among many things—an indie comic book writer (Lindol, OBIsessions) based in the Philippines.
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