Author: Newsroom
PORTLAND, Ore. 04/12/2024 — The bestselling, contemporary classic comic book series Fatale—by multiple Eisner Award winning duo Ed
Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Criminal, Night Fever, Reckless, Where the Body Was) with colorists Elizabeth Breitweiser (Outcast by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta, The Fade Out) and Eisner Award winning Dave Stewart (The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement, Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives!)—will be collected in its entirety in the upcoming Fatale Compendium. This complete collected paperback will include all 24 issues of the Lovecraftian-infused mystery noir story and be available in July from Image Comics.
The Fatale series first launched from Image in 2012 to instant critical acclaim and was rushed back to print several times in order to keep up with demand and was nominated for numerous Eisner Awards that year. It remains one of the most popular, consistently reordered titles in the Brubaker and Phillips oeuvre.
“Fatale was our first book at Image, and I always wished we had it in a single volume edition, because it really is meant to be read as one big epic story,” said Brubaker. “The puzzle pieces of this horror-noir tale are designed to resonate off each other and make earlier scenes have more impact, so this book is actually my ideal way for our readers to discover Fatale again.”
Fatale darkly blends American crime noir with unnamed Lovecraftian horrors. Readers jump from 1950s San Francisco—where crooked cops hide deeper evils—to mid-’70s Los Angeles—where burnt-out actors and ex-cult groupies are caught in a web around a Satanic snuff film—then back through the ages of time. At the center of it all is the mysterious Josephine—a curse woman with a hypnotic, supernatural power to die or kill for.
Brubaker and Phillips’ names have been stealing headlines left and right lately with The Hollywood Reporter’s buzzy scoop that Amazon has given a full series order to another of their backlist darlings, Criminal, with Brubaker co-showrunning and writing the pilot. The pair also has an upcoming graphic novel, Houses of the Unholy, set to his shelves this August.
Fatale Compendium paperback (ISBN: 9781534327658) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, July 17 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Indigo on Tuesday, July 30.
Fatale remains available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
Select praise for Fatale:
“Fatale gets my vote for the next graphic novel that should arrive on quality cable. It’s a full-bodied blend of noir and Lovecraftian horror about the seductive beauty Josephine who won’t stay dead and the monsters determined to kill her. Oh, and she has the power to make men do whatever she wants. It usually doesn’t involve taking out the trash. Perfect reading at dusk, as the bats dip and dart in the eaves.” —The New York Times
“In Brubaker and Phillips’ hands, Jo shows the seams, the paste and spit and wires lurking behind the femme fatale’s glorious façade.” —Megan Abbott, nationally bestselling author of You Will Know Me, The Turnout, Dare Me
“Brubaker doesn’t write a word more than necessary, and Phillips’ scenery has all the right angles, evoking a film-noir feel without slavish imitation. If the words ‘last call’ make you think of ‘The Call of Cthulu,’ this is your kind of hard-boiled tale.” —Booklist
“Graced with a suspenseful plot that has more twists and turns than an alpine road, and deliberately understated artwork, Fatale boasts both intrigue and an atmosphere that feels as densely bleak as a San Francisco mist at the tip of Fisherman’s Wharf at dawn. Colorist Dave Stewart deserves special mention for his subtle, highly evocative use of neutral tones and earthy shades. This is a universe of darkness and gray shadows, and the palette perfectly fits the angst-ridden, desolate, catch-22 world of supernatural horror the protagonists must face-off against. Immortality may be a double-edged sword, but it’s one the intoxicating Jo wields with a boundless grace in this addictive page-turner.” —Publishers Weekly
“This isn’t just another noir series; Fatale takes everything the duo has learned about producing classic noir crime stories and mixes it with horror and magic.” —IGN
Select praise for Brubaker & Phillips:
“Brubaker and Phillips’s books have always been about eight years ahead of their time.” —Brian K. Vaughan, SAGA, Paper Girls
“Brubaker & Phillips continue to make sweet music together, broadcast to you in the form of the best comics around.” —Robert Kirkman, Invincible, The Walking Dead
“Ed and Sean are that rare, long term collaboration that never becomes complacent, each project is a new revelation, the love visibly increased, the enthusiasm for the craft only growing over time. You don’t have to consider the purchase, you make it on instinct at this point.” —Rick Remender, Deadly Class, Black Science
“Like Scorsese and De Niro, Brubaker and Phillips are the unmatched masters of a certain kind of storytelling—those fables of doomed and deluded men who are ready to die bloody, defending the tatters of their soiled American dreams. A new title from the sharpshooters behind Criminal and Fatale is reason enough to go on living.” —Joe Hill, Locke & Key, Horns, NOS4A2
“Brubaker and Phillips have achieved the sort of creative consistency that’d justify critics filing their INSTANT CLASSIC reviews before they even read whatever they put out next.” —Kieron Gillen, The Wicked + The Divine, Die
“I’ve been reading Ed Brubaker comics since the first appearance of Ed Brubaker comics and every single time he announces a new title I mutter to myself: ‘ugh! I wish I would’ve thought of that!'” —Brian Michael Bendis, Powers
“I’m a pretty easy mark for any Brubaker-Philips creation…” —Jonathan Hickman, East of West, House of X
“Two of the best in the business, no contest.” —Kelly Sue DeConnick, Captain Marvel, B*tch Planet