Bad Weekend

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY -- The lauded crime comics team ofBrubaker and Phillips (My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies) take a meta approachwith a hard-boiled mystery set at a comics convention. Cartoonist Hal Crane, "acollection of bad habits and worse moods," is traveling to an event clearlybased on the San Diego Comic-Con to receive a lifetime achievement award, andhis former art assistant Jacob, now a detective, is hired to escort him. The twoare quickly embroiled in a mystery involving stolen art, murder, and decades ofindustry feuds. Set in 1997, when the comics speculation boom of the '90s wasgoing bust and comic books were at a sales peak but a creative nadir, theperiod's perfect for a tale rife with creative frustration, seedy backroomdeals, and betrayal. It helps that the creators know the behind-the-scenesworkings of the comic convention inside and out, which lends verisimilitude, asdoes the semifictional comics history they tell, a blend of reality, gossip (didan inker really get work by procuring sex workers for his editors?), and pureimagination. Phillips's art looks heavily photo-referenced, but poses andlayouts that would be stiff in a lesser artist's hands fly by as realistic,while still loose and lively, in his practiced lines. Brubaker proves againthat, as in the words of legendary creator Jack Kirby, "Comics will break yourheart," as he digs under the colorful surface of his setting and touches oninjustices within the industry.