NEW PRINTINGS OF ED BRUBAKER & SEAN PHILLIPS’ CRIMINAL WILL HIT SHELVES AHEAD OF ALL-STAR TV ADAPTATION

The first season of the TV show will cover the first two story arcs of the comic book series, Criminal, Volume One: Coward and Criminal, Volume Two: Lawless

PORTLAND, Ore. 01/15/2025 — The bestselling, fan-favorite Criminal series by multiple award-winning team Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Reckless, Houses of the Unholy, Fatale) will get a glow up this year with trade paperback reprints featuring new cover art and design from Phillips and published by Image Comics.

A television adaptation of this iconic series was in production most of 2024 with Brubaker serving as showrunner, and is coming to Amazon Prime later this year, starring Charlie Hunnam, Luke Evans, and Emilia Clarke. The first season of the TV show will cover the first two story arcs of the comic book series, Criminal, Volume One: Coward and Criminal, Volume Two: Lawless.

“Preparing for the wider world to discover Criminal as a TV series, Sean and I wanted 2025 to be a big celebration of Criminal, and I couldn’t think of a better way to start that off than redesigning the entire series from the ground up, with these amazing new covers that Sean has created. Our next step in the celebration is still a surprise… but expect to see it announced soon, too,” said Ed Brubaker. “Running the Criminal TV show was a life-changing experience, but it also made me appreciate the comics more than I ever had, at the same time, and I can’t wait for new audiences to discover this wide world of crime that Sean and I have spent all these years building.”

In the first installment of the bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning crime noir series, Criminal, Volume 1: Coward, readers meet Leo, a world-class pickpocket who is pressed into helping the cops pull off a heist. But when the job goes terribly wrong, Leo must go into hiding, his dire situation escalates, forcing the thief to put his skills to the test.

Criminal, Volume 2: Lawless is a story of brotherly love and hate, as Tracy Lawless returns home to find out who murdered his kid brother, and how much their family history has doomed them both. This is where Brubaker and Phillips take the world they created in volume one and begin stretching the boundaries of what crime comics can be.

Originally published in 2007, Criminal, Volume 1 and Criminal, Volume 2 are just the beginning of the critically acclaimed comic book series that follows a cast of characters connected through a shared criminal history.

Criminal, Volume 1: Coward trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534370906, Lunar Code 1124IM265) and Criminal, Volume 2: Lawless trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534385078, Lunar Code 1124IM266) will be available at local comic book shops later this month on Wednesday, January 22 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones (not AmberUnmasked affiliate links) on Tuesday, February 4.

Criminal, Volume 3: The Dead and The Dying trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534341869, Lunar Code 1224IM389) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, February 19 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, March 4.

Criminal, Volume 4: Bad Night trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534374003, Lunar Code 0125IM471) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, March 19 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, April 1.

Criminal, Volume 5: The Sinners trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534347281) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, April 23 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, May 6.

Criminal, Volume 6: Last of the Innocent trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534357617) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, May 21 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, June 3.

Criminal, Volume 7: Wrong Place Wrong Time trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534353619) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, June 18 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, July 1.

Criminal, Volume 8: My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies trade paperback new edition (ISBN: 9781534350670) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, July 23 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, August 5.

Criminal is also available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.

Charlie Hunnan photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Luke Evans photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Emilia Clarke photo: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.