Criminal: The Knives

Did you hear?  “Criminal” is going to be a streaming series debuting on Amazon Prime later this year.

That right there makes it easy to be a little cynical about this volume.  What better reason for “The Knives” to exist than to synergize with the upcoming show.  Particularly after the previous “Criminal” story, “Cruel Summer,” brought the entire saga full circle and turned it into a closed loop – give or take a “Last of the Innocent.”  Still, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips have never been about easy commercialism in the comics they make.  Even when they were making comics about superheroes.  So when they said their next graphic novel was going to be a “Criminal” one, I was still planning on picking it up as soon as I could.

Which turned out to be the right decision as this is another quality installment in this series and a clear notch above Brubaker and Phillips’ previous efforts together.  It starts by drawing on the writer’s experience in the Hollywood Machine as Jacob Kurtz – now better after the mental breakdown he had – gets flown out to Tinseltown to consult on the TV show adaptation of his “Frank Kafka, P.I.” comic strip.  What happens to him, and the series is as predictable as you’d expect, but it still works because it all feels so believable.  Jacob’s desire to belong.  The hotel he stays at with a bunch of hopefuls and has-beens.  The one girl he falls in with.  The blanding out of “Frank Kafka.”  It all hums along quite credibly and doesn’t wear out its welcome.

That’s because the story of “The Knives” only begins a decade ago in Hollywood.  It jumps around in time a bit as we catch up with Jacob in a time closer to the present day and we get to see some more familiar faces from the series.  There’s Angie, the girl who used to help Gnarly tend bar at the Undertow who has a new life as a cat burglar and whose path eventually crosses with Jacob’s.  Tracy Lawless also shows up again in a supporting role that has him finally realizing things about his nature after all these years.  These are the big ones, but longtime readers will recognize plenty more even if it’s not necessary that you do.

So if Jacob’s adventures in Hollywood are only the jumping off point for this graphic novel, what’s the real story driving it?  We get a hint of that early on, but “The Knives” isn’t really about pursuing one singular plotline.  It’s all about checking in with these key players, finding out where their lives have taken them since the last time they were seen, and showing us how they deal with the problems that come their way.  You’ll probably guess that the answer to the last one is “With a lot of violence,” and you’d be right.

This may make the narrative sound directionless, but it never really feels that way.  All of the characters have something driving them whenever they’re on the page, so it never feels like Brubaker is just stalling for time.  He’s just setting things up in a methodical fashion with the assurance that they’ll pay off later.  That’s the real advantage to doing this story as one graphic novel as it gives Brubaker and Phillips the time they need to set things up without feeling the need to create a necessary break every 22 pages or so.  You get to luxuriate in the lives of these characters and the story is all the better for doing so.

Does that mean it’s the perfect “Criminal” story?  Nah.  As I mentioned above, the Hollywood stuff is predictable, and anyone who’s read one of these stories will know where Angie’s is going – even if the creators didn’t lampshade it.  For as well as the main cast is drawn, most of the new supporting characters don’t make much of an impression.  That may be by design, but it does feel a little disappointing when the worst villains turn out to be a couple of nameless crackheads.

The art, of course, is as excellent as you’d expect from Phillips.  He’s shown time and time again that he can draw the dark and gritty backstreets, or homes lit only by moonlight that a lot of these stories take place in par excellence and he does it again here.  What’s noteworthy is that it feels like there are more scenes here which take place in broad daylight – including one home shootout – and that helps distinguish things.  Same goes for the recognizable Hollywood settings and crowded L.A. freeways.  You’ve also got memorable little touches to appreciate from Phillips like the moment Jacob looks in the mirror and appears to be as old as he feels, or the new funny animal noir comics he’s drawing, which look pretty entertaining on their own terms.

“The Knives” also ends with the setup, if not a promise, for more “Criminal” stories after this one.  I’d be wary of that if this graphic novel wasn’t as good as it was.  The series felt complete after “Cruel Summer” and Brubaker and Phillips looked to be content drawing “Reckless” (When’re you guys coming back to that?) and other graphic novels in the meantime.  Now, I do want to see where these characters go from here on out and I can do that without worrying about their future adventures messing with what has come before.

Even if that’s what Ricky Lawless is all set to do in the next “Criminal” comic later this year.