Brubaker's first-person narrative is awesome and reminded me of all the old Gold Medal novels I scavenged from secondhand stories while I was growing up. When I wasn't determined to grow up to be a private eye and rescue damsels in distress, I wanted to be an anti-hero and steal from the truly bad guys. The worlds in those stories are extremely small, but everything is critical, balancing on the knife-edge between life and death.

As the story progresses, Leo gets blackmailed by Seymour, a crooked cop. Everyone who's familiar with noir knows this is a bad deal. Leo says no thanks and walks away. Until Greta, the widow of one of Leo's old partners, steps back into the picture and forces him to throw in with Seymour's gang.

I don't want to go much more into the plot because Brubaker provides a rollicking ride with plenty of twists and turns I didn't see coming. His dialogue is great, and the character motivations for everyone involved are multilayered and well portrayed.

I can't say enough good things about Phillips's art, either. The style is loose and flowing, and Phillips uses shadow and darkness like a lethal weapon. He draws (literally) the reader into a grim and gritty world.

So far, there have been two graphic novels released in the Criminal series. I've read them both, the second one, Criminal: Lawless, first, and didn't notice any plot spoilers. There were a couple things, but I got around them okay.

Brubaker keeps his world of criminals and baser emotions tight, though. So far, all the major characters of the series have been in each other's lives for years. In the third graphic novel, it appears Brubaker is going back to the 1970s and revealing even more backstory. I'm looking forward to it.