The Fade Out

British artist Sean Phillips has come a long way since his days drawing strips for DC Thomson's girls' comics in the 1980s. His work with American writer Ed Brubaker on such notable graphic novels as the Criminal and Fatale series have won him plaudits from readers and his fellow creators for his artistic excellence. Tomorrow, Brubaker and Phillips release the first issue of their new crime noir comic series, The Fade Out, published by Image Comics.

As this is essentially a blog about often-overlooked British comics I rarely post about American titles. Besides, they're abundantly covered on other websites. However, occasionally something catches my eye that I think is worth giving more exposure to. Case in point; that fantastic cover above. This is the 'magazine variant' version of The Fade Out No.1, produced to emulate the magazines of the 1940s, and, yes, that faded, creased look is part of the design. Staggeringly good work. I ordered a copy as soon as I saw it.

The regular comic book sized cover looks like this. Again, a great job. Very striking design.

Here's a preview from Sean's blog of one of the story pages...

Looks excellent doesn't it? You can find out more about this new series here:
http://theartofseanphillips.blogspot.co.uk/

And a preview of a few pages from issue 1 here:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=21681

The Fade Out No.1 will be available from comic speciality shops across the UK and USA from tomorrow (August 20th). Regular size: $3.50. Magazine size variant (containing extra features): $5.99