The lead character lives from a time when there was essentially a lawless hinterland of sparsely populated America, to the bustling mega city of New York and the industrialised and mechanised 20th century society. One of the most arresting aspects of the story is the realisation that the time between that wild west of cowboys and outlaws, and what we now consider the modern day, was incredibly short. Needless to say this development leads to cash concerns for Max, which as we know by now is Brubaker's starting point for a bad plan for a bad crime with bad people with a bad ending. Its a not so subtle nod at the real life developments of the industry on the eve of the second world war. When the escapades of Max's past take a less cowboy turn his editor starts to turn over the title to younger, cheaper, writers who will stick with the formula that made it popular to be begin with. Anyway, Max's comic is a cowboy title called Six Gun Western, and unbeknownst to all - his editor especially - the tales are autobiographical and based on Max's life as a wild west outlaw. but we're on a steady run of people associated with the comic book industry being the most down in the least luck of anyone - I'm pretty sure we've got the message now. Now, granted almost all of the characters in these Brubaker/Phillips stories are down-on-their-luck. This time around the USP is a tale set in the Wild West, although in typical Brubaker/Phillips (Bruillips? Phillbaker?) fashion things aren't all that they initially seem to be.īehind the gorgeous sepia-ish cowboy cover by Phillips lies a story set in New York City 1939, where lead character Max Winters is a down-on-his-luck comic book writer.

Clearly writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips realised they'd found success - both artistically and commercially - with their modern noir series Criminal and whilst that recently relaunched series continues in its rich vein of form, the pair have also cleverly diverged into projects that put a twist on their formula the Lovecraft influenced Fatale, super-heroes with Incognito (and the excellent Sleeper, which pre-dates Criminal), the Hollywood setting of The Fade Out, and the supernatural in Kill Or Be Killed.

Pulp sean phillips