sm readily offered by the gangsters, gumshoes, molls, sirens, and fem fatales churned out by the likes of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Mickey Spillane. Raising out of the gutters of the urban underground was a life of booze, broads, and bullets – an altogether alternate perspective on the ‘American Dream’ that for some was just as alluring and perhaps just as morally acceptable as Rockefeller or Carnegie’s assention to fame and fortune. The big threat to the pulps coincided with Joseph McCarthy’s mission to rid the nation of Communist subversion in the early 1950’s. The Motion Picture Production Association (MPPA) and the Association of Comic Magazine Publishers (ACMP) were established at this time to “self censor” films, comics, and pulps. Thusly, the conservative 1950’s saw an exhaustive and well organized campaign (fought both practically and ideologically) by cultural elitists to banish pulp and noir entertainment to trash bins and bon fires. By time the 1960’s rolled around to challenge this thinking, the counter-culture movement had us looking toward the future rather than our seamy past and dark underbelly. Today, pulps seem to be making a resurgence. Since 2006 Harper Collins has been releasing reprints of classic pulp novels in its “Hard Case Crime” series that also offer the original cover artwork. However, if you’re looking for the most contemporary and most widely read pulp authors, you need to turn to comics. Brian Michael Bendis (Torso, Jinx), Frank Miller (Batman, Sin City) and Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) are all notable noir authors working in comics who deserve recognition; however no one has been garnering more attention recently than Ed Brubaker.
Brubaker has worked with most all of the major comic publishing houses, having written for Batman, Daredevil, Captain American, Catwoman, and X-Men. However, his two most recent titles have demonstrated that Brubaker is at the top of his game as a crime fiction author. The Eisner Award winning “Criminal” and limited series “Incognito” are must reads for any fan of the genre. “Criminal” is pure crime fiction, incredibly well conceptualized with wonderfully conceived twists and turns throughout the stories (not to mention Sean Phillips’ remarkable artwork). “Incognito” is a limited series (reminiscent of an earlier series called “Sleeper”) in which superheroes exist in a similar noir-ish and morally confounding world.
Most recently I encou
ntered an altogether new Ed Brubaker project online. “Angel of Death” is a 10 episode film written by Brubaker and directed by Paul Etheridge. The film stars Zoe Bell and has a notable cameo from Lucy Lawless (I’m not kidding). Bell is most famous for playing Uma’s stunt-double in “Kill Bill” and Tarantino’s hood-clinging heroine in “Death Proof.” “Angel of Death” is in no way Brubaker’s best work. In fact, at times it feels like a cheap rip-off of Kill Bill, however Brubaker’s distinctive ability to turn the direction of a story on the audience is very apparent, as are some of the over-the-top plot devices. Most notable in this story is his use of fem fatales ... Damn near perfect.
ntered an altogether new Ed Brubaker project online. “Angel of Death” is a 10 episode film written by Brubaker and directed by Paul Etheridge. The film stars Zoe Bell and has a notable cameo from Lucy Lawless (I’m not kidding). Bell is most famous for playing Uma’s stunt-double in “Kill Bill” and Tarantino’s hood-clinging heroine in “Death Proof.” “Angel of Death” is in no way Brubaker’s best work. In fact, at times it feels like a cheap rip-off of Kill Bill, however Brubaker’s distinctive ability to turn the direction of a story on the audience is very apparent, as are some of the over-the-top plot devices. Most notable in this story is his use of fem fatales ... Damn near perfect.You can check out "Angel of Death" at www.crackle.com
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