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Criminal #8
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies
The first original graphic novel from the bestselling creators of CRIMINAL, KILL OR BE KILLED, THE FADE OUT and FATALE.
Teenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts, those tragic artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be... she'll find another more dangerous romance, and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand.
MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a seductive coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness — and what she finds there. This gorgeous, must-have hardback is the first original graphic novel from ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the bestselling creators of CRIMINAL, KILL OR BE KILLED, THE FADE OUT, FATALE, and INCOGNITO.
Teenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts, those tragic artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be... she'll find another more dangerous romance, and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand.
MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a seductive coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness — and what she finds there. This gorgeous, must-have hardback is the first original graphic novel from ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the bestselling creators of CRIMINAL, KILL OR BE KILLED, THE FADE OUT, FATALE, and INCOGNITO.
72 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2018
30 people are currently reading
1687 people want to read
About the author
Ed Brubaker
1,796 books3,009 followersEd Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.
Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.
In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.
Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.
In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.
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October 8, 2024
Not my favorite, but I still enjoyed it.
This is a continuation of the story (press the fast-forward button quite a few years) of the first volume, Coward.
I don't think this would work well as a stand-alone because it's an off-putting subject seeing a teenage girl romanticize junkies. So I would recommend going back and reading all of the books in the original Criminal series.
Even so, the subject matter might be jarring depending on your experience with addicts and addiction.
Idolizing junkies stems from the memories of her mother, who loved her and eventually got cleaned up - then got herself killed. So, all she had were these little girl remembrances of this affectionate, if fucked up, cool mom who died too soon.
She wasn't old enough, and her mother hadn't fallen down hard enough, for her to have lived with the actual long-term trauma of growing up with an addict. So what memories she has are dreamy, and she uses the music made by addicts to further her glorified view of addiction.
Or at least, that's how I saw it.
The skinny gist is that"Ellie" is put into rehab and doesn't really want to be there. She connects with another young man in her group sessions and forms a relationship with him that leads to both of them getting high and going on the run.
It ends badly.
Because of course it does.
But it doesn't end badly for the reasons you might think.
I thought it was good, but your personal mileage will vary.
Recommended. Ish.
This is a continuation of the story (press the fast-forward button quite a few years) of the first volume, Coward.
I don't think this would work well as a stand-alone because it's an off-putting subject seeing a teenage girl romanticize junkies. So I would recommend going back and reading all of the books in the original Criminal series.
Even so, the subject matter might be jarring depending on your experience with addicts and addiction.
Idolizing junkies stems from the memories of her mother, who loved her and eventually got cleaned up - then got herself killed. So, all she had were these little girl remembrances of this affectionate, if fucked up, cool mom who died too soon.
She wasn't old enough, and her mother hadn't fallen down hard enough, for her to have lived with the actual long-term trauma of growing up with an addict. So what memories she has are dreamy, and she uses the music made by addicts to further her glorified view of addiction.
Or at least, that's how I saw it.
The skinny gist is that"Ellie" is put into rehab and doesn't really want to be there. She connects with another young man in her group sessions and forms a relationship with him that leads to both of them getting high and going on the run.
It ends badly.
Because of course it does.
But it doesn't end badly for the reasons you might think.
I thought it was good, but your personal mileage will vary.
Recommended. Ish.
October 5, 2018
Two junkies in rehab fall in love and get back into the habit. But one of them isn’t who they say they are…
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, a “novella”, is the first book in Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal series, and their first collaboration in a long time, that I didn’t think much of. The story is a bit too one-note and unexciting: two young junkies sneaking around rehab while the girl recounts the artists she idolises who had drug problems like Billie Holiday, Gram Parsons and Van Gogh. The twist ending was very meh.
Sean Phillips’ art is fine as usual, though a couple panels looked weird as he drew the girl’s head bigger than her body(!), and I liked that Dr. Patti looked like Patti Smith, tying into the musicians theme. Jacob Phillips’ colours was the one aspect of the book that really stood out for me. They’re messy, vivid, pretty, kinda impressionistic and trippy, merging into one another, all of which reflects the druggy story – very cool.
A disappointingly dull addition to the series, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies isn’t badly written but it’s also not very interesting to read either.
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, a “novella”, is the first book in Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal series, and their first collaboration in a long time, that I didn’t think much of. The story is a bit too one-note and unexciting: two young junkies sneaking around rehab while the girl recounts the artists she idolises who had drug problems like Billie Holiday, Gram Parsons and Van Gogh. The twist ending was very meh.
Sean Phillips’ art is fine as usual, though a couple panels looked weird as he drew the girl’s head bigger than her body(!), and I liked that Dr. Patti looked like Patti Smith, tying into the musicians theme. Jacob Phillips’ colours was the one aspect of the book that really stood out for me. They’re messy, vivid, pretty, kinda impressionistic and trippy, merging into one another, all of which reflects the druggy story – very cool.
A disappointingly dull addition to the series, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies isn’t badly written but it’s also not very interesting to read either.
October 22, 2018
“I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning”—Stevie Smith
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies (Jeopardy: Related titles for 100? Cowboys are my Weakness, by Pam Houston; Cowboy Junkies) is yet another Brubaker-Phillips collaborative exploration into the Criminal universe, with thematic links to the Kill or Be Killed series, which is to say there are some direct links to Criminal, and what I think are thematic links to Kill. It’s a kind of set up for the continuation of the series, so this exists as a kind of introduction to a character for the monthly series launching in January 2019.
So rather than just create another Criminal run, Brubaker is stretching out. Maybe it’s partly rooted in parenting; maybe it’s rooted in Brubaker’s own somewhat troubled past? I’ll try to explain a bit later. For the tenth anniversary of the (initial) conclusion to Criminal, the team created a multi-layered story about what it might have been like to have been a kid growing up in a criminal world.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Set in the world of Tracy Lawless and Teeg, the focus here is on twelve year old Tracy accompanying his (criminal) Dad on one of his jobs. It’s sad and nostalgic, worrying how it is a kid becomes who he becomes. Violence begets violence, saith Brubaker. Part of the nostalgia I mention comes in the form of horror comics the kid is reading as he is on the road (to Perdition, pun intended, as this is a father-young son crime team).
Then in Kill or Be Killed we have this relatable loser guy, Dylan, (a stand-in for us, who don’t know anything about guns, who may not initially have deep and dark secrets), who (secretly) and hopelessly loves his roommate’s beautiful girlfriend. In Junkies that character is teenaged Skip, who meets three-years-older and hot Ellie in an upscale drug rehab facility. He’s doomed, if we know anything about Brubaker. Skip’s trying earnestly to kick the habit, and here this gorgeous girl walks in, and she is not having this say-no-to-drugs approach to life. There’s a whiff of (Femme) Fatale here, too, as you can see the destruction coming.
Ellie is twenty-one going on thirty five. We see her at the opening looking out to the sea and quoting Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving Bur Drowning.” In the poem, a man is drowning but the people on the shore think he is just waving to them. Ellie is drowning, too, her junkie mother dead ten years earlier yet never entirely gone, of course; but we think she is just this pretty upper-class articulate blond girl. This is an example of what always happens in Brubaker: We see something, but we are not seeing what we think we are seeing.
We come back to this potentially suicidal image again at the end of the story, after we learn of her obsession with junkie art and music, you name them: William Burroughs to David Bowie and so on, tragic artistic souls. On the edge of death, these great artists who love them some murderously mind-altering drugs. Ellie doesn’t believe drugs are bad, and talks (scarily and) persuasively about all the cool stuff you can accomplish in a short life if you are addicted to drugs. She’s drowning, but Skip sees her waving to him, and she is going to take him down with her. They skip out of rehab and on the road we see Ellie is not just this cool girl but one who has some dangerous connections to characters in Criminal.
So what is different about Junkie? It’s the longest form Brubaker-Phillips has tried in this world. All they did before was serialized comics. This is a novella. And it is essentially YA, a coming-of-age story featuring a precocious hipper than hip girl who grew up among upper middle class junkies. Stretched out in the longer form, there’s a kind of casualness and chill aspect to the story. It takes it’s time and not much happens for a long time, which makes us restless as Brubaker readers. There aren’t layers and layers of evil per page, as in Criminal or Fatale, but it is still Calvinistically grounded in sin, trust me. You are on that Eve of Destruction, whether you listen to Bowie or not, girl. Yeah, the story seems flatter and simpler than most Brubaker stories, so that initially seems disappointing, but read it again, as I did, and see it as the first of several stories we will read with Ellie as a character, and relax. Things will only get worse, in Brubaker’s noir tradition.
As in the special Criminal edition focused on Teeg and Tracy, this is a young person’s story of how young people become Criminals. And then there is the fact that Brubaker’s own mother was an addict, and he himself grew up thinking he would be an addict, romanticizing artist addicts as Ellie did.
Another difference in their approach is the dramatic switch (I don’t know why) to a new colorist, Jacob Phillips, replacing the awesome Elizabeth Breitweiser, with all these misdirection bright pastels making you initially think this is just a kinda typical growing up story (kinda like Matt Wilson, colorist for Paper Girls). This is coloration as ironic contribution to the story, so cool!
This is the continuation of a great story. The last image of Ellie at the seaside, looking out, thinking of her mom. At a glance I see most of my respected Goodreads fans of Brubaker think this is crap. I disagree. I say quietly stunning.
You can look at 9 pages of Junkie here:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/08/...
An interview with Brubaker October 16, 2018:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...
“Not Waving but Drowning,” by Stevie Smith:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...
And not waving but drowning”—Stevie Smith
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies (Jeopardy: Related titles for 100? Cowboys are my Weakness, by Pam Houston; Cowboy Junkies) is yet another Brubaker-Phillips collaborative exploration into the Criminal universe, with thematic links to the Kill or Be Killed series, which is to say there are some direct links to Criminal, and what I think are thematic links to Kill. It’s a kind of set up for the continuation of the series, so this exists as a kind of introduction to a character for the monthly series launching in January 2019.
So rather than just create another Criminal run, Brubaker is stretching out. Maybe it’s partly rooted in parenting; maybe it’s rooted in Brubaker’s own somewhat troubled past? I’ll try to explain a bit later. For the tenth anniversary of the (initial) conclusion to Criminal, the team created a multi-layered story about what it might have been like to have been a kid growing up in a criminal world.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Set in the world of Tracy Lawless and Teeg, the focus here is on twelve year old Tracy accompanying his (criminal) Dad on one of his jobs. It’s sad and nostalgic, worrying how it is a kid becomes who he becomes. Violence begets violence, saith Brubaker. Part of the nostalgia I mention comes in the form of horror comics the kid is reading as he is on the road (to Perdition, pun intended, as this is a father-young son crime team).
Then in Kill or Be Killed we have this relatable loser guy, Dylan, (a stand-in for us, who don’t know anything about guns, who may not initially have deep and dark secrets), who (secretly) and hopelessly loves his roommate’s beautiful girlfriend. In Junkies that character is teenaged Skip, who meets three-years-older and hot Ellie in an upscale drug rehab facility. He’s doomed, if we know anything about Brubaker. Skip’s trying earnestly to kick the habit, and here this gorgeous girl walks in, and she is not having this say-no-to-drugs approach to life. There’s a whiff of (Femme) Fatale here, too, as you can see the destruction coming.
Ellie is twenty-one going on thirty five. We see her at the opening looking out to the sea and quoting Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving Bur Drowning.” In the poem, a man is drowning but the people on the shore think he is just waving to them. Ellie is drowning, too, her junkie mother dead ten years earlier yet never entirely gone, of course; but we think she is just this pretty upper-class articulate blond girl. This is an example of what always happens in Brubaker: We see something, but we are not seeing what we think we are seeing.
We come back to this potentially suicidal image again at the end of the story, after we learn of her obsession with junkie art and music, you name them: William Burroughs to David Bowie and so on, tragic artistic souls. On the edge of death, these great artists who love them some murderously mind-altering drugs. Ellie doesn’t believe drugs are bad, and talks (scarily and) persuasively about all the cool stuff you can accomplish in a short life if you are addicted to drugs. She’s drowning, but Skip sees her waving to him, and she is going to take him down with her. They skip out of rehab and on the road we see Ellie is not just this cool girl but one who has some dangerous connections to characters in Criminal.
So what is different about Junkie? It’s the longest form Brubaker-Phillips has tried in this world. All they did before was serialized comics. This is a novella. And it is essentially YA, a coming-of-age story featuring a precocious hipper than hip girl who grew up among upper middle class junkies. Stretched out in the longer form, there’s a kind of casualness and chill aspect to the story. It takes it’s time and not much happens for a long time, which makes us restless as Brubaker readers. There aren’t layers and layers of evil per page, as in Criminal or Fatale, but it is still Calvinistically grounded in sin, trust me. You are on that Eve of Destruction, whether you listen to Bowie or not, girl. Yeah, the story seems flatter and simpler than most Brubaker stories, so that initially seems disappointing, but read it again, as I did, and see it as the first of several stories we will read with Ellie as a character, and relax. Things will only get worse, in Brubaker’s noir tradition.
As in the special Criminal edition focused on Teeg and Tracy, this is a young person’s story of how young people become Criminals. And then there is the fact that Brubaker’s own mother was an addict, and he himself grew up thinking he would be an addict, romanticizing artist addicts as Ellie did.
Another difference in their approach is the dramatic switch (I don’t know why) to a new colorist, Jacob Phillips, replacing the awesome Elizabeth Breitweiser, with all these misdirection bright pastels making you initially think this is just a kinda typical growing up story (kinda like Matt Wilson, colorist for Paper Girls). This is coloration as ironic contribution to the story, so cool!
This is the continuation of a great story. The last image of Ellie at the seaside, looking out, thinking of her mom. At a glance I see most of my respected Goodreads fans of Brubaker think this is crap. I disagree. I say quietly stunning.
You can look at 9 pages of Junkie here:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/08/...
An interview with Brubaker October 16, 2018:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...
“Not Waving but Drowning,” by Stevie Smith:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...
October 20, 2021
"[Skip's] problem is, he's already kind of into me . . . and I'm a bad influence, with no intention of being anything else. And I sure as hell am not planning on getting sober . . . " -- the ominous thoughts of Ellie
Although it is part of the Brubaker / Phillips eight-volume series Criminal (which are all unread by me, although I am a fan of much of their work, recently writing a glowing review for Friend of the Devil), the brief My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies can be read as a standalone, and also in a mere fifteen or twenty minutes. It was a thin and underwhelming story, with our narrator Ellie - whose thoughts are preoccupied by those name musicians (Nina Simone, Gram Parsons, Keith Richards, et al.) who seemed to all produce / perform great work while being addicts - running away from a drug rehab facility with a similarly-aged young man and living off the grid. (Note: I was shocked when it was mentioned that they were both only eighteen years old - not because of their drug issues - because they seem to act a little more worldly, as if they were in their mid- to late-20's.) Anyway . . . just when it seems like the calm narrative is going nowhere in particular there is a unexpected revelation near the ending which provides a good 'gotcha' moment. Still, I think this would have worked much better as a fully fleshed-out graphic novel rather than in its short-story style.
Although it is part of the Brubaker / Phillips eight-volume series Criminal (which are all unread by me, although I am a fan of much of their work, recently writing a glowing review for Friend of the Devil), the brief My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies can be read as a standalone, and also in a mere fifteen or twenty minutes. It was a thin and underwhelming story, with our narrator Ellie - whose thoughts are preoccupied by those name musicians (Nina Simone, Gram Parsons, Keith Richards, et al.) who seemed to all produce / perform great work while being addicts - running away from a drug rehab facility with a similarly-aged young man and living off the grid. (Note: I was shocked when it was mentioned that they were both only eighteen years old - not because of their drug issues - because they seem to act a little more worldly, as if they were in their mid- to late-20's.) Anyway . . . just when it seems like the calm narrative is going nowhere in particular there is a unexpected revelation near the ending which provides a good 'gotcha' moment. Still, I think this would have worked much better as a fully fleshed-out graphic novel rather than in its short-story style.
September 8, 2020
Even if Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips never published another story together they are still going to go down in comic history as one of the great creative partnerships of all time. Fortunately for us all, they keep doing new books, and this short graphic novel is one of their very best.
Elle is an addict at a fancy rehab facility who doesn’t seem all that interested in getting clean as she scoffs at other patients and flaunts the rules. As the title of this indicates she also romanticizes famous drug addicts and seems to have modeled her life on their behavior despite having an upbringing that is one giant cautionary tale.
That’s all I want to say about the plot of this one, and that short summary doesn’t do justice to the genius work that Brubaker & Phillips have done here. It’s just an amazing piece of art that is bigger than any label or genre that some might try to put on a crime comic. Check it out.
Elle is an addict at a fancy rehab facility who doesn’t seem all that interested in getting clean as she scoffs at other patients and flaunts the rules. As the title of this indicates she also romanticizes famous drug addicts and seems to have modeled her life on their behavior despite having an upbringing that is one giant cautionary tale.
That’s all I want to say about the plot of this one, and that short summary doesn’t do justice to the genius work that Brubaker & Phillips have done here. It’s just an amazing piece of art that is bigger than any label or genre that some might try to put on a crime comic. Check it out.
October 5, 2018
Like most everybody who reads comics, I am a fan of the Brubaker/Phillips creative duo. So I am really sad to say that their new comic novella, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, is pretty bad.
The story is about a girl who is placed in a rehab clinic against her will. There she meets a cute guy and everything goes bad very soon afterwards. The main thing of this book is that the girl is a huge fan of drug addicts, mostly musicians. The entire book is accompanied by her narration where she tells the story of her past, and how every person she ever liked used drugs.
The book is very shallow. The characters are thin and unrefined, the story moves surprisingly slow considering how short it is (only 65 or so pages), and it feels like the entire point Brubaker wanted to make here is that drug addiction is cool, which is a very shitty point to make. I am very touchy on the subject of drug use since I have a long and tragic history of drug and alcohol addiction in my family, and this kind of romanticisation of a serious disease makes me question credibility of the writer (and I can't believe I'm saying this about Brubaker). By contrast, I remember a scene in a recent issue of Sex Criminals written by Matt Fraction — a real life addict in recovery — about Van Gogh, whose addiction is also idolised in MHHABJ (click to enlarge the pic):
I'm strongly on Fraction's side here.
Brubaker and Phillips have parted ways with their former regular colourist Elizabeth Breitweiser, presumably because of her support of the bullshit that is comicsgate (can't blame them for that). Jacob Phillips, Sean's son, came to replace her, and his colours look very different. Maybe it was a specific choice for this book, but the colours here look a bit weird — the palette is very minimal, and the colouring looks very stylised an unnatural. It's more a question of taste, but I preferred Breitweiser's colouring, I don't feel like Jacob's colours do Sean's artwork justice. They will keep working together in the future though, so I hope after getting used to each other's style a bit their mutual artwork will become more polished.
Overall, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is plodding, meandering and doesn't have a lot to say, and is the first big disappointment to come from this fantastic creative team. I hope it's just a one-time misstep and not the first sign of their downfall.
The story is about a girl who is placed in a rehab clinic against her will. There she meets a cute guy and everything goes bad very soon afterwards. The main thing of this book is that the girl is a huge fan of drug addicts, mostly musicians. The entire book is accompanied by her narration where she tells the story of her past, and how every person she ever liked used drugs.
The book is very shallow. The characters are thin and unrefined, the story moves surprisingly slow considering how short it is (only 65 or so pages), and it feels like the entire point Brubaker wanted to make here is that drug addiction is cool, which is a very shitty point to make. I am very touchy on the subject of drug use since I have a long and tragic history of drug and alcohol addiction in my family, and this kind of romanticisation of a serious disease makes me question credibility of the writer (and I can't believe I'm saying this about Brubaker). By contrast, I remember a scene in a recent issue of Sex Criminals written by Matt Fraction — a real life addict in recovery — about Van Gogh, whose addiction is also idolised in MHHABJ (click to enlarge the pic):
I'm strongly on Fraction's side here.
Brubaker and Phillips have parted ways with their former regular colourist Elizabeth Breitweiser, presumably because of her support of the bullshit that is comicsgate (can't blame them for that). Jacob Phillips, Sean's son, came to replace her, and his colours look very different. Maybe it was a specific choice for this book, but the colours here look a bit weird — the palette is very minimal, and the colouring looks very stylised an unnatural. It's more a question of taste, but I preferred Breitweiser's colouring, I don't feel like Jacob's colours do Sean's artwork justice. They will keep working together in the future though, so I hope after getting used to each other's style a bit their mutual artwork will become more polished.
Overall, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is plodding, meandering and doesn't have a lot to say, and is the first big disappointment to come from this fantastic creative team. I hope it's just a one-time misstep and not the first sign of their downfall.
October 16, 2018
Like all great noir, this story is devastating. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's return to the Criminal universe is thoughtful and restrained. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is original, nuanced, and right at home with other works from these creators. Familiar themes of drugs, crime (duh), and hopelessness are present, along with new insights into the collateral damage from the Criminal universe.
This book is short—it took me less than 45 minutes to read, and I took it in at a leisurely pace. The art and writing are on point. The story is creative and novel. Overall, this is a must-have.
This book is short—it took me less than 45 minutes to read, and I took it in at a leisurely pace. The art and writing are on point. The story is creative and novel. Overall, this is a must-have.
October 11, 2018
When I picked this up I was pretty excited, so I can't help but feel a bit let down. Thankfully though, this duo still delivers a solid story just not one I hoped for.
This is a story of a woman who's in rehab. Right away she begins to link herself to old musicians and their drug habits. Then she tricks a man into falling in love with her. Sad part is she is actually falling for him as well. By the end you'd think this runaway couple might be together forever but the whole time you know the sinister motive of our main "hero".
Good: The art is once again great. Always is. The story is well balanced, and even with the twist, it works in a lot of ways. The hero of this story might be the villain but there's a lot of gray in this title so it works on a few levels.
Bad: The characters really didn't connect with me. I wanted to like them more. Also, it's short, and so you'll be done in less than 20 minutes and probably forget about most of the story/character beats sadly.
Overall it's a solid, interesting, tale of crime and betrayal. I just didn't think it stuck out more than it COULD have. A 3 out of 5.
This is a story of a woman who's in rehab. Right away she begins to link herself to old musicians and their drug habits. Then she tricks a man into falling in love with her. Sad part is she is actually falling for him as well. By the end you'd think this runaway couple might be together forever but the whole time you know the sinister motive of our main "hero".
Good: The art is once again great. Always is. The story is well balanced, and even with the twist, it works in a lot of ways. The hero of this story might be the villain but there's a lot of gray in this title so it works on a few levels.
Bad: The characters really didn't connect with me. I wanted to like them more. Also, it's short, and so you'll be done in less than 20 minutes and probably forget about most of the story/character beats sadly.
Overall it's a solid, interesting, tale of crime and betrayal. I just didn't think it stuck out more than it COULD have. A 3 out of 5.
November 22, 2020
The latest from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is a short graphic novella about a young woman at a rehab clinic that is fascinated by drug addicts and forms a destructive relationship with another patient. It's a bit forgettable and I'd call it lightweight Brubaker/Phillips. But it does connect heavily to his old Criminal series (and maybe its upcoming reboot?) in ways that I won't spoil. Not this team's best, but read it if you're a big fan like me.
January 31, 2019
Heart rending story, great semi-minimalist line art and colour art that’s undeniably ugly but is the closest visual representation of what the world looks like when you’re on morphine I’ve ever seen.
Don’t do drugs, mmmkay?
Don’t do drugs, mmmkay?
November 30, 2020
3.5 stars
It's very short so there isn't a lot of space for characters to develop but like any Brubaker/Philips collaboration it's still well written and beautifully illustrated with nice dark twist at he end that ties it to the rest of Criminal series.
It's very short so there isn't a lot of space for characters to develop but like any Brubaker/Philips collaboration it's still well written and beautifully illustrated with nice dark twist at he end that ties it to the rest of Criminal series.
October 18, 2018
When it comes to graphic novels, Brubaker and Phillips are the dudes. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is a bit brighter, more colorful than their other work, but there's a grittiness and a darkness swimming under the surface ready to break out at any time. Rehab, drugs, fantasies about the creative folks who achieved success and imagination with drugs, sneaking around, breaking in. Real well written. This is just the start of this series.
Read
October 12, 2019Raios...vou precisar de pensar sobre este antes de escrever o que quer que seja... E muito provavelmente vou ter de ler Criminal...
December 7, 2025
I love all the fun references to artistic drug users... actually its also very sad.
A fantastic continuation and expansion of the Criminal universe, starting to show the generational impact of crime. I really enjoy the color palette here.
A fantastic continuation and expansion of the Criminal universe, starting to show the generational impact of crime. I really enjoy the color palette here.
February 9, 2019
How did crime comics even exist before Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips came along? I know there were some--I was particularly fond of Collins’ and Beatty’s Ms. Tree among others-- but Brubaker and Phillips have been so ridiculously successful in the genre that modern readers can be pardoned for thinking they invented it. Suffice to say that I look forward to everything they do.
We first meet Ellie on the beach. It's a brief scene, but it serves to introduce us to one of our central themes: her obsession with famous drug addicts. The action then shifts to a group therapy session at an upscale rehab clinic where Ellie is seemingly in treatment. We get her thoughts on her fellow patients and begin to get the idea that she's not exactly planning to kick her habit. And it begins to become clear that there are secrets more dangerous than drugs …
This is the usual tautly constructed story we’ve come to expect from Brubaker and Phillips. The characters are engaging and believable. The twists and turns of the story pay off nicely. They make it look so damn easy. Recommended!
We first meet Ellie on the beach. It's a brief scene, but it serves to introduce us to one of our central themes: her obsession with famous drug addicts. The action then shifts to a group therapy session at an upscale rehab clinic where Ellie is seemingly in treatment. We get her thoughts on her fellow patients and begin to get the idea that she's not exactly planning to kick her habit. And it begins to become clear that there are secrets more dangerous than drugs …
This is the usual tautly constructed story we’ve come to expect from Brubaker and Phillips. The characters are engaging and believable. The twists and turns of the story pay off nicely. They make it look so damn easy. Recommended!
December 5, 2019
Desta vez o noir Brubaker/Phillips apresenta-se fabulescamente colorado, contrastando a pureza gráfica com o lodaçal junkie que qualquer narrativa junkie traz agregada, e espelhando esteticamente a superfície ingénua de parte das motivações da narradora - uma angelical drogada que, como a ocupação bem o indica, «sabemos» mas não queremos saber ao que vai.
Aos fãs da dupla não defrauda expectativas: é conciso e não tem decréscimos qualitativos dignos de nota. Àqueles que pretendam ler os portentos noir Brubaker/Phillips será uma jeitosa via de acesso.
Já que o livro alude a música vária que tem a droga como temática, fica aqui um bonito tema luso .
(podia lá resistir a isto!)
Aos fãs da dupla não defrauda expectativas: é conciso e não tem decréscimos qualitativos dignos de nota. Àqueles que pretendam ler os portentos noir Brubaker/Phillips será uma jeitosa via de acesso.
Já que o livro alude a música vária que tem a droga como temática, fica aqui um bonito tema luso .
(podia lá resistir a isto!)
October 11, 2018
So I was going to wait a little before reading this, as in I was gonna read it because this creative team is fantastic but was not in as much of a hurry… then I heard it ties in with Criminal. Had to read it ASAP then.
What’s it about?
There’s a girl named Ellie who is a junkie. She is obsessed with famous people and their drug use. All the people she admires… junkies. Well, she’s being forced to go to rehab and she thinks it’s all bullshit. She thinks that her drug problem isn’t a problem. She’s also really into this one guy she meets at the rehab facility.
Pros:
The story while at first it sounds kinda dumb is surprisingly interesting. Maybe it’s because Brubaker is such a damn good writer that he can pull anything off and make a good comic with just about any storyline. I have a feeling you could ask Brubaker to write a comic about a guy eating some pizza while watching TV or something like that and then Brubaker finds a way to make it interesting. So yeah, he managed to make this book interesting.
The narration is very well written.
The art is strange but good. At first I didn’t care for it which saddened me to an extent because Phillips and Breitweiser are so fucking amazing at art but when I got used to it I thought it was really cool and different than usual so in the end, I dig it. There were also many various styles (including a Van Gogh tribute scene that they were actually able to pull off as awesome as that is).
This book is super suspenseful.
The Criminal tie-in stuff is awesome and I love how it slowly reveals itself. It was especially cool for me because I just binge-read the Criminal series about a month ago.
The ending is great! It is sorta fucked up but good and shocking!
Cons:
The characters aren’t interesting, even after figuring out the connection to Criminal.
There’s almost (I say almost on the off-chance I forgot a scene) no action in this book. This disappointed me because I really was looking forward to gritty, bloody crime action! It wasn’t here. :(
This book… maybe it comes across the wrong way but it almost sounds like it has a pro-drug abuse message. I was just like… “Really? Are you shittin’ me right now?”. The narration, even though it’s well written, talks about how drugs make people feel so good and how various people who did some shit that a lot of people love did this stuff on drugs (example: Bowie or Van Gogh)… I found myself praying for the creative team. Maybe it’s not trying to promote being a druggie but it sure could come across that way (it’s what it sounded like to me) and could be a harmful message to people who may be more likely to try do stuff with drugs. REMEMBER THE MESSAGE YOU GET FROM MOST BRUBAKER AND PHILLIPS BOOKS IS ILLEGAL SHIT = SOMETHING THAT LEADS TO AWFUL THINGS HAPPENING, THINK OF THAT BEFORE YOU GO TRY DRUGS!
Overall:
Despite a shitty message and no action there is still no denying that this is a well written comic with cool art and suspense. I would say that despite being good, this is not a good introduction to Brubaker, Phillips or Criminal.
Basically if you like Criminal and know better than to do dumb shit- read this.
If you aren’t a fan of Criminal and/or would be likely to get yourself involved in dumb shit after reading a book like this- Skip this one, read the main Criminal series if you haven’t.
Just like how a good message can be in a bad book, this comic shows that sometimes a bad message can be in a good book.
4/5
What’s it about?
There’s a girl named Ellie who is a junkie. She is obsessed with famous people and their drug use. All the people she admires… junkies. Well, she’s being forced to go to rehab and she thinks it’s all bullshit. She thinks that her drug problem isn’t a problem. She’s also really into this one guy she meets at the rehab facility.
Pros:
The story while at first it sounds kinda dumb is surprisingly interesting. Maybe it’s because Brubaker is such a damn good writer that he can pull anything off and make a good comic with just about any storyline. I have a feeling you could ask Brubaker to write a comic about a guy eating some pizza while watching TV or something like that and then Brubaker finds a way to make it interesting. So yeah, he managed to make this book interesting.
The narration is very well written.
The art is strange but good. At first I didn’t care for it which saddened me to an extent because Phillips and Breitweiser are so fucking amazing at art but when I got used to it I thought it was really cool and different than usual so in the end, I dig it. There were also many various styles (including a Van Gogh tribute scene that they were actually able to pull off as awesome as that is).
This book is super suspenseful.
The Criminal tie-in stuff is awesome and I love how it slowly reveals itself. It was especially cool for me because I just binge-read the Criminal series about a month ago.
The ending is great! It is sorta fucked up but good and shocking!
Cons:
The characters aren’t interesting, even after figuring out the connection to Criminal.
There’s almost (I say almost on the off-chance I forgot a scene) no action in this book. This disappointed me because I really was looking forward to gritty, bloody crime action! It wasn’t here. :(
This book… maybe it comes across the wrong way but it almost sounds like it has a pro-drug abuse message. I was just like… “Really? Are you shittin’ me right now?”. The narration, even though it’s well written, talks about how drugs make people feel so good and how various people who did some shit that a lot of people love did this stuff on drugs (example: Bowie or Van Gogh)… I found myself praying for the creative team. Maybe it’s not trying to promote being a druggie but it sure could come across that way (it’s what it sounded like to me) and could be a harmful message to people who may be more likely to try do stuff with drugs. REMEMBER THE MESSAGE YOU GET FROM MOST BRUBAKER AND PHILLIPS BOOKS IS ILLEGAL SHIT = SOMETHING THAT LEADS TO AWFUL THINGS HAPPENING, THINK OF THAT BEFORE YOU GO TRY DRUGS!
Overall:
Despite a shitty message and no action there is still no denying that this is a well written comic with cool art and suspense. I would say that despite being good, this is not a good introduction to Brubaker, Phillips or Criminal.
Basically if you like Criminal and know better than to do dumb shit- read this.
If you aren’t a fan of Criminal and/or would be likely to get yourself involved in dumb shit after reading a book like this- Skip this one, read the main Criminal series if you haven’t.
Just like how a good message can be in a bad book, this comic shows that sometimes a bad message can be in a good book.
4/5
December 10, 2019
Like noir? Like comic books? Tired of boring old superhero comics? Try the writing team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Nine out of ten doctors recommend Brubaker/Phillips as an important part of one’s graphic novel literary diet.
High in cynicism but without all the unsettling side effects, Brubaker/Phillips’s comics are riveting, suspenseful, and smart.
From the makers of “Fatale”, “My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies” follows the tragic tale of a girl named Ellie, who is just starting out in rehab. She has an unhealthy fascination with drug addicts stemming from her childhood, watching her mother get high and slowly kill herself with drugs.
When she meets Skip, another lost soul in rehab, things take a weird turn. What Ellie considers romantic, others would consider toxic. But, hey, it’s her life...
“MHHABJ” is carefully formulated to create depressive thoughts about life and to enhance one’s deep disgust and hatred for humanity.
Highly recommended for sufferers of cheeriness and happy thoughts. Do NOT take with food. Take with plenty of alcohol. May cause loneliness, chronic misanthropy, a desire to slit one’s wrists, and a general life-long malaise. In some severe cases, it may cause diarrhea.
High in cynicism but without all the unsettling side effects, Brubaker/Phillips’s comics are riveting, suspenseful, and smart.
From the makers of “Fatale”, “My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies” follows the tragic tale of a girl named Ellie, who is just starting out in rehab. She has an unhealthy fascination with drug addicts stemming from her childhood, watching her mother get high and slowly kill herself with drugs.
When she meets Skip, another lost soul in rehab, things take a weird turn. What Ellie considers romantic, others would consider toxic. But, hey, it’s her life...
“MHHABJ” is carefully formulated to create depressive thoughts about life and to enhance one’s deep disgust and hatred for humanity.
Highly recommended for sufferers of cheeriness and happy thoughts. Do NOT take with food. Take with plenty of alcohol. May cause loneliness, chronic misanthropy, a desire to slit one’s wrists, and a general life-long malaise. In some severe cases, it may cause diarrhea.
November 14, 2018
Rozmejslel sem se mezi 4* nebo 5*, ale jakozto fanousek Criminal sem primhouril oko :).
Kdyz sem videl rozporuplny recenze, tak sem se trochu bal, ale duo Brubaker/Phillips opet nezklamalo. Je to trochu neco jinyho, nejvic mi to pripomnelo posledni Criminal one-shot s Teegem a Tracym.
Ze zacatku sem si pomalu zvykal na jinej coloring (Bettie Breitweiser nahradil Phillips jr.), ale nakonec musim uznat, ze k tomuhle pribehu sednul pekne.
Pribehove tomu nemam co vytknout, zvrat sem necekal a ocenil sem nejdriv jemny naznaky na svet Criminalu a ve finale ty vetsi spojitosti.
Pro fanousky Criminal povinnost, pro ostatni bude polovicni zazitek.
Kdyz sem videl rozporuplny recenze, tak sem se trochu bal, ale duo Brubaker/Phillips opet nezklamalo. Je to trochu neco jinyho, nejvic mi to pripomnelo posledni Criminal one-shot s Teegem a Tracym.
Ze zacatku sem si pomalu zvykal na jinej coloring (Bettie Breitweiser nahradil Phillips jr.), ale nakonec musim uznat, ze k tomuhle pribehu sednul pekne.
Pribehove tomu nemam co vytknout, zvrat sem necekal a ocenil sem nejdriv jemny naznaky na svet Criminalu a ve finale ty vetsi spojitosti.
Pro fanousky Criminal povinnost, pro ostatni bude polovicni zazitek.
February 22, 2020
Read Feb 19. 2020
Wow. This was not at all what I expected! What a surprise! But damn was it good. I of course noticed that this had won the Will Eisner award, & that’s actually what caused me to pick this one up, and I saw the glowing review blurbs on the back but I still wasn’t expecting this to be so good.
I think I expected some commentary on drug addiction and sobriety, possibly even going into the psychology behind it all, but it really was the polar opposite of that. If anything, it almost made a case FOR drug use. It definitely takes the stance that society’s view and treatment of addicts is skewed in a potentially unnecessarily negative way and suggests that perhaps the general view of addiction/drug use may be an unfair, one sided, closed minded view. But that’s not even what this is all about, at least not entirely-it’s just one small part. It’s more of a hodgepodge mixture of a bunch of fucked up stuff, a questioning of societal norm, throw in a dash of existential crises, a little forbidden romance, a little criminal activity, a sprinkle of music history and top it all off with a twist and some prison politics and you get this gut punch of a story.
It was really great, that’s all I have to say. A shining glittering bold work. And what’s great is it didn’t take pages and pages to do this, it was simple and to the point but it’s still full of heart and emotion. It was interesting, unique, it makes you think, and it makes your heart ache too. Full of humanity and reality and the nitty gritty. If you’re a fan of the self contained slice of life graphic novel, this is a MUST READ.
Me likey. Me likey a lot. A+++. And I will be rooting out Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s other works and reading anything else they come out with, together or alone. Very VERY glad I stumbled on this one!!
Wow. This was not at all what I expected! What a surprise! But damn was it good. I of course noticed that this had won the Will Eisner award, & that’s actually what caused me to pick this one up, and I saw the glowing review blurbs on the back but I still wasn’t expecting this to be so good.
I think I expected some commentary on drug addiction and sobriety, possibly even going into the psychology behind it all, but it really was the polar opposite of that. If anything, it almost made a case FOR drug use. It definitely takes the stance that society’s view and treatment of addicts is skewed in a potentially unnecessarily negative way and suggests that perhaps the general view of addiction/drug use may be an unfair, one sided, closed minded view. But that’s not even what this is all about, at least not entirely-it’s just one small part. It’s more of a hodgepodge mixture of a bunch of fucked up stuff, a questioning of societal norm, throw in a dash of existential crises, a little forbidden romance, a little criminal activity, a sprinkle of music history and top it all off with a twist and some prison politics and you get this gut punch of a story.
It was really great, that’s all I have to say. A shining glittering bold work. And what’s great is it didn’t take pages and pages to do this, it was simple and to the point but it’s still full of heart and emotion. It was interesting, unique, it makes you think, and it makes your heart ache too. Full of humanity and reality and the nitty gritty. If you’re a fan of the self contained slice of life graphic novel, this is a MUST READ.
Me likey. Me likey a lot. A+++. And I will be rooting out Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s other works and reading anything else they come out with, together or alone. Very VERY glad I stumbled on this one!!
March 9, 2020
A minha opinião em vídeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDwWJ...
February 9, 2019
Brubaker makes a pretty standard crime story a little more interesting by having the lead character be a young woman who processes her messed up childhood as the daughter of a drug addict by idolizing musicians and singers who seemed to find greater creativity through their drug experimentation and addictions.
March 10, 2019
Book blurb: A coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness — and what she finds there.
Ellie's an older teen whose junkie mother died, and ever since then she's been fascinated by the lives of artistic drug addicts. She knows them all. She knows their music, their words, their drug of choice, and when and how they died. Unsurprisingly she ends up in rehab - a very upscale one - and she's cynical and not into the whole thing, though she does fancy this cute guy. Things spiral from there.
This graphic novella is an interesting experiment. I really liked the art, and the coloring is strange, and surreal, and perfect for this tale. I learned much about the pop and drug culture that I did not know, and I would have loved a playlist to listen to as I was reading. If there's a Spotify playlist please do let me know. I liked this one, though did feel the lack of character development due to it's length. Maybe it was the perfect length though, as much longer and I'd have found it too much. This did feel like reading a film script - and it would make a good movie - but it all seemed rather ordinary, until that ending. Wowza!
Ellie's an older teen whose junkie mother died, and ever since then she's been fascinated by the lives of artistic drug addicts. She knows them all. She knows their music, their words, their drug of choice, and when and how they died. Unsurprisingly she ends up in rehab - a very upscale one - and she's cynical and not into the whole thing, though she does fancy this cute guy. Things spiral from there.
This graphic novella is an interesting experiment. I really liked the art, and the coloring is strange, and surreal, and perfect for this tale. I learned much about the pop and drug culture that I did not know, and I would have loved a playlist to listen to as I was reading. If there's a Spotify playlist please do let me know. I liked this one, though did feel the lack of character development due to it's length. Maybe it was the perfect length though, as much longer and I'd have found it too much. This did feel like reading a film script - and it would make a good movie - but it all seemed rather ordinary, until that ending. Wowza!
January 28, 2021
An unrepentant junkie in rehab ruminates on the benefits of addiction and the artistic achievements of drug abusers. Until late in the book when we finally learn that she does in fact have an agenda.
Despite being an explicit addition to the Brubaker/Phillips Criminal universe, it reads more like a memoir than a noir. The pink/yellow/pale blue color scheme recalls the golden age of hippie stoner culture more than it does the book's shadowy, pessimistic crime genre parentage. For me this was bemusing and disappointing...
...until the terrible, tragic, Criminal -relevant ending, which yanked this volume back from the brink of letdown.
Note: Revisit Coward before reading My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies .
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SECOND READ:
Knowing what I know about who she is and why she's there, everything she says and does has a completely different meaning from the apparent surface meaning. This book begs to be read twice, the second time through is much more compelling than the first.
Despite being an explicit addition to the Brubaker/Phillips Criminal universe, it reads more like a memoir than a noir. The pink/yellow/pale blue color scheme recalls the golden age of hippie stoner culture more than it does the book's shadowy, pessimistic crime genre parentage. For me this was bemusing and disappointing...
...until the terrible, tragic, Criminal -relevant ending, which yanked this volume back from the brink of letdown.
Note: Revisit Coward before reading My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies .
---------------------
SECOND READ:
Knowing what I know about who she is and why she's there, everything she says and does has a completely different meaning from the apparent surface meaning. This book begs to be read twice, the second time through is much more compelling than the first.
July 20, 2019
Çizgi romana gerçekten bayıldım. Bir çizgi romandan istediğim her şey içinde var: iyi çizim, mükemmel boyama, romantizm, ters köşe yapan hikaye...
Ellie ve Skip rehabilitasyon merkezinde uyuşturucu tedavisi gören iki genç. Skip babasının yapacaklarından korktuğu için uyuşturucuyu bırakmak istiyor ancak Ellie'nin ayık kalmak gibi bir isteği yok ve zaten olduğunu söylediği kişi de değil. Ellie Skip'i ikna edip birlikte kaçmalarını sağlıyor ve bu sırada da kendisini egkileyen her sanatçı, şarkıcıdan bahsediyor. Hepsinin tek ortak noktası: uyuşturu. Ve daha sonra bir sürü şeyler oluyor tabii. Ben sonunda ne olacağını yaklaşık 20-25 sayfa önce tahmin etmiştim ama bu kitabı sevmemi engellemedi kesinlikle.
Bu sanırım bir serinin ilk kitabıymış ama herhangi bir yerde bunun hakkında bir bilgi görmedim. Ama Brubaker ve Phillips'in tarzına bayıldım. Mutlaka diğer kitaplarına da bakacağım.
Ellie ve Skip rehabilitasyon merkezinde uyuşturucu tedavisi gören iki genç. Skip babasının yapacaklarından korktuğu için uyuşturucuyu bırakmak istiyor ancak Ellie'nin ayık kalmak gibi bir isteği yok ve zaten olduğunu söylediği kişi de değil. Ellie Skip'i ikna edip birlikte kaçmalarını sağlıyor ve bu sırada da kendisini egkileyen her sanatçı, şarkıcıdan bahsediyor. Hepsinin tek ortak noktası: uyuşturu. Ve daha sonra bir sürü şeyler oluyor tabii. Ben sonunda ne olacağını yaklaşık 20-25 sayfa önce tahmin etmiştim ama bu kitabı sevmemi engellemedi kesinlikle.
Bu sanırım bir serinin ilk kitabıymış ama herhangi bir yerde bunun hakkında bir bilgi görmedim. Ama Brubaker ve Phillips'in tarzına bayıldım. Mutlaka diğer kitaplarına da bakacağım.
May 5, 2024
Always enjoy a dip into Phillips and Brubakers Criminal-verse, and this novella is a good addition to that world.
June 30, 2022
When I picked this one up, I did not realize it was part of a larger series, and that was mostly okay - it can be a standalone kind of "sliver" story. Perhaps the full run gives a bit more context and more depth, which was lacking here.
A rehab facility, a young woman who revels in rebellion and addiction, yet, there's another deeper story that comes up at the end and throws an interesting curveball.
A rehab facility, a young woman who revels in rebellion and addiction, yet, there's another deeper story that comes up at the end and throws an interesting curveball.
September 13, 2024
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is a small hardcover comic from the pairing of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.Who do really good stuff and this is also really good. It's well put together drawn really well except for some faces which I think look off.
Color is a big thing here and it looks really good. Flashbacks are desaturated and play with the shadows really well. When in present day daytime hours it plays with purples, pinks, green, and yellows. During the night it uses the blues, blacks while dulling the other colors. And the color is really cool in the effect it has on the story.
The story itself is simple and effectively told. The main character isn't so likeable but it reminds me of Catcher in the Rye. Because seeing the world, even if its a fictional one, through her perspective touched me in a very intimate and personal way.
I'll remember the last three pages for a long while. And maybe that's enough for me. This isn't their best effort but it's worth reading once.
4 stars.
Color is a big thing here and it looks really good. Flashbacks are desaturated and play with the shadows really well. When in present day daytime hours it plays with purples, pinks, green, and yellows. During the night it uses the blues, blacks while dulling the other colors. And the color is really cool in the effect it has on the story.
The story itself is simple and effectively told. The main character isn't so likeable but it reminds me of Catcher in the Rye. Because seeing the world, even if its a fictional one, through her perspective touched me in a very intimate and personal way.
I'll remember the last three pages for a long while. And maybe that's enough for me. This isn't their best effort but it's worth reading once.
4 stars.
October 14, 2018
3.5* Brubaker and Phillips have created a solid entry into their collection. Its a little more drama than crime noir. A simple love story set around a rehab centre with a twist. The art is perfect, really one of my fave artists doing what they do best. Thr story is a little short and too simple. Definitely dont go into this expecting action or crime like their previous novels.
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