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There’s a good side and a bad side to doing consistently good work. There are three things you probably know already about Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ books: they’ll be good, they’ll have crime, and it’s on your pull list / trade order. There’s a consistency to their work that fans have — rightfully — come to expect. The Fade Out #1 shows that there are, again, advantages and disadvantages to this.

The Fade Out is (slightly) different from other Bru / Phillips books thanks to its time period. It’s Hollywood(land) in 1948 — don’t come in expecting the settings of Criminal, or the supernatural flourishes of Fatale (though Bru’s glanced at the period before). This is pretty straight and to-the-point; Brubaker’s writing is at its Raymond Chandler-iest, and the characters wouldn’t feel out of place in a Dashiell Hammett novel. There are little bits that might call Satellite Sam by Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin, another dark period-piece out of Image — less the period, more the tone. Some of the complaints leveled toward Satellite Sam are NOT present in The Fade Out: the pace is quicker, and, well, Howard Chaykin isn’t drawing it.

Of course, this comes back to the advantages / disadvantages portion: if you’re not into Hollywood people and Hollywood seediness, and if you’re not into period-pieces, maybe it’s time to dig into Velvet (Bru’s other current Image book, with Steve Epting), or dig up your Criminal trades.

This also points to another disadvantage of the book: if you’re looking, maybe, for something you haven’t seen from Bru and Phillips, this is not the place to go. Criminal and Fatale fed into each other nicely because they were different enough to feel bold; this feels not like a safe move or a boring move, but certainly like something you’d expect from the team. Is that an advantage or a disadvantage? That’s up to you.

This is among Sean Phillips’ strongest performances as an artist. His linework is a little tighter and a little more experimental all at once. He doesn’t draw like the aforementioned Howard Chaykin, but you can see echoes of his influence as the pages go along; you’ll see Eduardo Risso, Johnny Craig, and Wally Wood in there, too — but the modern touches are a surprise. In terms of things that aren’t even remotely surprising: Phillips’ rendering of the setting is immersive and evocative. It’s everything you could ask for and then some.

Elizabeth Breitweiser is on colors, and turns in — just as Phillips does — a strong showing. There’s a nice balance between the drab and the exquisite, dark and light; the frequent wash-outs nail the idea that we’re not going modern-day, and pair with Phillips’ interpretation of the setting. Purple shows up  in very interesting ways; when Charlie is confused or timid, sometimes there’s a splash behind him. It’s a nice touch, and it’s never distracting.

Brubaker is a vocal proponent of the single issue, so it’s packed with backmatter. You get an essay by Devin Faraci and some of the requisite Brubaker ramblings. There’s nothing to complain about.

That might be the best way to sum up the Fade Out experience: it’s got murder, it’s got intrigue, it’s got beautiful women, accurate representations of the time period, attention-to-detail, and great dialog. There’s nothing to complain about here, unless you really dig. In the interest of digging: it might’ve been interesting to see the team follow Fatale with something more adventurous. But, for fans and initiates alike, The Fade Out #1 gets the job done, and leaves promise of good things to come.

UPDATE from Image:

THE FADE OUT #1 has completely sold out at the distributor level, but may still be available in comic stores. It  is currently available digitally on the Image Comics website (imagecomics.com) and the official Image Comics iOS app, as well as on Comixology on the web (comixology.com), iOS, Android, and Google Play.

Image Comics is pleased to announce that this first issue will be going back to print to meet customer demand. The second printing of THE FADE OUT #1 (Diamond Code JUL148170) will release on 9/24.

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