Fatale Deluxe Edition Volume 1 Hardcover – March 18, 2014

Bloody brilliant. My favorite work from powerhouse noir duo Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Also if you are looking for good Lovecraft inspired horror or weird tales, Fatale is the best to date. Being a Lovecraft enthusiast, I have been heavily disappointed by many of the sad renditions or recreations of Lovecraft's masterpieces in graphic literature. Mostly all of it has been heavily disappointing and I feel much of it is just various themes or creatures from Lovecraft's work that gets sloppily stitched into books and graphic novels just to get that credit or attention from people that it is"Lovecraftian". I have read every available work from Lovecraft, including his vast amounts of poetry, heart felt letters, and brilliant essays on a variety of subjects. Furthermore, the only two series that have really brought the themes of Lovecraft to life is the noir masterpiece Fatale and the newer series Providence by Alan Moore. Another great thing about Fatale is that you do not need any previous Lovecraftian knowledge to enjoy it. The book stands by itself as a wonderful piece of literature, art, and could be enjoyed by any fan of horror, noir, weird tales, or graphic novels in general. The deluxe format is wonderful too with original covers, extra art and paintings, and some of the extras even include academic style essays on Lovecraft and Poe which are very insightful and entreating. Perfect book, 5 stars.

This hardcover collects the first ten issues of the Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips supernatural noir comic book series originally published by Image Comics in 2012. This material was previously collected in the Fatale Volume 1 “Death Chases Me” and Volume 2 “The Devil’s Business” TPBs. The narrator meets the titular femme fatale Josephine at his eccentric uncle’s funeral and is soon fleeing with her from a sinister Lovecraftian cult. The complex story follows the seemingly ageless Josephine through the 1950s and 1970s. Her hypnotic power over men usually leads them to misfortune. As with their Criminal and Incognito hardcovers, this book also features larger page margins than the comics and TPBs, a welcome feature that ensures that none of the artwork is swallowed by the spine’s binding. It also features some additional Sean Phillips artwork and two essays from Jess Nevins.I’m a great fan of the Brubaker/Phillips partnership and bought every issue of this series as it was released. Though the series is now up to Issue #21, I enjoyed returning to these first two story arcs and noticed how much I had missed or forgotten since the first reading. This excellent series is scheduled to end soon with Issue #24 so I expect that one more hardcover is forthcoming.

Mr. Brubaker has penned an excellent Change-Of-Perspective on the Noir genre. And, it ust happens to be a fantastic horror (sometimes Gothic) story as well -- an interesting and welcome genre-blend! While reading the story, I had a difficult time "liking" the protagonists, but couldn't stop reading; in my opinion, a sign of good storytelling! Additionally, upon re-reading certain chapters, I was able to appreciate a character's perspective or emotional outlook differently than the first time through. Mr. Phillips does an incredible job on the art! At times, he appears to be using as few lines, etc. to express ideas & emotions without losing details or story flow. The art is just as important as the words, the sign of an excellent collaboration for a graphic novel or comic! The essay included was an interesting read and the extras (sketches, etc.) also round out an very good hardcover edition.

Another home run by Brubaker. He recycles tropes into a modern version with fast action, great art, random sexuality, and an easy-to-follow plot. His MacGuffin is the main character, who has mysterious powers of seduction that, despite her lack of complex character or even strikingly hot features (she's "standard" comic book hot, but without anything physically unique, mentally invigorating, or even wardrobe-unique to set her apart), can essentially mind-control any non-elite character she encounters. She feels angsty throughout about "using" people, even though she's using them as a superhero in the service of good. And she has a rumored dark past that is being left in the shadows for now.Why watch increasingly preachy movies when you can see European-American culture demonized so subtly and so well in another of these well-bound comic books?

A fantastic Noir Horror story, that will keep you asking for more. If you are a fan of Brubaker, then you already know he hardly ever disappoints. The art by Sean Phillips is some of the best his done in all his collaborations with Brubaker. If you are not a fan of this writer/artist duo, you should definitively check this book out and all of their previous collaborations. The characters here are very well crafted and will keep interested in the story from beginning to end. Sorry for the vague review, but I hate giving out spoilers. But I do recommend this book as I consider it to be one of the best Brubaker has written.

FATALE Vol. One is a top-notch gothic, time-traveling graphic noir thriller. It stars a mysterious femme fatale, is loaded with surprises, and created by the best in the business. Ed Brubaker is one of our finest comic writers, and when he teams up with artist Sean Phillips you know you’re in for terrific storytelling. Phillips’ art explodes off every page, with real, well-rendered characters, and dark moody backgrounds. Here I want to also give kudos to Dave Stewart for the excellent coloring. If you’re looking for a dark, graphic page-turner you’ll want to indulge in the collected Volumes in the saga of our sensuous FATALE.

Fatale is one of the hot and talked about creator-owned titles of the past few years. The introduction hypes this as a deconstruction of the femme-fatale archetype. You could just as easily read this as the story of a woman who has the super-power (or indeed curse) to make any man fall for her and do her will, though this is an ability she largely cannot control. I just didn't feel it was explored that deeply, or that there were enough twists and turns to the story for it to really grab me. I can't quite decide whether the Cthullu mythos and crime noir style sit well next to each other.Having said that it's a compelling enough tale, and the art by Sean Phillips is fantastic, enough that this is a four star story and I'll pick up the next volume on the hope that as it goes on it builds on what has come before, which at this point seems entirely possible.The reason I give three stars is for a couple of irritating flaws. Firstly, this hardcover edition has glued binding. The reason I like to buy hardcovers is because they are usually sewn binding which is more durable. My Sin City hardcovers from 15 years ago crack when I open them and are in danger of losing pages. Given that the glue will age and the extra cost of the hardcover you might as well just pick up the TPBS which are much less pricey unless you really care about how the books look on the shelf. The pages are bigger, but are surrounded by white borders and I can't tell if the artwork has been enlarged at all from the regular comics size, though in all honesty from looking at them I expect they haven't.Secondly, Ed Brubaker writes in the back that they have included only a selection of essays, written by Jess Nevins, about the authors that inspired the tone of the series. These extras are aimed at those that have bought the single issues via the direct market. When you've shelled out that much more money for the hardback it's kind of insulting to have it insinuated that you are not a "true fan" or supporter of this artstic endeavor and should therefore be denied content. Evidently missing (from the accomanying Sean Phillips artwork which IS included) is an essay on Raymond Chandler which I would have loved to read as I love his work and the other Nevins essays are excellent- don't skip them.Like I say a decent read, on the basis of this effort I will consider picking up the Sleeper Omnibus by the same creative team that has been decently released, it's just that for me the whole purpose of a hardcover is for a more durable edition, which collects everything- that's what you pay the extra for. Image and DC do not seem to understand this (Sex Criminals suffers from essentially the same fate as this collection) whereas (and I'm not particularly a fanboy) Marvel largely get this right with their hardcover collections.

Stylish, mysterious and grotesque

I wish I felt clever enough this morning to avoid saying it, but it nevertheless sums up Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips latest creation, Fatale, quite nicely: imagine the cool, flawless writing of Dashiell Hammett cross-pollinated by H.P. Lovecrafts' alien word-spores, and you end up with Fatale. Both Hammett and Lovecraft were contemporaries who wrote genre fiction, but there the similarities end. Hammett was a brilliant writer, an excellent prose stylist who had led a fascinating life of adventure and came late to the writing game, receiving a great deal of critical acclaim and celebrity almost immediately. Lovecraft, on the other hand, was a self-educated shut-in likely suffering from an unknown psychiatric disorder, writing his strange tales of cosmic horror for the pulps and receiving virtually no attention for his bizarre themes and awkward, overwrought prose until after his premature death. Fatale, however, manages to forge these two disparate elements into a hitherto unknown alloy. The noir atmosphere perfected in the outstanding 'Criminal' books seems even darker here, as Phillips drops his spot-blacks even thicker in his brilliant chiaroscuro style. Only Eduardo Risso, Jordi Bernet and Frank Miller can do Comics Noir like Phillips. Brubakers' story centers on the titular Femme Fatale Jo, a mysterious and apparently ageless beauty, who is being hunted by demonic extra-dimensional entities and their acolytes. As she struggles to stay ahead of her fate, she is aided by men unfortunate enough to fall under her succubus-like spell, though she remains conflicted, and is perhaps not entirely in control of her deadly allure. She remains a mystery throughout, though she is by no means evil, just desperate. Even the knowledge that the men who become her would-be protectors will likely meet bad ends, she has no choice but to hope that things will turn out different, better. If you've read Criminal or Incognito, you know how good these two guys are. Fatale is even better than Criminal, and it's one of my favorite mainstream comics. Image has let Phillips design this gorgeous deluxe edition, and he follows a similar course to the one he took on the Criminal books. There are plenty of extras once again, including Brubakers' supplementary essays and Phillips' stellar paintings. You get a lot of great material and one awesome book for the $32 asking price, which is way lower that the $56 MSRP. If you're a fan of comics, or noir, or Lovecraftian horror, do what you have to do; pull a casino heist, make a deal with Cthulhu, just get yourself a copy. Or don't. It.s pretty damn good, though... I promise. If you don't end up liking it, feel free to kick me in the head.

Num casamento perfeito, Ed Brubaker e Sean Phillips se unem para este conto de investigação, suspense e terror para que nenhum fã do gênero botar defeito. Claras referências a Poe e Lovecraft só deixam tudo melhor.Edição de luxo vale cada centavo.

Edição de Luxo contendo os dois primeiroa encadernados de Fatale. Edição é impecável com vários extras.