BAD WEEKEND
Meet Hal Crane, a legendary cartoonist who’s been around since the earliest days of comics. Hal knows that comics won’t just break your heart. Comics will kill you. Stuck at an out-of-town convention waiting to receive a lifetime achievement award, Crane must confront a history of old grudges and terrible mistakes.
“I feel like this is a comic I’ve been writing in my head most of my career,” said Brubaker. “Hal Crane isn’t based on anyone in particular. But bits and pieces of his history are lifted from sad tales and sordid gossip that you hear over the years in this business, especially about the old days. Gambling. Drinking. Prostitution. Theft. Death. There’s always been a darkness at the edge of comics and I wanted to explore that in Bad Weekend. Is this a expose of the industry? Sort of, but it’s a love letter to the medium, as well.”
Bad Weekend features an expanded and remastered version of the story recently serialized in issues #2 and 3 of Criminal, with several completely new scenes, and presented in the same gorgeous hardcover format as Brubaker and Phillip’s bestselling graphic novel My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies. And like every Criminal graphic novel, Bad Weekend is a stand-alone story that works as a singular reading experience.
writer Ed Brubaker
artist Sean Phillips