Loving the Alien is a new podcast from Finn Miles, created in association with The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, which aims to explore the inner workings of comic books and their creation, interviewing a wide range of comic artists, writers and other creatives orbiting the comic book industry.
The podcast has launched with a wide-ranging interview with multiple Eisner Award-winning Sean Phillips has worked for all the major publishers over the past 45 years, since he was 15. Sean outlines not only his longtime relation with writing partner Ed Brubaker but, for those unfamiliar with the comic form, also outlines his process on how comics are written and his approach to drawing the story. Sean also reveals what he does, and doesn't like to draw (horses, for one!), and is candid about his work across a variety of projects down the years.
He also talks about the upcoming Criminal series for Amazon's Prime Video service, based on the comic series Ed and Sean began back in 2006. The show has Ed Brubaker and Jordan Harper as showrunners, and Sean is currently creating paintings for the series title sequence. The first series, which does not yet have an air date, adapts the first two Crimnal stories, Coward and Lawless, and will lead into a new original graphic novel written by Brubaker and Philips, The Knives, due for release on 9th September 2025.
The next episode, planned for August release, will be with Walking Dead artist and former Comics Laureate, Charlie Adlard.
Since drawing Sleeper, Hellblazer, Batman, X-Men, Marvel Zombies, and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, Sean has concentrated on creator-owned books with Ed Brubaker including Criminal, soon to be a television series on Amazon Prime, Kill Or Be Killed, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, Pulp, Night Fever, Where The Body Was and the Reckless series.
He lives in the Lake District in the UK, where he is currently drawing the next Brubaker/Phillips book. He's also a guest at this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival, and one of the organisation's much-appreciated patrons.
• Check out Loving the Alien here on Podbean
Sean Phillips Online
WEB: WWW.SEANPHILLIPS.CO.UK
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The Knives: A Criminal Book
With the Prime Video adaptation premiering soon, crime comic grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips return to their most acclaimed series with a new standalone graphic novel: The Knives.
A sprawling Criminal epic, The Knives is the most ambitious tale Brubaker and Phillips have ever tackled. Three dark journeys wind around each other over a decade, like sharks hunting for a kill.
Cartoonist Jacob Kurtz goes to Hollywood in the era of peak TV to work on an adaptation of his comic strip, only to find himself caught up in the life of his aging aunt and the vultures circling her estate. Angie was raised at the Undertow, but now everything she loves has been taken from her. She's on the streets with vengeance on her mind, her eyes set on the city's kingpin. And finally, Tracy Lawless is home from the Special Forces, finally a civilian again, but he's in bad shape and this city has always brought out the worst in him...
These three tales collide in The Knives a breathtaking noir story about greed, ambition, heartbreak, and blood ties. A must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips fans
