Fifty years after the psychiatrist and notorious comics censor Fredric Wertham helped suppress 1950s-era crime comics, the genre is in the midst of a renaissance with the artistic and commercial success of such series as Criminal, 100 Bullets, Fell and others. No better time, then, for crime and mystery novelist Gary Phillips to release High Rollers, a new four-issue comic series detailing the rise of a Los Angeles gangster.
High Rollers debuts this month from Boom! Studios. The story, which follows a young man named Cameron Quinn as he takes hold of a criminal enterprise and struggles to operate it, came to Phillips years ago, though at the time he wasn't sure whether to write it as a novel, comic or screenplay. Because of the success of similar crime comics and a friendship with some of the Boom! Studio staff, Phillips decided that a comic series would be the best outlet. "You think about what's the best way, the sharpest way I can make an impact," Phillips said. "The more I tried to refine what High Rollers was, it made sense as a comic."
Phillips previously wrote the comics series Angeltown for Vertigo as well as Shot Callerz and Midnight Mover for Oni Press, but he is best known for a series of mystery novels featuring private eye Ivan Monk. He's also currently writing Citizen Kang, a weekly prose political thriller hosted on The Nation's Web site. Turning his focus to the mind of a criminal was appealing for many reasons, Phillips said, not least of which was the popularity of such characters. He compared Quinn to the popular fictional character Tony Soprano, though Quinn works in the Los Angeles drug trade, not for the New Jersey mob.
"For those of us who are law-abiding, tax-paying folks, it's always fascinating to watch people who are not square," Phillips said, noting that material focused on the criminal mind can often “speak to our general cynicism” and that “there’s a vicarious thrill to [watch] characters who are not part of the mainstream. We project ourselves into them. We wish we could do what they do, but I suppose society would break down if we did."
Like the bulk of Phillips’s work, High Rollers takes place in Los Angeles, and he’s drawn on his own experiences to give the work a sense of reality and authenticity. One side character, Rasheed, was changed to Latino at the suggestion of the artist Sergio Carrera, which led to an even more complex relationship between the character and Quinn. Phillips, who is also working on an unannounced project for Vertigo, grew up as a comics reader and said he’s excited to see the comics medium flourishing along with the crime genre. He described Quinn, High Rollers’ central character, as “a conflicted, flawed, contradictory character. It’s not about the bling; it’s about who this guy is and his world.”
Boom! editor-in-chief Mark Waid described Phillips as an experienced writer who brings depth and character-driven plot to comics storytelling. "Gary has a unique ability to meld his genre to our medium to produce a comic that's the best of both worlds," Waid said. "High Rollers has the characterization and plotting of a top-notch crime novel. At the same time it makes good use of the kinetic, dynamic visuals that comics affords. It's a great example of what Boom! does—it’s innovative and it fits perfectly into the overall mission of telling character-driven stories with emotion and suspense."
