Criminal Volume 1: Coward

In terms of style, grit, and ability to integrate genre tropes without feeling cliché, Ed Brubaker's neo-noir stories in the Criminal series are rivaled only by Frank Miller's Sin City. Furthermore, Sean Phillips' art is an eye-pleasing homage to the low key underworld stories of yesteryear. Coward, volume one in this series, tells the story of Leo: a seasoned heist planner whose number one priority is not to get caught. Leo's criminal life is governed by a series of rules that he follows rigorously but when a heist goes sideways, he finds he might have to break them all to clean up the mess he's made. If you like crime stories, you should read this. If you like comic books and you're tired of superheroes, you should read this. If you read this and you don't enjoy it, crime stories probably just aren't for you.