Great stuff! The story unfolds from multiple points of view as the reader is introduced to the various characters that live in the neighborhood where a man is found murdered in the street. Who is he? Who killed him? Everybody has their own version of events: There's a teenage runaway, a private detective, a belligerent cop, a lonely housewife, a strange kid who seems to be everywhere, and the nosy neighbor lady who sees everything that goes on.

The kind of excellence (art and story) that you expect from the team of Brubaker & Phillips.

This wasn't for me. I found it very predictable and dragged out. However I do think other readers would enjoy it more. I did however enjoy reading a crime themed graphic novel!

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are known as the dynamic duo. Unfortunately, this title fell flat for me. I found it to be quite gratuitous. It took me out of the story at times. I did find the character Lila quite interesting though. Solid artwork by Phillips ...

This team always get me hyped for a book. Love criminal, but everything they do is either great, amazing, or atleast good.

I think sadly where the body was falls into the last for me.

It's really just a slice of life of this small little town with some pieces of shit people, but also multilayered people since no one is just "good" or "bad". I think the idea of this book is good but the characters, all of them, fall a little flat in the end. I didn't get attached to a single one which kind of surprise me. I did enjoy the overall plot but it also felt a bit aimless. This book wasn't as strong as their previous work. The art though, as always, remained pretty strong throughout.

A 3 out of 5. Thanks Netgalley for the advance review!

BRUBAKER AND PHILLIPS HAVE DONE IT AGAIN! The comics dream team are back together with another thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I sped through this one, I couldn't get enough of it. THe writing was phenomenal, and the artwork was incredible.

An engaging crime mystery in the adult (very adult) graphic novel space. I liked the varying perspectives to reveal the story, but it felt like it wrapped up rather quickly.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for my review copy! 'Where the Body Was' is a fun, engaging & quick read for all murder mystery lovers. If you are hesitant with reading graphic novels or comics, this is a good one to try out! It's got all the things I love in a whodunit caper; a list of characters (with pictures!), a map and a really engaging plotline. I'm looking forwards to reading this on a physical copy, because my computer had issues with formatting, and I prefer to read graphic novels in paper format so I can go back and forth between pages. Highly suggest this for all mystery lovers, graphic novel fans & for those interested in trying out something new mystery-wise!

An OK one off story from the team of Brubaker and Phillips. It's about some neighbors on a block somewhere in Southern California in the 80's. Everyone has their secrets. The neighbors who are having an affair, the kid who plays at being a super hero, the teenagers on drugs. There's no main character and I think that may hurt the book. It's one of those things that's about the journey more than the ending. To me, it lacked focus though and it's the rare story by this team that's not 5 stars.

I loved this quick little whodunit!!! Honestly, I don't put much expectation on a short graphic novel but this was extremely enjoyable. We got to meet each character and get individual breakdowns on their backgrounds without extra explanation or information. Each character was built up so you didn't know who did it and could reasonably believe any one of them had done it. Great twists, with connected storylines and plenty of scandal.

I admit that I only picked up this novel because of the author and artist, but I am very glad that I did! It was a super intriguing and engaging story about life in general, and how different people on vastly different paths all interact with one another. The characters were incredibly diverse and each one was flawed in a unique, realistic way. The overarching plot - who killed character X - was brilliantly interlaced with "current day" interviews of the other characters, each of whom ended up in different parts of the world, doing their own things. The ending was believable and satisfactory and the artwork, as usual, was incredible!

This graphic novel is a tale of love and mystery set in the suburbs. Told from several points of view, all of these stories will collide one summer. With so many different opinions, which one is the truth? You will want to get your hands on a copy of Where The Body Was. This original graphic novel hardcover is set to arrive in comic stores on Wednesday, December 6, 2023 and in bookstores on Tuesday, December 12, 2023.

Fantastic book with flashes of brilliance that would eventually evolve into the masterpieces of Criminal and the Reckless saga.

This...was not what I expected, and yet I still loved it. I've read a lot of Brubaker over the years, and quite a few of his new comics recently even, all of which usually have a certain underlying darkness to them. Naturally, I was expecting 'Where the Body Was' to be of similar tone - and it wasn't, but that didn't disappoint me.

Brubaker and Phillips team together for another fitting collaboration featuring a story about a dead body, but which isn't really about a dead body (lol). These two are great at illustrating, both literally and figuratively, the internal lives of people. Not that Brubaker can't weave a good story (this one is a great example of one of his best, imo), but he really shines with his character work, which is put on full display here. At the end of the comic is the author's note where calls 'Where the Body Was' a romance comic... and, yeah, that's kind of spot on.

"...I started out with a crime story and ended up with a romance comic, sort of, one that's a bit of a microcosm of different aspects of love and romance and how we are when we're caught up in them." - Ed Brubaker, Where the Body Was Afterword

Now - don't be scared away if romance isn't your thing. This about love of all kinds and the various ways it manifests and can change people, for good or bad. Like a gritty Love, Actually. The dead body isn't the point, it's the catalyst for the people of Pelican Road to share their story with the audience because of their role in the death, or because of how it impacted them. The main story (of the body) is set in 1984, but about halfway in it becomes obvious the characters are, literally, telling their stories to the reader/audience. It feels like a true crime documentary. We get to see some of these characters in the future/present and what becomes of their lives and the relationships they had while living on Pelican Road. There's also a heavy dose of nostalgia of all kinds, which I always enjoy.

The story winds in unexpected, and yet also unsurprising(?), ways, and near the end the reader -almost- forgets the story was about the dead body in the first place haha But, no worries! Brubaker does reveal who was responsible... and, without spoiling anything, having just gone done an internet rabbit hole recently about murders being treated as "accidental deaths", I really, really love the reveal!

No surprise 'Where the Body Was' another hit from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips!

Thanks to Net Galley and Image and Sean and Ed for an early look at this graphic novel, a stand alone as we await the return of the Reckless series. This story, we learn in an afterword, was an attempt at answering Sean’s request to Ed that he write a romance, but, well, it doesn’t quite work out, too sad for that, but it’s superbly crafted, nevertheless. I’d say it was sort of an average story for this team, maybe 3.5 for them, but 5 stars, it’s that good.

Everything takes place on one suburban street. A girl who reads comics (a theme in Brubaker) plays teen sleuth in a superhero costume, with a homeless guy who is also in disguise. A neighborhood guy bullies people with his dead father’s cop badge (disguise) and is having an affair with a therapist’s wife (yeah, everybody’s got a secret, and they are all entwined in one block, all of the pretending to be someone else.

Superhero girl has a crush on a guy who is doing drugs with an unfaithful woman; they burgle houses to get cash for their fixes. And threatens him with going to the cops if he doesn’t stop…. But she’s not the only one who knows stuff. . .

We don’t learn of the murder plot til way late, and we’re in the future with a lot of these people having gone their separate ways and looking back as if it were some true crime blog. The opening frame is a map of the neighborhood to reference. And at the end a panel suggests: If you want to know what happened, turn the page…

Maybe the unique thing here is the interconnections on one street, and the fact that everyone is pretending. Original idea? That’s not the point. It’s a kind of story Brubaker loves, and he’s the master.

I'm a little biased, but Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are THE dynamic duo. This romantic little murder mystery set in the suburbs of 1984 America had me so invested I forgot that someone was supposed to die half way through the book. I loved every page!

I was able to score an advanced copy of “Where The Body Was” from Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. Anyone who has read any of the Criminal or Reckless books, will know ahead of time what they are getting into. You’re getting a crime, mystery type book, but under that surface? It’s always so much more.

From reading the description of the book, it seems like it will play out much like every other Brubaker/Phillips collaboration, but then you open it to find a map of this small neighborhood and I should have knew then that this time, things wouldn’t be the same. Looking over the map, you see where most of the locales from the book are specifically located, like one of those pulp books from the 40’s. You can easily flip between this map and the page after where the “Cast of Characters” lies, to see where each person will come into play in the neighborhood of “Pelican Road.” You get really drawn into the story from there, just by looking at these two pages before you get thrown right into the mix of things. So this is like a crime podcast it says, right? We going to solve a murder mystery? That’s what you came here for, right?

This book is really not about where the body WAS, but more about where the bodies ARE. By this, I mean the people involved in the story. The creative team behind the book is well known for crime stories, but at this heart of these? Great characters. Like Tommy and Karina, the juvenile delinquents. Then there’s the psychiatrist, his wife, and the not-so-much-a-cop next door who she cheats on her husband with. There’s the little girl Lila who dresses up like a superhero and the homeless guy, Ranko, who stays behind the 7-11. You get so much of these characters, their lives all intertwined together, and you get so wrapped up before you realize….

Wait, where’s the dead person at? You’re moving from perspective to perspective of the neighborhood’s cast of main players, having themselves narrate their own sections from the future like a true crime documentary, reading into every little bit of information you get. You have this either love or hate relationship with everyone you meet. Sure Palmer is pretending to be a cop and sleeping with another man’s wife, but you kind of like the guy for some reason. Like I said though, that dead body still hasn’t shown up, until it finally does.

It ends not too long after that. Maybe all this time, where the body was, didn’t mean that dead body. Maybe there’s more to that. After reading through it a couple of times, I can easily see where Brubaker was try to do more with that title. It never even bothered me to be honest with you. I was hooked from the beginning, as a lover of characters, and I never wanted the story to end. Completely forgot about the premise of the book until it actually happened. That’s how good this team is. They give you something amazing, no matter what you thought you were getting out of it before you dove in.

I’ve said it a bunch of times before and I’ll say it more than just now. Brubaker and Phillips are the best duo is comics. Period. It’s not even close. No two people together can even touch the surface of what this team have already and will accomplish. They always deliver and “Where The Body Was” is another classic brought to us all, from the all-time greats.

A great offering from Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips.
You know from the start there is a body and you work through the graphic novel in different timelines to try and workout who is the murderer.
The sex scenes were extremely graphic, but the overall story was great. I would have loved to explore the characters more.
Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Opening with a map and portraits of the 9 main characters, Where the Body Was provides a nice little drama that slowly builds to an explosive climax. It is 1974 in a suburban cul-de-sac at a boarding house with a fight broken up by a man with a badge. There are runaways, juvenile delinquents, bored housewives, Vietnam vets, a private eye, a young girl in a cape on roller skates, and a snoopy older lady in the cast of characters. Each character tells their part of the story which comes together in a mosaic of comprehension at the end. Plenty of action, plenty of drama, even a bit of romance is found through this graphic novel. Brubaker and Phillips have done a marvelous job of bring the 1970's back to life in this tale.

Thanks Netgalley and Image Comics for the chance to read this tale!

The book is called "Where the Body Was" so you know eventually someone is gonna die, but most of this book is a mystery not of whodunit, but "whogonnagetit." The body doesn't show up til around three quarters of the way through, after we've been introduced to around a dozen characters, most of whom are involved in storylines that could reasonably get them killed. There are hints given out on who survives by the style of story being told, that of present day people telling a story from their past. As characters are revealed breaking the fourth wall you can cross them off the list of who the body will be. It's a different approach than the usual Brubaker/Phillips novel where there's plenty of dead from beginning to end.

I liked the book but I don't think it quite stuck the landing, it felt a bit rushed. I don't want to give too much detail to what disappointed me in the ending, I'll just say that the twist in the direction of the story was cool but that maybe they could have somehow given more time to the original direction too.

Sean Phillips is a hell of an artist and I'm not sure what more to say about his part in this book than that.

Fun read, quick read. Less violence than you would expect from these guys, and more porn (try reading it in a coffee shop like I did. Woops. Hunch those shoulders high and curl over the book). It's middle of the road for me when compared to their other books but some people will love this style.

I LOVE the collaborations of Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. This story and art did not disappoint. I enjoyed the character development, the people have such rich histories and to be able to convey that within a limited number of panels and pages is mad skills.

Pick this up if you love Brubaker and Phillips. Pick this up if you love suspense. Can't wait to read it again in print form.