4 Kids Walk Into a Bank - by Matthew Rosenberg (Paperback)

About the Book

"11-year-old Paige and her friends like to do normal kid stuff- play D & D, eat pizza, ride bikes, and rob banks. This book is about all of that"--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK is the darkly comedic story of four burgeoning child criminals and their elaborate plans.

When a group of bumbling criminals show up in her father's life looking to pull one last job, young Paige has two choices - let her father get caught up in their criminal hijinks or enlist her three best friends to do the job first. Paige picks the bad one.

200ish pages of full color comic-booking about friendship, family, growing up, and grand larceny from rising star writer Matthew Rosenberg (WE CAN NEVER GO HOME, KINGPIN, SECRET WARRIORS) and equally rising star artist Tyler Boss (LAZARUS, CALEXIT, Vice Magazine).

This vollume collects the complete series that Kieron Gilled (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, DARTH VADER) described as "Imagine Tarantino does Goonies. And excellent." and Brian K. Vaughan (SAGA, Y THE LAST MAN) said was "Exploding with ambition and love of the medium!"

Collects issues 1-5.

Review Quotes

"A mash-up of Wes Anderson-style whimsy and Reservoir Dogs that you never knew you needed -- until now."-- "Nerdist"

"A virtuoso performance."-- "Comics Beat"

"Amid themes of friendship, family, and the tribulations of the awkward tween years, Rosenberg (Kingpin) and Boss (Calexit) stage a gangsters-versus-gamers showdown. Four young friends, fresh from a Dungeons and Dragons session, encounter a pack of unsavory recent parolees ("We're the bad guys, dear," the leader quips). Afterward, the kids--tomboyish leader Paige, loutish Berger, lanky "Stretch," and introverted chemistry devotee Walter--come to suspect the thugs of luring Paige's father into a criminal scheme. When they launch a stakeout, they discover the bad guys' plans for an upcoming bank heist. Fearing for her father's safety and freedom, Paige organizes an audacious plan to beat the criminals at their own game and rob the bank first. The art is rife with pop-culture references, paired with sharp, witty dialogue and well-orchestrated coloring. What could have ended up as a juvenile romp is instead presented as a realistic piece that pulls no punches in its honesty and slow-burning anxiety."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"The premise of Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss's 4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK (Black Mask, paper, $14.99) is deliciously twisted: A smart, angry 12-year-old girl named Paige discovers that her father's former criminal associates are forcing him to help them rob a bank, and decides to save him by robbing it herself first, with the aid of her three role-playing game buddies. But the story is mostly a showcase for Rosenberg and Boss's Looney Tunes formalism, from its Saul Bass-style cover design onward. Characters are introduced with captions detailing their stats ('Getaway driver with an 85 percent success rate. +2 Dexterity'); action scenes are drawn as diagrams, and conversations as RPG fantasies; the sound effects for a pair of handcuffs closing and opening are 'BUSTED' and 'UNBUSTED.' For every experiment that works, there's one that flops, which still leaves three or four successes on any given page. All of that fun, though, is in the service of the sucker punch tonal shifts that arrive whenever '4 Kids' seems to be going in a predictable direction. This is a tragedy trying to avoid recognition by wearing a disposable comedy mask. Paige thinks she's in an I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together heist story, but she's actually in an everything-goes-horribly-wrong heist story. And her friends, having grown up on tales where plucky kids can play detective (or criminal) and save the day, aren't prepared for what happens when blood starts flowing."--Douglas Wolk "The New York Times Book Review"

"Wildly inventive and fearless."--Sean Edgar "Paste Magazine"

About the Author

Matthew Rosenberg is an American writer of comic books including We Can Never Go Home, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank, and 12 Reasons To Die for Black Mask Studios, Uncanny X-Men, Punisher, New Mutants, Phoenix Resurrection, Hawkeye & The Winter Soldier, Tales of Suspense, Kingpin, Rocket Raccoon, Secret Warriors, and Edge of Venomverse for Marvel, and Archie Meets Ramones, and The Archies for Archie.

Tyler Boss is an award winning cartoonist and designer who works in Brooklyn, NY. His first book with Matthew Rosenberg,"4 Kids Walk into a Bank" will be followed by a new solo graphic novella coming in April 2020. Matthew and Tyler's spiritual sequel to 4 Kids, "What's the Furthest Place from Here?" will release late 2021 from Image comics. Tyler's clients include Converse, Vice, 30th Century Records, and the Marshal Project, among others. Tyler was recently featured in an exhibition for the Remai Modern Museum of Art, creating an illustrated script with experimental film maker Anton Vidokle.