Smooth Criminals Vol. 1

Smooth Criminals #1-4

by Kurt Lustgarten, Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith, Leisha Riddel (Artist)

When a bit of hacking goes wrong, geeky Brenda accidentally unfreezes Mia, a master cat burglar from the 1960s. Together, they work to pull off a heist bigger than either of them could have dreamed...and solve the mystery of Mia’s cold storage in the proc

When Brenda, geeky hacker extraordinaire, accidentally awakened Mia, an international jewel thief frozen in the 1960s, she wasn’t sure what to expect...but it surely wasn’t a new partner in crime! With their powers combined, they decide to pull off the heist of the century and with fifty years of catching up to do, Mia already has a target in mind. Writers Kirsten ‘Kiwi’ Smith (Legally Blonde) and Kurt Lustgarten (Misfit City) and illustrator Leisha Riddel swing into action and steal the show with this daring and hilarious caper of time-melding suspense.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics, LGBT, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Manga

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2019

Reviews

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Interesting characters but lackluster story and plot.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story about a time-displaced cat burglar and her hacker friend as they try to settle a decades-old score.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Brenda, a geeky hacker in 1999, finds a time machine that poops out Mia, a jewel thief from 1969. Inexplicably, they decide to continue with Mia's attempted crime from 1969. You know, rather than worrying about time travel. The jokes are all bad, especially the attempts at "1999" humor, which fall so flat they could be used as a level. The art is terrible, particularly the faces, where the character's eyes and noses always seem to be the wrong size. Don't waste your time with Smooth Criminals, even if it does take only 15 minutes to read this first volume.

[connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK read that definitely picked up more towards the end. I really do love thieves and hackers, so this is really great for that, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed a romance develops between the two mains as the comic progresses because they would be adorable together! It's already been made clear that they are queer, which made me happy

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review would cover both vol 1 and 2. Great art and okay story. Very much a teen lit kid of comic. A hacker in the 90’s unfreezes a thief from the 60’s and hijinks ensue. Hijinks isn’t the right work. It’s a fun book, but not a silly book. An enjoyable read, but I doubt I’ll remember it in two years.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit slow at the beginning but it did start to pick up by the end. The villain seems rather two-dimensional right now, but there do seem to be cues that there is more to the mystery (magic cryogenic injections??) of his age.

Wonder if teens find it fun reading about the 90s...

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 1&2 of "Smooth Criminals" totally rock. The books are rife with Grrrl Power and references to late 90's geek Pop Culture. Add Nancy Sinatra boots, a catsuit Emma Peel would die for, the nerdiest hackerette in recent memory and a compelling heist story and the books really take off.

[Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh 🤷🏻‍♀️ Not sure I’ll pick up the next volume honestly.

[Saniya · Rating 4 out of 5]

sapphic…jewel thieves…am i in heaven???

[Bert · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I were generous, I'd use the word "juvenile" to describe this comic -- but I'm not and therefor will label it correctly as "childish".

Its story is downright awful. Set in 1999 for no apparent reason other than having the opportunity to do a couple of utterly unfunny jokes ("Blockbuster will always be here!"), the script of this comic seems to have not been touched by the hand of a capable editor. Its story is boring and derivative (and therefor predictable), and the art is at best barely capable, often veering into pretty damn awful.

Avoid.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes. Full review on my blog.

[Carol Tilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - solidly enjoyable.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! I'll continue with this series.

[Marta Boksenbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a super fun comic with thievery, adventure, people frozen for 30 years and a super badass coder. I’ll definitely look out for the next volume.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's here is okay, but shit, there's not a whole lot of it. It feels like if they'd compressed a little bit of this, made the first two volumes into one, we'd be better off.

Also, I'm sorry, but these characters, a super hacker and a master thief, are dopey as fuck. They really thought they were in a time machine situation? I didn't think they were in a time machine situation, and I am stupid. Seriously, I just read Kyle Baker's How to Draw Stupid, and I was insulted when, page after page, Baker recommended drawing ME. And even still, I put this together much faster than these dopes.

I'm also not real into computer hacker stories. Because...okay, this one does that thing where the hacker can't keep up with a superathlete, so the hacker does a bunch of shit like manipulating traffic lights so the athlete can't cross, then has an ATM spit out money so a crowd forms that's hard to get through, so on and so on, and this is possible while the hacker is also on the move, so she ends up beating the superathlete to a destination?

We've learned nothing from Office Space, a movie that proved you can take fractions of pennies, and THAT'S what you do as a computer hacker.

Or you maybe put my books on torrenting sites. Has anyone checked torrents for my shit? It'd be silly, they're all available for free on Internet Archive and shit.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story gets 4 stars and the art gets 5 stars.

I enjoyed this story and I wanted this volume to be longer. I don't think we really get to know the two main characters Brenda and Mia but I'm hoping that we will learn more about them in the next volume. I also hope that the heist will be bigger part of the story.

I love the art style. I love colourful graphic novels and comics where art style is cartoonish but still realistic looking. I have to see if the artist have done more graphic novels/comics.

[Hanneleele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read #1-6 and am intrigued. The characters were sympathetic, though Mia's obsession with the jewels was not explained at all and that made it feel a bit weird. Like if you found out you are 30 years in the future wouldn't you have other more pressing issues? But superthieves are not always logical so I don't mind all that much. The art was more than okay (but less than amazing) and the dialogue was fun. All in all a good comic.

[Curious Madra · Rating 3 out of 5]

🎶“ You've been hit by
You've been hit by
A smooth criminal”🎶

Sorry can’t help myself y’all lol

Honestly liked Mia and Brenda as a duo, they are such complete opposites from different eras but I wasn’t really happy much with the ending and I think the T-Bird character was pretty useless tbh. I shipped Mia and Brenda atw ….

Got this with thanks from Netgalley

[Lukas Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique and fun.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun!

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

Kind of neutrally enjoyable. Probably won't continue but I don't mind that I read it.

[kel · Rating 4 out of 5]

gay heist??? im down

[Rowynn DeGennaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story and nice characters. I love the art style as well.

[Juliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating : 3,5 ⭐

[Caitlin Mcnamee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read. May continue the series

[jae · Rating 2 out of 5]

picks up the pace near the end. i like the character designs. im a sucker for comics like these. big fan of stealing and hacking lol.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hacker in 1999 and a time displaced cat burglar from 1969 plan a big score. It's fun, light and airy.