Here’s a weird one: The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips has seemingly been removed from digital storefronts like Amazon’s Comixology and GlobalComix. Why is it missing? According to users who had purchased the book, a “technical issue.”
Released on August 27, 2025, the graphic novel is the latest in the series of books by Brubaker and Phillips from Image Comics, with the plot crisscrossing three characters from earlier in the series. And it’s been available both in hardcover and digitally… At least up until today.
First posted on Reddit, the Amazon user received a note reading, “We’re contacting you about order [redacted] for ‘Knives: A Criminal Book Vol. 1’. Due to a technical issue, this content is no longer available in the Kindle Store. We have refunded your order and will process the refund to the payment method used for this order which you should see in the next 5-7 business days (not including processing time by your bank). You can delete this title from your Kindle library. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”
We were able to independently verify that The Knives has indeed been removed digitally from Amazon (the hardcover version is still available for sale), while other volumes of Criminal are still available through Kindle… So it seems to be an issue with this specific book, not the series in general. Later in the Reddit thread, another user notes that The Knives has also been removed from GlobalComix. While we’re not able to verify whether it had previously been available, seven other volumes of the series are still on the platform.
We also checked two other platforms… Currently The Knives does seem to still be available for purchase digitally on Apple Books. The Google Play store, however, only has those seven other volumes of Criminal.
Not to editorialize too much, but this is another good reminder that when you digitally purchase comics, unless you are downloading them as a PDF or otherwise to your own computer… You don’t actually own them, and they can be taken away at any time. Same with any digital media that is not DRM free.
We’ve reached out to Image Comics and GlobalComix for comment, but did not receive a response as of publication time.
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