The Fade Out is a crime comics series created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips with the help of colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser and research assistant Amy Condit.

The story, partly inspired by the life of Brubaker's uncle John Paxton, is set in 1948 and stars Charlie Parish, a Hollywood screenwriter suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and fronting for his blacklisted best friend, Gil.

Although Brubaker had been concerned the premise was not commercial enough to have wide appeal, The Fade Out sold better than any of the authors' previous collaborations, and early issues went through several printings.

Ed Brubaker's uncle, John Paxton, was a noted Hollywood screenwriter in the 1930s and 1940s known for Murder, My Sweet, Crossfire, The Wild One and On the Beach.

[5] In mid-2014, having just finished their previous collaboration, Fatale, Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips were deliberating whether their next project would be a noir period piece or a science fiction tale.

[1] Brubaker did not think a noir set in 1940s Hollywood was commercial enough to be accepted through normal channels, but the timing aligned with their five-year exclusive contract with Image Comics.

After completing the image, he thought the stark white background would help the book stand out on sales racks and continued to use it for subsequent covers.

[4] Although Phillips has been using digital tools like Cintiq and Manga Studio to create his art since 1997, The Fade Out is his first project completed using them exclusively.

The change increased the amount of time needed to create each page by almost 50 percent, but had no effect on colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser.

Visually, Phillips style remained the same as his previous work, which critic Charley Parked notes for its "strong spotted blacks and bold use of negative space".

Brubaker's solution was to use page two as a cast list with short descriptions that updated as the story progressed, which he felt was "old-fashioned and neat".

[10][22] Jess Nevins and Devin Faraci, among others, contributed essays and articles at the end of each issue about crime and misfortune among actors famous in the 1940s.

When Charlie resigns himself to working in the corrupt culture, the fixer reveals the actress was murdered by an undercover FBI agent who was looking for communists in Hollywood.

[29] Sam Marx, writing for Comicosity, called The Fade Out the creators' "most ambitious series yet" and praised their ability to set a scene.

[7] Reviewing for Comic Book Resources, Greg McElhatton gave Brubaker credit for avoiding excessive exposition at the start of the story, but felt some of the characters seemed stereotypical.

[31] Chase Magnett of Comics Bulletin described the ending as "an anti-climax with no big showdown, revelations, or death", but went on to say the "sense of disappointment is exactly why it's great".

[30] Jim Bush at Entertainment Fuse usually liked Phillips' work, but felt the sex scenes in issue seven did not play to the artist's strengths.

[33] Mary Kate Jasper, a reviewer for Comic Book Resources, noted how colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser enhanced Phillips' work with "splotches of color in unexpected arrangements, giving everyone the appearance of being forever in shadow or inside with the windows drawn".