Bad Karma, Loose Ends & Stray Bullets: Exploring the World of Crime Comics

Do you like crime comics, comics in general, and crime fiction? Then come read some crime comics with me and let’s talk about ‘em. If you’re new to crime comics, welcome! If you’re more familiar with comics and crime comics, I think I’ll have some surprises for you too.

Many years ago, I used to write about crime comics at Spinetingler Magazine and more recently I wrote about The Best Crime Comics of 2024 at Do Some Damage. With the upcoming Prime adaptation of the Criminal comics, I wanted to launch a space where we can read and talk about crime comics.

The first few posts will start by looking at crime comics series. First we’ll start with the crime comics series that are probably the most well known, then look at more recent crime comics series and note how things seemed to have changed. Then we’ll take a quick look at some translated European crime comics and manga crime comics. Once that foundation is established, readers can expect themed posts, long form reviews, and columns of capsule reviews.

There’s a lot of great crime comics for us to discover.  

"I don't know if the audiences for the two media of comics and crime novels overlap, but they damned well should. I'm encouraged that you [Gary Phillips] and Brian Lindenmuth and Jon Jordan and others are working toward that end." -- Peter Rozovsky