Created by J.C. Vaughan
You have to give veteran comic writer J.C. Vaughan a thumbs up for persistence — he’s been trying to get his creator-owned private eye series, McCandless & Company, out for over fifteen years, toughing it out through broken promises, bad luck, false starts, revolving artists, a tangled reprinting history, and Lord knows what else.
Private eyes and BFFs CAREY MCCANDLESS and JESSICA WILLIAMS come from very different worlds. Carey was pretty much born with a silver spoon jammed in her maw, while Jessica had to fight for every damn thing she ever wanted. Frustrated with being taken for granted at a major detective agency, they left to form McCandless & Company.
Sure, they march to the beat of different drums but somehow they make their small (would-be writer and office manager David Bradshaw is their only other employee) Los Angeles agency work.
It doesn’t help that David has this huge crush on Jessica, or that Jessica seems to love teasing him. Or is she flirting? David’s not sure.
Still, it would be great if Vaughan could turn this into a going thing.
J.C. Vaughn is the Vice-President of Publishing for Gemstone, which publishes The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, which he co-edits. In comics he has created or co-created several series, including Zombie-Proof, Vampire, PA, Bedtime Stories for Impressionable Children, Return of the Human and Antiques: The Comic Strip. He has also written or co-written issues of 24 (based on the Fox TV series), Shi, Mighty Samson, Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here & Now, Battlestar Galactica and even a Blue Beetle story in the DC Universe Holiday Special 2008.
And yet, somehow, despite all those connections, he’s still struggling to make McCandless & Company a going thing…
Let’s hope he pulls it off…
UNDER OATH
- “… (a) smart, funny take on two capable female detectives in a male-dominated genre… Not only are (the)Â stories funny, they are also intelligently written, often gritty and suspenseful, sometimes a little romantic, and generally feel ‘real.'”
— Joseph Self (2019, ComicBase.com)
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
  
- McCANDLESS & COMPANY: DEAD RAZORÂ Â |Â Buy this book
(2001, Mandalay)
One issue
Written by J.C. Vaughn
Art by Matt Busch - CRIME SCENE: A MCCANDLESS & COMPANY READERÂ Â |Â Buy this book
(2006, Century Comics)
144 pages
Written by J.C. Vaughan
Art by Matt Busch, Shawn Sheehan, Chris Chua, Ben Dale, Harry Roland and Gene Gonzales
Includes “Dead Razor,” plus a new 48-page story, “Insecurities,” and four shorter pieces, “Best of Times,” “The Interview,” “No Man Is An Eyelid” and “Be Your Own Charlie.” - McCANDLESS & COMPANY: INSECURITIES | Kindle/ComiXology it!
(2016, American Mythology)
Black & white
48 pages
Written by J.C. Vaughan
Art by Gene Gonzales
Re-released in 2019 with a new cover.
