Sure, there are plenty of collections and graphic novels following one private eye or another, but it finally dawned on me that there are also a few anthologies of crime comic anthologies rounding up a variety of characters that deserve mentioning — and that I’ve generaly only listed them temporarily on my Word on the Street comic pages. Even more embarrassing? I actually own most of these.
They present a wide range of stories, romping all over over the genre, from fluffy sweet cozies to gritty, blood-drenched mobster tales, and everything in between. But there are also some damn good P.I. tales in some of them, spotlighting long-lost classics and under-the-radar indie releases.
Arranged chronologically.
- Mills, Christopher, editor,
The Detectives | Buy this book
(April 1993, Alpha Productions)
Our late, great pal Chris was first out of the gates with this groundbreaking one-shot comic book, a mere 32 pages “celebrating seventy years of the American private eye.” It was a great idea, way ahead of its time, handsomely produced, and simply an amazing collection, with both original and reprinted stories by Nicola Cuti, Mike W. Barr, Max Allan Collins, Nicholas Alascia, and David Darrigo, and art by Joe Staton, Paul Pelleiter, Terry Beatty, Peter Grau, Nicholas Alascia, and Ted Slampyak, plus a great intro by private eye writer Ed Gorman. A mere 32 pages, and only black and white, but definitely worth looking for! And Chris returned just a year later with… - Mills, Christopher, editor,
Noir: The Illustrated Crime Fiction Quarterly
(Winter 1994, Alpha Productions)
Noir Quarterly | Buy this book
(Spring 1995, CFD Productions)
Noir Quarterly
(Fall 1995, CFD Productions)
A year after his ambitious one-shot anthology The Detectives, Mills let fly with the even more ambitious Noir: The Illustrated Crime Fiction Quarterly which he hoped would be a regular series. Sadly, it never quite caught on, lasting a mere three issues (and two publishers), but boy was it something! It offered both illustrated prose and comic stories (both original and selected classic reprints), plus non-fiction, interviews and even a few reviews. The first issue sported a cover by Brian Stelfreeze (as would the subsequent issues), and through its truncated run, it managed to feature the work of Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty, Mike W. Barr, Nicola Cuti, Rick Burchett, Jeff Gelb, Darren Goodhart, Ed Gorman, Wendi Lee, Rick Magyar, William Marden, Richard Pace, Joe Staton, Robert J. Randisi, Ron Fortier, C.J. Henderson, Brian Michael Bendis, , Bob Cram Jr., Gary Kato, Mike Harris, Nicola Cuti, Charles Hoffman, Ardath Mayhar, Ron Goulart, Joe Staton, Mike Harris, Delfin Barral, Gary Kato, and Steve Crompton. - Gravett, Paul, editor,
The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics | Buy this book
London, Constable & Robinson, 2008.
This hefty little brick of a paperback, edited by Paul Gravett, the editor of Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know, is like a warning tossed through the plate glass window complacency of all those skinny, over-priced little graphic “novels” that offer a lot of overblown pretentious artwork and precious little actual plot. You want story? This collections served up a virtual who’s who tour of crime comics from the forties to the present, offering samples of everything from Will Eisner’s The Spirit to Collins’ and Beatty’s Ms. Tree. The earliest selection is a dry run of Spillane’s Mike Hammer (“Mike Lancer and the Syndicate of Death” from 1942) and winds its way to the present, offering mostly complete stories (or story arcs, in the case of strips) of such familiar classics as Dashiell Hammett and Alex Ross’ Secret Agent X-9 (which, admittedly, is a bit of a letdown). Still, even clocking in at close to 500 pages, there are some glaring omissions (No Dick Tracy? No Slam Bradley? No Johnny Dynamite or 100 Bullets?), but the spattering of off-beat choices and outright rarities they offer instead (a 87th Street Precinct tale from 1962, a 1975 Alack Sinner vignette, a 1948 Simon-Kirby short) more than make up for it. I’m a crime comic geek, but there are enough lost treasures here to satisfy even grumpy nitpickers like me, and the unflinching noirish sophistication offered here by some of the European entries wil be a knock upside the head for American fanboys who think the cartoonish Sin City is the be-all and end-all of comic book noir. - Schutz, Diana, editor,
Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics
Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Comics, 2009.
The perfect apperitif to the previous year’s The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, this collection from Dark Horse featured a slew of all-original stories by some of the best writers and artists working the dark end of the comics spectrum at the time, including Thrilling Detective faves such as David Lapham (Stray Bullets!), Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, Brian Azzarello, Rick Geary, Paul Grist and Gary Phillips. And all in glorious, smack-in-the-mouth black and white. - Nadel, Dan,
Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980 | Buy this book
New York, Abrams ComicArts, 2010.
Not actually a crime comics anthology, but this is a beautifully produced book, offering an interesting survey of forgotten comic book artists and writers, including two complete, hard to find private eye stories: one with Harry Lucey’s Sam Hill and the other featuring Pete Morisi’s Johnny Dynamite. - Kick, Russ, editor,
The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery Volume One | Buy this book | Kindle it!
(Seven Stories Press, 2017)
The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery Volume Two | Buy the graphic novel | Kindle it!
(Seven Stories Presss, 2021)
Created and curated by activist, journalist, writer, editor, muckraker and comics buff Russ Kick, this ambitious anthology series of literary adaptations kicked off in 2017 with Volume One, which was subtitled “The Graphic Canon of Crime and Mystery, Volume One: From Sherlock Holmes to A Clockwork Orange to Jo Nesbø,” promising comic book adaptations of classic crime fiction in full-color — and it more than delivered. It was followed in 2021 by Volume Two (From Salome to Edgar Allan Poe to Silence of the Lambs). together, the two volumes presented a mind-boggling variety of crime lit from an truly impressive line-up of authors, ranging from pure pulp to classic literature and stretching to include songs, poems, plays and even Bibical tales, adapting some of the world’s most famous (and sometimes infamous) writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dashiell Hammett, Charles Perrault, James M. Cain, Jo Nesbo, Mario Puzo, Franz Kafka, Patricia Highsmith, Anthony Burgess, Thomas Harris, Robert Bloch, Truman Capote, Agatha Christie, James Ellroy, William Shakespeare, Derek Raymond, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sophocles, Iceberg Slim and more. - Brower, Steven, editor
Crime Comics Confidential: The Best Golden Age Crime Comics | Buy this book
(You Books, 2021)
Brace yourself for this chunky monkey (over 200 pages) of fully restored pre-Code crime comics. This handsome collection spotlights real life baddies like Al Capone, Legs Diamond, Pretty Boy Floyd, Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, and John Dillinger, plus an in-depth essay by editor and designer Steven Brower. Includes work from Charles Biro, Dick Briefer, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Jack Cole, Reed Crandall, Fred Guardineer, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Bernie Krigstein, Mort Meskin, Bob Powell, John Prentice, Mike Sekowsky, Leonard Starr, Marvin Stein, Alex Toth, and many others. Over 20 full-comic stories in all, all Senate-investigated! - Sapolsky, Fabrice, & TC Harris, editors,
Noir is the New Black | Buy this book
(FairSquare Comics, 2021; expanded edition 2024)
This crowd-sourced anthology first saw the light of day in 2021 and promptly sold over 5000 copies, with an expanded edition following in 2024. It features an eye-popping collection of crime stories ranging from ghost stories and historical period pieces to AfroFuturism, and everything in between, all of the darker side of genre, with contribution from Black comics creators such as Brandon Thomas, Greg Burnham, Gary Phillips, Mark MD Bright, Melody Cooper, N.Steven Harris, Joseph Illidge, Chriscross, Brandon Easton and David Walker.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Word on the Street
Recent and Upcoming Comic & Graphic Novel Releases
- Murder in the Library: Comics
Reference books on Comics. - Eyes in Comic Books, Strips & Graphic Novels
- Comic Books, Strips & Graphic Novels
Preliminary list compiled by Kevin Burton Smith.
