They say that Frank Miller revived the genre. They say that David Lapham
revived the genre. They say… a lot of stuff.

It doesn’t matter when
crime-themed comics first appeared, because crime as a theme is older than
fiction. As is only natural, it finds its way into the stories of every new
medium that comes along. Folk tales, legends, stories of the gods interacting
with humans. Plays, novels, radio, movies, and television. Why should comics be
any different?

Whether you go back to Johnny Dynamite or never
read a crime book before Road To Perdition, it doesn’t really matter.
Crime has been going on for quite a while, after all. (Cain, where’s your
brother?)

It can make for interesting reading, representing an
atmospheric look into worlds we might otherwise never see with a dash of
“what would I do in that situation?” thrown in for good measure.
From the pre-Code crime comics era to the present, many different writers,
artists, editors and other creative forces have tried to create intriguing
stories with varying degrees of reality and success onto the mean streets of
crime-filled settings or into the safe suburban communities, where things like
that aren’t supposed to happen.

As in film and those other media,
comics have gone through eras when the good guy always won, the rise of the
anti-hero, the ambiguity of the modern world, and the lone figure (or duo)
making sense of the chaos by sheer force of will.

And it’s not just
narrowly defined stories of cops and robbers either.

The spectrum within
the genre is wide. It includes Detective Comics before and after the
arrival of Batman, Crime Does Not Pay, War Against Crime,
Impact ( featuring Bernie Krigstien’s “Master Race”), Sin
City by Frank Miller, David Lapham’s Stray Bullets and Jinx by
Brian Michael Bendis. It also has room for Ed Brubaker’s Scene of The
Crime, Whiteout by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, Streets by
James Hudnall, as well as Beautiful Killer, Nowheresville, Ms.
Tree, Jon Sable Freelance, Crime Patrol, Crime
SuspenStories, Kane, and 100 Bullets.

Whether it was
Don McGregor taking a lot of risks in the fight for creator ownership with
Detectives, Inc., David Mazzuchelli adding real grit to Miller’s
“Batman: Year One” story, or John Romita, Jr. going over the top in
Punisher War Zone, though, what is certain is the impact crime can have
on the people creating the tales.
Many of the current top creators in the
best selling superhero comics come from a crime writing background, and the
genre’s influence is being felt right now in comics like Daredevil,
Batman, and others.

Bendis, Brubaker and Rucka, for instance, are
three of the top writers in comics today. It’s pretty easy to see that these
guys and their compatriots are at the top of just about every publisher’s list,
but what makes crime so attractive to these writers and
artists?

“It’s the same thing that attacks readers,” said
Powers writer Bendis. “It’s fantasy, but very reality based. People
like to live vicariously on the edge without actually doing it. As a writer you
get to explore the extremes of human condition. Nothing makes a character more
interesting than having a gun to their head.”

“The
characters,” echoed Nowheresville creator Mark Ricketts.
“From the seedy underbelly to the corrupt in high places, the characters
in crime stories are complex, multi-layered, and usually desperate. I love
writing about desperate characters.”

“I really don’t
know,” laughed Powers artist Michael Avon Oeming. “I’m not an
on the edge crazy guy, so I don’t like that kind of element in my life. When I
was younger… well, different story. Maybe because I like things so safe now,
those elements attract me. Also, I see crime as a mood that hard to use
elsewhere. For me crime is a mask for the horror genre. Maybe I’m a closet
horror fan?”

“I think the interesting thing about any crime
storytelling is the motivation, everyone can relate to being so upset about
something and reacting to it, but just a handful can take the next step and
actually do something,” said Jimmy Palmiotti, who steeped two of his
creations, 21 Down and The Monolith in the crime comics tradition
even though they were ostensibly superhero comics. “That and how things
are done…the science behind it and the train of thought intrigue me. Deep down
I an extremely honest person and am driven to do the right thing always. Crime
stories gray the line between good and bad…and again, what can be more
interesting than the process of corruption?”

“I’ve been
reading crime fiction since I discovered Spillane in high school, and somewhere
along the line, I got bored with superhero comics,” said Christopher
Mills, the creators behind SupernaturalCrime.com. “In the early Eighties
the direct market was just getting going, and there was a great variety of
titles being published in a great variety of genres (I miss those days). Among
those titles were books like Ms. Tree, Jon Sable and
Grimjack. While Grimjack was set in a fantasy world, the character was
very much a hard-boiled private eye. He didn’t have any super powers, but still
kicked major amounts of ass.”

All of these creators see an
increased audience in the current marketplace to crime comics, though to varying
degrees. Bendis has witnessed increased sales for his crime graphic novels, due
in part to his superhero work at Marvel, and Mills has published numerous
stories on his website.

“I don’t think crime comics will ever sell
big, but people have gotten more open to things outside of the super hero thing,
so I think they are more open to it now, then say ten years ago,” Oeming
said.

“Yeah, the audience is especially receptive to crime stories.
But then the crime story seems to be on the rise, not only in comics, but in
film and television. Have you seen the new fall line-up of TV shows? They should
just give Dick Wolf (creator of the Law and Order collection) his own
network,” Ricketts said with a laugh. “And doesn’t it seem kind of
creepy that everyone has become so fascinated with forensic
medicine?”

Their influences come from far and wide, everything from
great fiction to local newspaper headlines, and they definitely include the
crime comics that came before their titles.

Among his influences, Bendis
lists, “true crime stories and authors like Richard Price and Elmer
Leonard, who create fully researched yet very whimsical character pieces.
Steranko did everything in crime comics years before it was cool.
Chandler is the granddaddy of Sin City. Another inspiration to me
was James D Hudnall’s Streets series. The guy was ahead of his time. My
favorite modern crime comic is Kane. It’s ferociously
underrated.”

“I guess you can say The Spirit is a
crime book and any of the short [Alex] Toth stories with crime. Sin City
got me interested in crime books. I like the old books from the ’50s because
they are fun, but mostly its old noir films like T-Men or Kiss Me
Deadly,” said Oeming. “The Paul Grist books…they do well, but
they should be doing great. 100 Bullets stands on its own of
course, but that may be my all around fave.”

“I always liked
it when Batman used science and deductive reasoning to solve a mystery,”
Ricketts added, laughing again. “Does that count?”

Like most
genres, crime comics aren’t just one little niche. It’s a lot of smaller ones,
insidiously weaving their way into our lives. Just like crime
itself.