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Psst. Hey you, c’mere. Word on the street is you’re lookin’ for some mysterious graphic novels. Well, kid, you’re in luck, I’ve got exactly what ya lookin’ for hidden right under my the folds of my nondescript trench coat. Woah woah woah don’t go callin’ the fuzz! I swear I’m an honest guy, look, see? Nothing but hard boiled mysteries under here for a hard boiled sleuth like yourself. It’s a hard boiled world, kid, and we all gotta make ends meet. Some people become private eyes, some take part in a life of crime, but me? I stand in rainy back alleys looking to sell comics to nerds like you. Is it legal? Technically. Is it respectable? Hardly. Do I have in my possession the 10 best mystery graphic novels around? Absolutely.
Blacksad
Blacksad is takes in a hard boiled world where everyone’s an animal. I don’t mean that in a moral sense, I mean it literally – it’s cats and dogs out there! Aside from being a tuxedo cat, John Blacksad is also a private investigator. Whether it’s hounding murderers or rescuing kidnapped kittens, he’s your man for the job, so to speak. Presented in bite-sized vignettes, the story follows Blacksad as he throws a bone to the local canine law enforcement, or rubs scales with the city’s reptilian underbelly. In this dog eat dog world, he’s gonna need all nine of his lives to survive. The art style? Imagine Ed Hopper’s famous painting Nighthawks, but everyone’s covered in fur.
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris proves that when push comes to shove, anyone can become a hard boiled detective – even if that someone is a ten year old girl. Karen Reyes is an elementary school aged horror buff, who has a taste of real terror when she discovers that her upstairs neighbor has been murdered. Presented as notes in her personal diary, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters details Karen’s quest to figure out who killed Anka Silverberg – a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi Germany. Like any good noir story, the truth of the present becomes clear through the past – the action flashes back to Anka’s younger years to cast a light on her grim future. After Karen gets to the bottom of this mystery, she might end up finding a new hobby – she’ll have seen enough monsters to last a lifetime.
From Hell
When it comes to graphic novel noir, nobody does it quite like Alan Moore. From Hell shifts away from the steaming mid-century American cityscapes that serve as many of Moore’s narrative backdrops, and transports the reader to the Victorian past. The novel revolves around one of the world’s most notorious criminals, a man named for the shredded state of his victims’ bodies: Jack the Ripper. Through a combination of hard facts, leading theories, and artistic liberties, Moore rewrites one of the most famous true crime stories in history. There’s more to the Whitechapel murders than meets the eye, this conspiracy infects all levels London society – reaching as deep as the city’s secret underground orders to the heights of the Royal Family itself.
Fables
Fables is a collection of hardboiled Brother’s Grimm fairytales for the modern era. After a mysterious figure known as The Adversary exiled famous folklore figures from their fabled homeland, these nursery rhyme characters had to remake their lives in the real world. The novel follows Bigby Wolf, a former huffer, puffer and house blow downer gone to the good side. Bigby serves as the sheriff of Fabletown, a home for fairytale legends in a gritty section of New York City. Things were quiet for a time, until Snow White’s hard-partying sister turned up dead. Bibgy’s got a few leads – signs point to the jealous ex-lover Bluebeard, but her new beanstalk climbing boyfriend Jack is also a suspect. Maybe an argument got out of hand while he was hopped up on magic beans? When it comes to fables, anything you can imagine is possible – that’s the problem.
The Fade Out
The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is a classic noir that takes place in Hollywood in the 40’s – the golden age of the genre. After a night of hard partying, struggling screenwriter Charlie awakens in a starlet’s apartment only to find her dead on the floor. As news of Valeria Sommers’ untimely demise spreads, the studios attempt to cover up the gory details. Charlie isn’t content to forget the mysterious circumstances surrounding Valeria’s death, and works to untangle the mystery before the showbiz bigwigs can shut him down. It’s a thriller that exposes the scuzzy underbelly of glitz and glamour, proving that no matter how bright the perfect smiles of celebrities shine, they’re just as ugly as the rest of us on the inside.
Redlands
Jordie Bellaire’s Redlands is a Southern Gothic mystery set in small town Florida. The town of Redlands is ruled by a coven of witches, who came to power through decades of demonic sacrifice. Serving as the local law enforcement, these weird sisters maintain an uneasy peace with the local population. After young women start turning up dead, that peace is shattered. A serial killer is stalking Redlands, and the coven is being guided towards the culprit by the vengeful spirit of a murdered victim. Occult magic is used as a vehicle for feminist revenge, and the results are sadistically satisfying.
Dept. H
Thought that Bioshock was the only deep sea neo-noir on the market? You thought wrong. Matt Kindt’s Dept. H is the story of an underwater world rocked by conspiracy. A hardboiled investigator named Mia is piecing together the details of an apparent sabotage at a deep-sea research station. What starts as a simple information gathering mission soon bings Mia face to face with creepy undersea critters that make up part of a complicated conspiracy. Mia might be out of her Dept. H here. Her “depth.” Clever, right? It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that’s what the title meant – I could never hold a candle to Mia’s talent for putting two and two together.. Considering that this story is overshadowed by the ever-present threat of a catastrophic flood, that candle probably wouldn’t stay burning for very long anyway.
The Last Broadcast
The Last Broadcast by Andre Sirangelo is The Prestige meets an urban explorer documentary – the real mystery is how no one ever thought of that genre mashup before. Backbone are group of daredevils that plumb the depths of burned out industrial buildings, and they’ve recently stumbled across the mother of all urbEx finds: an abandoned bunker that once belonged to 1930’s illusionist magician Blackhall the Incredible – who mysteriously vanished without a trace. While that’s normal for most magicians, Blackhall broke with stage magic tradition by never coming back. At the same time Backbone made the discovery, an out of work magician named Ivan received a mysterious package hinting that Blackhall may have died in 1934 – and that foul play could have been involved. As these seemingly unrelated parties zero in on the answers, they’ll come together to uncover a conspiracy that goes far deeper than the sewer depths Backbone makes a habit of exploring.
Nailbiter
Nailbiter is the story of Buckaroo, Oregon – a quiet town that’s inexplicably responsible for producing sixteen of the world’s sickest serial killers. Is it something in the water? The food? The local culture? That’s exactly what NSA Agent Nicholas Finch is attempting to figure out. He’s got skin in the game – his FBI agent buddy Charles Carroll has recently disappeared, and the last man that Carroll arrested may hold the key to finding him. Edward “Nailbiter” Warren is Buckaroo’s most recent killer creation, earning his moniker for his penchant for eating the fingernails of his victims. Now in police custody, Warren serves as a Hannibal Lecter style guide for Nicholas, helping him uncovering the mystery behind Buckaroo’s murderous reputation. Part Neo-Western noir, part hardboiled horror, Nailbiter will have you chewing yours with dread.
The Black Monday Murders
The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman takes place in one of noir fiction’s most famously hardboiled locales: New York City. The story kicks off with Black Monday, the infamous stock market crash of 1987. As it turns out, the economic fluctuations aren’t caused by trade policy or supply and demand, but by shadowy cabals that serve the whims of dark gods. A group of financiers have made a deal with a primordial being in exchange for wealth and power, and are prepared to use any unscrupulous means necessary to hold onto their assets – which include their immortal souls. While investigating a string of bizarre killings, NYPD detective Theodore Dumas is drawn into the occult underbelly of the global market – one ruled by vampiric Russian oligarchs, evil popes, and devil worshipping elites. The conspiracy theorists are gonna love this one, “I told you so’s” all around.
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Sarah Fimm
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