The Thrilling Detective Web Site: Word On The Street

The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle ...Buy this book
Written by Jim Butcher himself, and drawn by Ardian Syaf, this hard-cover graphic novel collects all four-issues of the 2008 mini-series, featuring Butcher's wizrd/private eye Harry Dresden. (October 2008).
Backup ...Buy this book
A novelette featuring Harry Dresden, everyone's favourite wizard private eye, written by Harry's creator, Jim Butcher, and illustrated by Mike "Hell Boy" Mignola. (October 2008).
Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries
Just a little longer. It's taken seven years or so, but the long-rumoured Femme Noir comic book miniseries is now almost a reality, slated for publication in April or May 2008 by Ape Entertainment, out of San Diego Of course, the series' creator, Chris Mills, is a long time pal of this site, and his Femme Noir web comic has run on this site from almost the beginning. (Spring 2008)
Cash and Carry ..Buy this book
The latest graphic novel collection of Tim Broderick's rock-solid Odd Jobs web comic series (which runs on this site, famong others) featuring quixotic, low-key private eye David DiAngelo. Arguably the most consistent private eye comic -- web or print -- in years, and certainly one of the very best. Plug yourself in. (February 2008)
J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography ..Buy this book
Now here's something you don't see everyday: a no holds-barred biography of the FBI head honcho (and headcase) done in comic book form. Rick Geary, famed for his Treasury of Victorian Crime series and numerous grahic novel adaptations of literary classics, does his usual bang-up job of extensive research, finely rendered period detail and good ol' storytelling. It's all here, from the Bureau's early, Depression-era gangbusting days to the shadowy world of Watergate, with plenty of professional (and personal) malfeasance (and rumours of malfeasance) to ponder. Hoover might not have been all bad, but he sure was drawn that way.
High Moon
This on-going web comic, brought to you by DC's online wing, Zuda comics, is the usual mish-mash of genres, a spaghetti western/werewolf story about a former Pinkerton man working a missing daughter job .. and werewolves are the least of his problems. It may sound dopey, but it's scripted by David Gallaher, the guy who did a bang-up job bringing Johnny Dollar to comics, and artist Steve Ellis is a man who knows how to wield a mean pencil. (Starts January 23, 2008).
Hawaiian Dick
The return of the Eisner-nominated series, now on-going, featuring the adventures of ex-mainland cop Byrd, who's set up shop as a slacker Island dick in 1950s Hawaii. A great supporting cast, a whiff of woo-woo, solid writing and a entertaining blend of hard-boiled action and period detail and colour, make this one of the best (and, in fact, one of the only) detective comics to come out in years. In the debut issue, Byrd meets a World War II flying squadron, who soon find themselves under attack by a Japanese fighter plane--in 1954. Exotic drinks will be consumed and island kitsch will be evident. Call it tiki noir.(Novemeber 2007)
Silverfish ...Buy this book
David Lapham's latest graphic novel is stunning - simply one of the most gut-wrenching, brutally thrilling books I've ever read. It plays out like Hitchcock on meth, a wicked, black-and-white kaleidoscope of teen angst, evil stepmothers, psychotic killers with fish on the brain, deadly secrets and an abandoned amusement park on the Jersey shore.Writer and artist Lapham, of course, is the man responsible for the sporadically published and highly regarded Stray Bullets crime comics, but if he's taking time from that to write masterpieces like this, he's more than forgiven. (June 2007)
Le Soleil naît derrière le Louvre
Latest in French comic artist's on-going series of graphic novel adaptations of Léo Malet's Nestor Burma series, about a WWII-era Parisian private eye. In French only. (2007)
Criminal: Coward ...Buy this book
Collects the first five comics of Criminal, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips' unflinching street-level look at crime and those who make a living at it. Violence-shunning Leo is a nice enough guy (well, all things considered), a once-legendary thief now eking out a living (and keep his head down and his butt out of prison) as a professional pickpocket who gets roped into into a high-risk caper that goes horribly awry. (May 2007)
The Black Diamond Detective Agency ...Buy this book
Oooh, good stuff! Eddie "From Hell" Campbell adapts a screenplay by C. Gaby Mitchell into a hot turn-of-the-last century period piece that promises "Orphans! Mayhem! Terror!" as a quiet corn farmer from a small town in Missouri becomes the prime suspect behind the destruction of a train carrying official US currency paper. He's on the run, determined to bring in the real culprits, but he has the all-powerful, all-seeing Black Diamond Detective Agency (can you say "Pinkertons?") hot on his heels. What to do? The one thing the agency doesn't expect -- Hardin adapts an alias and joins their ranks. (On sale in May 2007)
Sam Noir: Samurai Detective Special Edition # 1 .. Buy this book
Collects all three issues of the sold-out series featuring the dick who walks softly but carries a big sword. Stabby is his business. (On sale in June)
Criminal Macabre: Supernatural Freak Machine . Buy this book
This graphic (very graphic, in fact) novel collects all five issues of the aborted 2005 mini-series by Steve Niles and artist Kelly Jones that ran aground after three issues.Cal Mcdonald is a booze-soaked ghoul-chasing gumshoe taking on the usual creepy-crawlies from Hell and other parts. (Spring 2007)
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures
Marvel kicks off a new line of sci-fi/horror/fantasy comics with this adaptation of the first novel of the popular vampire/detective/romance series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. As far as Iv can figure it, this will be a monthly series. A two-issue mini has also been announced, which will feature an original story written by Hamilton herself. (On-going)
Sam Noir, Samurai Detective: Ronin Holiday
This original three-issue black and white mini-series by Image was part hommage and part fromage, but it was definitely a helluva lot of fun, as an ex-ronin turned P.I. headed down the vengeance trail, skewering assorterd henchmen and ninjas who stood in his way. It completely sold out, so this sequel, released just months later, was not exactly unexpected. In this one, Sam is in vacation mode, figuring a tropical retreat is just the thing to take his mind off the pain. But of course, trouble of the stabby kind soon finds him.
Criminal Macabre: Two Red Eyes
The latest Cal Mcdonald mini-series finds our booze-soaked ghoul-chasing gumshoe taking on Noserfatu, the world's oldest vampire, plus something even more frightening: sobriety!. The first arc in a proposed new series. (Starts December 2006)
Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp
Now we're REALLY stretching it. In this amusing one-off, the simian sleuth becames the all-seeing, all-powerful, all-knowing Dr. Fate -- quite a leap for "a lowly chimpanzee with some jumped-up language skills." (January 2007)
Playback: A Graphic Novel... Buy this comic
Not the Philip Marlowe novel but an adaptation of the original, unproduced screenplay that Chandler eventually turned into the last Marlowe book, all about a Vancouver cop trying to get to the bottom of some nasty business and help a dame out of a jam. This handsome, if rather bleak story was brought to graphic novel form by writer Ted Benoit and artist François Ayroles and published in France in 2004 -- now it's been translated into English, and it's a righteous job, all shadow and menace and dark style, sorta like Sin City, but with much better writing. It's Chandler, man. (July 2006)
ON-GOING TITLES & MINI-SERIES
Daredevil (featuring -- at least occasionally -- Dakota North)
No, seriously. Since Ed Brubaker starting writing it, the comic featuring Marvel's blind horn-head has adopted a surprisingly noirish tone, and includes the on-going -- if sporadic -- resurrection of P.I. Dakota North as something other than a bad joke It could set the stage for the supposedly upcoming Dakota North mini-series. Check it out!
(Began with #82, April 2006 issue)
ALSO OF INTEREST
Drawing Crime Noir: Drawing Crime Noir for Comics and Graphic Novels... Buy this comic
This 2006 title, by Christopher Hart, claims to give you the skinny on how to draw for "crime noir," which he proclaims the "hottest style around". And he does talk a good game, I admit -- he mentions "windswept streets, dark shadowy figures, reckless women, gleaming pistols, men without conscience, boulevards of fear," blah blah blah and he even namedrops Chandler at one point. But mostly he reduces the genre to a series of visual cliches, and then tells you how to render them.. He does offer some interesting and useful drawing tips, though (providing you can alreadydraw relatively well). It's when he expounds on the genre itself that he gets into trouble, and joins the long line of people (directors, critics, popcorn chewers, etc.) who wouldn't know noir if it bitchslapped them across the face.