Every once in a while a comic series comes along that I can't help but love, and it'd weigh on my conscience if I didn't profess a little geeky affection for them here. Of course, seeing as how it's a mystery blog, (and crime, yeah, and noir, okay) my selections will conform to that. Also, I rely almost entirely upon the personal recommendations of friends and authors for my graphic reading choices, (not to mention donations - You rock, you know who you are - big THANKS).

I was excited to see that the first story arc of Stumptown (The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo, but Left her Mini) by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth has been collected in a book, because now I get to love on another hardboiled PI series. If you've read much around here, you probably know that I like 'em hardboiled and I do like private dicks, but gawd, the formula can get stale and unfortunately the remedy lotsa series go for is 'when in doubt go bigger and biggER and BIGGER' until the fate of the whole friggin world is at stake each time out, or the conspiracy goes all the way to the top, like through the glass ceiling - To The Top. And I can go for that once in a while, but generally I like my guys (and gals) to operate in the real world.

Sooo yeah, Stumptown. Gosh, it's got it all. Gritty artwork, (Portland looks fantastically seedy as well as y'know... nice. The dream of the '90s is alive), plus a tough (and believable) detective at its core. Dex Parios inhabits the role I like my investigators to - she smart in her work, but not in her personal life. She's cynical, loyal, witty, brave and can be really, really pig-headed about not getting warned off of things. Did I mention she could take a punch? And a kicking. Hell, she gets shot a couple of times on the first page. Seriously. She cannot take a hint. Hope they keep the series rolling. You like Rockford Files? You'll dig this one.

And now for something completely different.

All that stuff I said about realism? Nevermind. Forget I said anything. Give your suspension of disbelief a well deserved night off and just go with the decidedly freaky flow of John Layman and Rob Guillory's Chew. Agent Tony Chu of the F.D.A. (yeah, the hard-chargin, gun-totin, cap-bustin F.D.A. of the near future) has a very special er skill - he gets psychic impressions from anything that he eats, (ingests actually) -  and you couldn't imagine the types of things his boss expects him to bite into.

Stop thinking about this one and just jump in. The plots jump comfortably between strange and weird, then take a little detour at bizarre before winding up at delightfully odd. Throughout his investigations into black market chicken smugglers and missing health inspectors, much blood is spilled, many unsavory items are snacked on and before you can say 'holy Holyfield' somebody goes all Mike Tyson on Chu's ear and he has to wear a falsie for future investigations, (yes there are more Volume 2, Volume 3). 

Did you catch it a couple weeks ago when I referred to Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt's ridiculously sweet Western/horror mash-up The Sixth Gun as Lansdickian (as in Joe R. Lansdale?), well I'm going to call Chew - Swierczynskian, as in Duane, y'know Polish-name. So, you get the flavor, yes? Speaking of Duane, has anybody thought of making a graphic novel out his first one, Secret Dead Men? Come on. If ever there was a book dying to be a comic, it were that one. Expiration Date would follow, of course. And then win an Edgar, no?

So, for the crime/mystery comics, I'm currently reading Kody Chamberlain's Sweets. What else is out there?

Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.