We’re following the clues in this week’s “So You Want To Read Comics”. This is our weekly feature where we take a look at a single topic or genre, then give you two comic book recommendations, perfect for new readers, based on that topic or genre.  This week we’re taking a look at the mystery genre.

Almost all books, TV shows, movies, and just about any other form of media features some level of mystery.  But, some go so far as to make that mystery the main focus of the whole ordeal.  While the mystery genre is wide reaching and can take on many different forms, there are some well known hallmarks of the genre.  A brilliant yet troubled detective like in the Sherlock Holmes stories, complicated crimes like in And Then There Were None and Murder on The Orient Express by Agatha Christie, impossibly intricate conspiracies like in the TV show Lost, and so on.  All of these types of media challenge the reader or viewer to take part in the mystery and try to unravel it themselves before the characters inside can do the same. It’s this participatory nature of mystery stories that have allowed this genre to remain as popular today as it has ever been.

Here are a couple of graphic novels that are able to embrace the mystery genre then present it in a way only comic books can.

FRIDAY

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Marcos Martin
Publisher: Image Comics

Have you ever wondered what happened when Encyclopedia Brown or Cam Jansen grew up?  Well, that’s exactly the question that Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin try to answer in this series.  Here we find Friday Fitzhugh, a young woman who had spent her formative years solving crimes with her best friend Lancelot, a boy who was sometimes considered the smartest boy alive.  Friday has returned home after spending some time away at college, looking to reconnect and enjoy her Christmas break.  But, it doesn’t take long for a grisly crime to once again pull her back into the detective game.  Friday does a great job in letting the story focus on the main mystery but then on the peripheral broach topics like childhood trauma, the inability to move on for some, and what happens when friends grow apart, not due to some big event but by the natural progression of life.  This series is available on Amazon both digitally and in physical formats, but is also available via Panel Syndicate where you can name your own price for a digital version of the comic.

THE PRIVATE EYE

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Marcos Martin
Publisher: Image Comics

Another series featuring the artwork of Marcos Martin and also available on Panel Syndicate for as much as you want, but this time featuring the writing of another comic legend Brian K. Vaughan.  In this series a massive failure of cloud based technology has effectively erased everyone’s privacy, meaning everyone’s information and identity is up for grabs.  This leads society to all take on secret identities and only appear in public while wearing a mask.  An unlicensed private investigator named Patrick Immelmann (get it, P.I.) has been hired to keep an eye on a woman’s newest employer, but when things go wrong P.I. finds himself caught up in a case filled with many characters who are both colorful and dangerous.  One of the most interesting aspects of this series is how while it uses many tropes familiar to the mystery genre, it also does away with the typical dark and gritty stylings and instead utilizes bright and vibrant art, as if to say that people no longer need to hide in the dark corners of society to remain anonymous in their more sinister doings.

What are some of your favorite mystery stories or comics?  What did you think of these recommendations? Let us know in the comments section below.

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