DRAWN TO KILL In his introduction to the excellent genre-defining The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, comicstorian Paul Gravett traces the genre's lean, mean machismo to Chester Gould's 1931 newspaper strip, Dick Tracy. A rival syndicate grabbed Dashiell Hammett to write Secret Agent X-9, and the "comic" was out of (most) comics forevermore.

DC Comics was first founded as Detective Comics, serving up its crime fighters in and out of costumes--from Batman to the officers of Gotham Central. DC's darkly realistic 100 Bullets recently finished its 13-volume run, winning a slew of awards, and the lately launched Vertigo Crime line has received good reviews. Meanwhile, Marvel has unleashed noirstyle versions of Spider-Man and his supercolleagues.

Comics starring the debonair and never-die Sherlock Holmes date back at least to 1944, and last year's Hound of the Baskervilles from Sterling gives the keen-eyed detective full-length due. Sterling has more Holmes hijinks in press.

Some hot newer titles vary the menu. In the noir tradition comes Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter, a tale of a revenge-seeking stained soul superbly adapted by class act Darwyn Cooke. Britten and Br, lightly conjures an oddball PI with a tea bag for a sidekick (see Graphic Novels, LJ 3/15/10). Romance enters the mix from Alixopulos in Mine Tonight, a tongue-in-cheek fiction of queasy interbreeding among social protestors and profits during the 2004 presidential election.

Definitely off the beaten track: the hilarious and unique Chew: Taster's Choice, introducing an investigator who must literally takes a bite out of crime (see Graphic Novels, LJ 3/15/10). And chugging into its third volume comes WIZZYWIG, Vol. 3: Fugitive, as Ed Piskor drops us into a 1980s tangle of phone phreaking and computer hacking featuring Houdini hacker Kevin "Boingthump" Phrenicle. Piskor's entertaining and informative series may be previewed and ordered via www.edpiskor.com.

But lest we forget that crime exists in very real life, consider the Real Cost of Prisons Project, begun in 2000 to politicize mass incarceration. Lois Ahrens's The Real Cost of Prisons Comix (PM Pr., 2008) should be required reading for anyone willing to go beyond the safety of fiction-and perhaps even more so for those unwilling.--MC

Alcante (text) & Didier Pagot (illus.). Pandora's Box. Vol. 1: Pride. 2008. ISBN 978-1-905460-81-6.

Alcante (text) & Vujadin Radovanovic (illus.). Pandora's Box. Vol. 2: Sloth. 2009. ISBN 978-1-84918-006-1.

Alcante (text) & Steven Dupre (illus.). Pandora's Box. Vol. 3: Greed. 2010. ISBN 978-1-84918-019-1.

ea. voh Cinebook. 48p. tr. from French by Jerome Saincantin. pap. $11.95. F

The seven deadly sins, plus hope, underlie eight timely parables mixing mythology with modern life. Pride finds U.S. President Narcissus Shimmer grasping for a medical miracle and secretly cloning a bone marrow donor to cure his leukemia. In Sloth, we meet Olympic sprinter Paris Troy, who yearns for yet one more gold medal--perhaps possible through under-the-counter steroids. Greed introduces Teze Egee, Ethiopian orphan adopted by the health minister of France, who later appoints his grown son as director of a food safety agency. Unfortunately, Teze's efforts to...