Sex Criminals: The Complete Edition

by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (Illustrator)

All 31 award-winning, headline-grabbing, head-spinning, genre-defying issues of SEX CRIMINALS collected in one soft unthreatening volume celebrating its tenth-ish anniversary.

When Suzie and Jon have sex, time stops. Literally. So they have lots of sex, fall in love, and eventually start robbing banks. Until they find out they’re not alone…

Collects SEX CRIMINALS # 1- #30, #69

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

824 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

"How he got started in comics: In 1983, when Fraction was 7 years old and growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he became fascinated by the U.S. invasion of Grenada and created his own newspaper to explain the event. "I've always been story-driven, telling stories with pictures and words," he said.

Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.

"My mother was not happy about that," he said.

But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."

Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.

Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.

Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."

Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.

- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.

Reviews

[Dawn "MASSIVE TBR" Allsun · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[Sebastian Lauterbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of clever and childish jokes. To give you a taste of this, I will put some wordplays/jokes in my review.

I feel a bit bad for giving this just three stars, because I can tell that a whole load of work went into crafting this book. I'll start with things I like:
The two protagonists are cool characters and I like both of them. The artwork fits the tone of the book really well.
Some of the more meta and creative jokes are hilarious.
The character of Jasmine St. Cocaine is genius.

And here are some of my problems with this book:
The first few issues are very confusing. Mixing fourth wall breaking narration with having multiple different moments in the story (past, present, other present, future). For example, Suzie is narrating and present in the panel of Jon's past, even though they haven't met yet.
Once the story does 'come' around, the initial premise of robbing banks is dropped very quickly and most of the book is spent exploring the relation ships of the protagonists, the villains and many of the supporting cast. This huge chunk in the middle part of the book is boring for the most part and the book should be cut by a substantial amount of pages/issues in my opinion.
Then there is the thing with the powers (the quiet). The explanation is not satisfactory, I never fully understood how it works: Why do some people have different powers, but some just stop time? Why can the same people be together in the stopped vacuum? What is the condition to start it or to end it?

So all in all, I can't really recommend it, even though it is an impressive story, that tries a lot of unique things. Really, it doesn't suck, but I don't see myself reading this again.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.5/10

This is definitely the closest to a perfect narrative I think I’ve come across in graphic novels. The characters this team writes are so fascinating and unique, and the same can be said for the story. The art is incredible if you read graphic novels for that, but apart from some points where I was a bit confused, I really can’t say more good things about Matt Fraction’s creativity.

[Alex Doenau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to explain to a non-reader of books or comics just how satisfying it is to read a complete work that took a long time to put together. Sex Criminals was clearly not plotted out in its entirety over its 30 + 1 issues as some elements sink to obscurity and others become far more important, but there's as a whole it's still an impressive body of work.

[lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

given this book is largely about orgasm based super-powers and genuine sex positivity, i thought i’d have a pretty fun time. i didn’t, however, anticipate that the ending would have me ugly crying. good stuff.

[nell · Rating 4 out of 5]

God I fucking love graphic novels. What a delightful reminder of that, also loved the 4th wall breaks

[Devin Araujo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So damn good I loved this fucking story!!!!