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The Graphic Canon
The Graphic Canon of Crime and Mystery, Vol. 1
From James M. Cain to Stephen King, from Sophocles to the Marquis de Sade to Iceberg Slim, here are stunning and sometimes macabre visualizations of some of the greatest crime and mystery stories of all time. Rick Geary brings his crisp style to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment; C. Frakes resurrects the forgotten novella "Talma Gordon," the first mystery written by an African American. Crime finds new life in these graphic renditions of The Arabian Nights, the Bible, James Joyce's Dubliners, Patricia Highsmith, and leading mystery writers of today like Jo Nesbø. Crime and mystery have never been so brilliantly reimagined.
341 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2017
13 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
About the author
Russ Kick
40 books98 followersEditor of the website The Memory Hole which publishes and archives hidden US government documents, including scientific studies and reports, civil rights-related reports, intelligence and covert action reports.
He was also editor-at-large for The Disinformation Company, where he had published several books including The Book of Lists and 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know.
He was also editor-at-large for The Disinformation Company, where he had published several books including The Book of Lists and 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 8, 2018
Having gone through the literary canon and children's literature, the Graphic Canon series now turns to crime and mystery. Here's hoping that a Graphic Canon of Science Fiction & Fantasy is somewhere down the road …
This is the first of two projected volumes of comics adapted from prose stories with themes pertaining to crime and mystery. It's not all genre fiction, though, as sources as diverse as the Bible, Greek tragedy, and literary stalwarts such as Dostoevsky and Kafka come into play.
Unlike previous Graphic Canon books, this one is not presented in order of original publication, but rather grouped around themes, with sections devoted to, “The Act”, “Criminals”, “Whodunit”, “Judgment”, and “Punishment”.
As with all anthologies, this is something of a mixed bag. At least one of these stories--R. Sikoryak’s mashup of classic Wonder Woman covers with the Marquis de Sade’s Justine--has appeared previously. Some of my favorites:
Peter Kuper’s take on Franz Kafka’s, “A Fratricide.”
Rick Geary doing the murder scene from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
Karrie Fransman’s photo collage take on the home invasion scene from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Though she makes a similar choice as Kubrick did in the movie, depicting Alex and the Droogs as young men, which is too old. In the book, Alex is fourteen, which makes it all the more unsettling.
Theo Ellsworth does an amazing job adapting Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” He brings out some of the crazier qualities inherent in the story and makes them shine. I thought I knew this story, but he made me look at it with fresh eyes. Remarkable!
And Ellis Rosen’s modern take on Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound was heaps of fun.
Two less successful efforts also stood out for me. Suzy Kim and Patrick Gabrielli try to adapt Conan Doyle’s classic, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” but it falls flat. There are some interesting ideas, but Gabrielli’s art just doesn't seem up to the task. It feels more like a student project than a professional piece.
And Kate Glasheen, while she does lovely watercolors, gives a textbook example of how not to adapt Kafka’s, “In the Penal Colony”. There are ludicrous amounts of text crammed into some of those panels. I get it. It's Kafka. But if you're going to reproduce that much of his original prose, you should either accept that it's going to take an entire graphic novel to do it justice in comics form, or just give up and print the original story with a few illustrations instead.
In all, this is a fine anthology, with a few minor missteps. Themed anthologies are fairly common in the comics world, but the Graphic Canon series tend to be better than most. Recommended!
This is the first of two projected volumes of comics adapted from prose stories with themes pertaining to crime and mystery. It's not all genre fiction, though, as sources as diverse as the Bible, Greek tragedy, and literary stalwarts such as Dostoevsky and Kafka come into play.
Unlike previous Graphic Canon books, this one is not presented in order of original publication, but rather grouped around themes, with sections devoted to, “The Act”, “Criminals”, “Whodunit”, “Judgment”, and “Punishment”.
As with all anthologies, this is something of a mixed bag. At least one of these stories--R. Sikoryak’s mashup of classic Wonder Woman covers with the Marquis de Sade’s Justine--has appeared previously. Some of my favorites:
Peter Kuper’s take on Franz Kafka’s, “A Fratricide.”
Rick Geary doing the murder scene from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
Karrie Fransman’s photo collage take on the home invasion scene from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Though she makes a similar choice as Kubrick did in the movie, depicting Alex and the Droogs as young men, which is too old. In the book, Alex is fourteen, which makes it all the more unsettling.
Theo Ellsworth does an amazing job adapting Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” He brings out some of the crazier qualities inherent in the story and makes them shine. I thought I knew this story, but he made me look at it with fresh eyes. Remarkable!
And Ellis Rosen’s modern take on Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound was heaps of fun.
Two less successful efforts also stood out for me. Suzy Kim and Patrick Gabrielli try to adapt Conan Doyle’s classic, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” but it falls flat. There are some interesting ideas, but Gabrielli’s art just doesn't seem up to the task. It feels more like a student project than a professional piece.
And Kate Glasheen, while she does lovely watercolors, gives a textbook example of how not to adapt Kafka’s, “In the Penal Colony”. There are ludicrous amounts of text crammed into some of those panels. I get it. It's Kafka. But if you're going to reproduce that much of his original prose, you should either accept that it's going to take an entire graphic novel to do it justice in comics form, or just give up and print the original story with a few illustrations instead.
In all, this is a fine anthology, with a few minor missteps. Themed anthologies are fairly common in the comics world, but the Graphic Canon series tend to be better than most. Recommended!
December 26, 2024
FANTÁSTICO!!!!!!!!
Desde das Artes que é o ponto principal até a escolha das histórias e de quais capítulos seriam retratados, as introduções sobre os autores e artistas, foi tudo perfeito.
Confesso que quando ganhei de presente, achei que fosse mais um livro da Darkside sobre serial killers ou algo assim (culpa do selo CrimeScene), o que não é exatamente um problema mas quem me conhece sabe que já li demais sobre esse assunto.
No entanto, fui surpreendida de forma muito positiva. O livro é uma coleção de capítulos escolhidos à dedo de grandes narrativas de mistério/crime, ilustrados lindamente por diversos artistas em seus estilos próprios, uma surpresa à cada quadrinho. Se você ama ler sobre crimes, ou arte, essa obra de arte é a melhor recomendação, e se esse não for o caso, ainda assim dê uma chance. De verdade, eu fiquei encantada. E leia em casa, não saia com o livro por aí pelo bem da sua coluna (literalmente pesa quase um quilo).
Desde das Artes que é o ponto principal até a escolha das histórias e de quais capítulos seriam retratados, as introduções sobre os autores e artistas, foi tudo perfeito.
Confesso que quando ganhei de presente, achei que fosse mais um livro da Darkside sobre serial killers ou algo assim (culpa do selo CrimeScene), o que não é exatamente um problema mas quem me conhece sabe que já li demais sobre esse assunto.
No entanto, fui surpreendida de forma muito positiva. O livro é uma coleção de capítulos escolhidos à dedo de grandes narrativas de mistério/crime, ilustrados lindamente por diversos artistas em seus estilos próprios, uma surpresa à cada quadrinho. Se você ama ler sobre crimes, ou arte, essa obra de arte é a melhor recomendação, e se esse não for o caso, ainda assim dê uma chance. De verdade, eu fiquei encantada. E leia em casa, não saia com o livro por aí pelo bem da sua coluna (literalmente pesa quase um quilo).
November 8, 2017
I liked this idea of turning some crime classic to graphic novel, but only few pages aren't enough and left me longing for more...
Mi piace questa idea di trasporre graficamente alcuni classici del crimine, ma avere solo le prime pagine mi ha lasciato proprio l'amaro in bocca....
THANKS EDELWEISS FOR THE PREVIEW!
Mi piace questa idea di trasporre graficamente alcuni classici del crimine, ma avere solo le prime pagine mi ha lasciato proprio l'amaro in bocca....
THANKS EDELWEISS FOR THE PREVIEW!
August 12, 2018
I love every single one of these Canons edited by Kick.
I’m not the biggest mystery/detective fan, but some of my favorites authors are represented here including Joyce and Christie and my favorite Holmes story “The Adventure is the Speckled Band” is done beautifully. (When I was very young (7? 8?), my grandpa used to read/retell Holmes stories from a giant volume that he had. Speckled Band stuck with me.)
There were also several stories I was unfamiliar with, which was fun since I’m used to knowing all of the canonical stories he assembles. This was a great survey of the genre even if it isn’t yet comprehensive.
I’m not the biggest mystery/detective fan, but some of my favorites authors are represented here including Joyce and Christie and my favorite Holmes story “The Adventure is the Speckled Band” is done beautifully. (When I was very young (7? 8?), my grandpa used to read/retell Holmes stories from a giant volume that he had. Speckled Band stuck with me.)
There were also several stories I was unfamiliar with, which was fun since I’m used to knowing all of the canonical stories he assembles. This was a great survey of the genre even if it isn’t yet comprehensive.
July 3, 2019
This weighty tome is an anthology of crime and mystery stories as the cover says from Sherlock Holmes to a Clockwork Orange to Jo Nesbo. Each story is relatively short, in some cases only a single incident from a long form work is adapted, sometimes in rather abstract or surreal ways. Most of the stories are relatively straight forward comics, the style tends to be of the alternative and small press mode, often black and white (there are a few colour stories), heavily stylized and often crude in style.
Although few of the stories to my mind are particularly visually stunning or well told, some are at least interestingly stylized. Also the stories do to my mind interest the reader. I often felt the urge to track down the full story or original on reading these brief adaptions.
Some of the adaptions are very wordy with large amounts of texts from the original book being adapted. A few are wordless or almost wordless, these efforts often achieve the best atmosphere.
Obviously the book deals with gruesome and macabre incidents. There is relatively little swearing, in most (but not all) works. Even the ones that are only excerpts may spoil twists in larger works they are a part of.
You can learn a little about all the artists and creators who worked on this at the back of the book, including in many cases URLs for their websites.
Although few of the stories to my mind are particularly visually stunning or well told, some are at least interestingly stylized. Also the stories do to my mind interest the reader. I often felt the urge to track down the full story or original on reading these brief adaptions.
Some of the adaptions are very wordy with large amounts of texts from the original book being adapted. A few are wordless or almost wordless, these efforts often achieve the best atmosphere.
Obviously the book deals with gruesome and macabre incidents. There is relatively little swearing, in most (but not all) works. Even the ones that are only excerpts may spoil twists in larger works they are a part of.
You can learn a little about all the artists and creators who worked on this at the back of the book, including in many cases URLs for their websites.
February 8, 2023
I have to hand to both C. Frakes and Russ Kick for including Talma Gordon by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins. I had not read Hopkins before and now I have another author to track down. Also while I don't consider Justine to be Crime or Mystery, R, Sikoryak's adaption is great.
However, even though the title of the book includes crime, a few of the selections can only make it by a very expansive use of the words crime or mystery. Seriously - The Scarlet Letter? Really? Works from Ancient Greek?
And this raises another more serious issue - while the artists are the nice and varied, the authors of the adapted works are not. Of the original authors - 3 are women, 24 are male, and 3 are unclear. If you are going to include the Decameron, while not include Marie de France whose works also meet the definition of crime and mystery being used by this volume? I know this is 1 of 2, but where are Rinehart and Braddon? It is so upsetting seeing those stark numbers, especially when the inclusion of works like Greek plays, Arabian Nights, Scarlett Letter, and Arabian Nights is borderline.
It was really a debate to give this two or three stars. I went with three because of the Hopkins work. If that hadn't been there, it would have been less.
However, even though the title of the book includes crime, a few of the selections can only make it by a very expansive use of the words crime or mystery. Seriously - The Scarlet Letter? Really? Works from Ancient Greek?
And this raises another more serious issue - while the artists are the nice and varied, the authors of the adapted works are not. Of the original authors - 3 are women, 24 are male, and 3 are unclear. If you are going to include the Decameron, while not include Marie de France whose works also meet the definition of crime and mystery being used by this volume? I know this is 1 of 2, but where are Rinehart and Braddon? It is so upsetting seeing those stark numbers, especially when the inclusion of works like Greek plays, Arabian Nights, Scarlett Letter, and Arabian Nights is borderline.
It was really a debate to give this two or three stars. I went with three because of the Hopkins work. If that hadn't been there, it would have been less.
January 20, 2022
This is a pretty wide-ranging graphic sampler of crime and mystery fiction, spanning almost the entire history of literary creation. Everything from ancient Greek tragedy to the Bible to Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe are represented, in a variety of graphic styles. Each piece has a nice introduction, to both the original work and the graphic (and sometimes textual) adaptation. There are a whole bunch of these volumes, and I'll probably continue to delve in, but in some ways they are like short story collections, with some pieces only a couple of pages long, some longer, and others really like annotated paintings, with only the barest interpretation of the original work. It's an interesting approach, though I do tend to favour long-form literature, so I'm not sure how much I got out of it. I did share a couple of snips with others though.
March 31, 2025
The Graphic Canon of Crime and Mystery, Vol. 1 is a fascinating project that invites comic and graphic novel artists to reimagine classic stories from the crime and mystery canon. It’s a great way for readers—students of any age—to get familiar with famous characters and plots, and maybe even get inspired to tackle the prose originals.
What makes it extra fun is thinking about how each artist approached their assignment. It’s like the world’s most creative homework project, with every style and interpretation wildly different. Each story has text provided which explains the artist’s milieu and process. There are definitely hot and cold moments throughout, but overall it’s a unique and worthwhile read. I’m excited to dive into Kick’s other volumes in the graphic canon series.
What makes it extra fun is thinking about how each artist approached their assignment. It’s like the world’s most creative homework project, with every style and interpretation wildly different. Each story has text provided which explains the artist’s milieu and process. There are definitely hot and cold moments throughout, but overall it’s a unique and worthwhile read. I’m excited to dive into Kick’s other volumes in the graphic canon series.
December 30, 2017
This is a tough one to review. Overall, I think it's a really cool collection, with a nice diversity of samples of crime and mystery literature. Unfortunately, a great many of the stories were not my cup of tea. However, the art, and the variety of styles, is a treat! I think this almost feels like a textbook of sorts, more designed to expose the reader to a great many ideas and styles than to entertain the reader. Don't get me wrong, at times both things are accomplished, but for me not frequently enough to give it a higher review.
January 18, 2018
The artists are given free reign to create a section of great crime and mystery and their renditions and are a 5/5 though many were so short it left me wanting for more 2/5. Probably the top aim was to give the reader a hunger for more, which it did. As I read each vignette, I reminisced the stories that I had read and added to my list of new worlds to explore.
January 20, 2018
Interesting snippets of classic crime and mystery stories shown through graphic novellas. Is graphic novellas a thing? I'm going to make a thing now.
I really loved the variety of styles. It was a great spring board for discovering new illustrators for future reads. My only complaint is that some of the stories were too brief to successful due the original story justice.
I really loved the variety of styles. It was a great spring board for discovering new illustrators for future reads. My only complaint is that some of the stories were too brief to successful due the original story justice.
April 24, 2023
this was a really cool idea. I just either bought or borrowed all of the Graphic Canon books, and this was my first one. I loved how the editor brought together dozens of artists to recreate all these books and stories. there were a few that I didn't care for, like A Clockwork Orange and The Penal Colony, but I overall enjoyed reading this collection.
June 3, 2023
chanced across this on the shelf at the library while about to check some piano scores out and grabbed it on a whim. it made delightful bedtime reading for a week, perfect little chunks to stimulate the eyes and mind. i'm not very educated about comics, and getting to see so many different creators work with such varied source material was really cool!
April 16, 2025
I really enjoyed the style of this book. I loved how each story had its own illustrator and it gave each one its own unique twist. Since it was just a small chunk of famous stories, it made me want to find the novels I haven’t yet read and to reread the stuff I have. It was a great way to showcase the chosen authors’ work.
November 9, 2025
while the book offered a wide selection of tales and art, the lack of a full story made me crazy! I appreciate the titillating glimpse of various stories, but there wasn't even a synopsis of full story, so I spent more time looking up that then reading. so, unsatisfying for me. interesting selection however.
December 27, 2017
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.
This book is a series retelling classic works of literature as comics and other visual forms. I loved the comic feel. The Clockwork Orange one was my favorite one. I'm totally looking forward to the next one.
This book is a series retelling classic works of literature as comics and other visual forms. I loved the comic feel. The Clockwork Orange one was my favorite one. I'm totally looking forward to the next one.
July 6, 2018
For the most part I really liked this book, these are tried and true stories, so it comes down to the execution, especially the art. The art is good to great in most stores. There were only 2 or three in which I found the art so bad that it was dang near unreadable.
January 22, 2018
I enjoyed it very much. Yes, some stories are very short, just a snapshot, but all in all I liked the concept and the execution.
April 17, 2018
These things are just rather cool.
June 15, 2019
Not quite what I expected, but interesting.
June 11, 2021
Each take on a different classic is just that and without pretense - one artist's impression. None are or are meant to be summations. Great selection of graphic artists, as well.
April 23, 2022
Diverse art and stories. It was cool to see how the choice of art style could affect even the very familiar stories like Sherlock Holmes.
July 26, 2023
A varied collection of classic stories. Will def read the second volume.
October 16, 2025
Good collection; I skipped around
Want to read
September 24, 2017Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
June 11, 2018
Mixed feelings about all canonization projects, especially when they’re called things like “the” graphic canon and don’t seem to critically reflect on most of the authors being white men and most of the stories depicting violence against women! I would love this more if it was even called “a” graphic canon. I did get a bunch of joy from seeing beautiful art and interestingly adaptations of stories I was/wasn’t familiar with.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews