Crime

Andrew J. Kunka

doi:10.1017/9781009379311.008

6 - Crime

From EC Comics to Ed Brubaker

from Part I - History and Genre

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024

Edited by

Hugo Frey and

Jan Baetens: Affiliation:
KU Leuven, Belgium
Hugo Frey: Affiliation:
University of Chichester
Fabrice Leroy: Affiliation:
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

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Summary

This chapter focuses on a specific comics genre, crime fiction, and the multiple relationships between the two spheres of comics and graphic novels. It takes as its starting point the Crime Does Not Pay magazine (1942), while also presenting a detailed overview and critical analysis of the history of crime comics, which in the beginning often purported to be based on true crime stories. The chapter further analyzes the policy of EC Comics, which entered the crime fiction trend in 1948 before transitioning to horror and science fiction. The chapter then examines the appearance of a new orientation within the EC stories, aiming at effecting progressive social change, in sharp contrast to the severe criticism voiced by psychologist Fredric Wertham, whose anti-comics crusade resulted in the Comics Code (1954). After its implementation, crime fiction disappeared from mainstream comics, but reappeared in the independent comics boom, where creators continued to mine the subversive potential of the genre for political commentary. A close reading of Ed Brubaker’s oeuvre illustrates the new forms of the crime comics tradition today.

Keywords

Fredric Wertham true crime Comics Code genre didacticism social critique Ed Brubaker EC Comics

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel , pp. 106 - 121

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009379311.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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6 - Crime

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