Sex Criminals

A toast to Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky! For achieving what no one anywhere ever even anticipated. For imagining an asexual character who possesses a similar ability to stop time. This issue begs more than a few explanations. Does this new character, Alix, move through the space of the “Quiet” differently than Suzie, Jon, Kegelface, and others? What is up with Carl Sagan’s uncomfortable innuendo? And why is Alix watching the original version of Cosmos instead of the reboot with Neil deGrasse Tyson? Does this mean the Sex Criminals universe is set in the past? Or maybe even an alternate timeline?

There’s nothing more satisfying than going back to a comic and finding the issue where everything just clicks into place. The concept, the characters, the story, and the art just start working perfectly in tandem. For Sex Criminals, Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s funny book about love, sex, depression, weird tentacle cum monsters, endless background dick jokes, and making fun of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie that one time, it was definitelyissue #3. The issue is tagged with the subtitle “My Sexual Errors and Misfortunes 2001 – Present,” but it’s more commonly known as the issue where Suzie sings ‘Fat Bottomed Girls.’

Sex Criminals #12 truly runs the gamut tonally from the broad, crude, and occasionally laugh out loud comedy of Jon and Susie escaping from Douglas to an incredibly informative lecture about normality and abnormality framed in ideas about female sexuality from Professor Kincaid, a porn star turned college professor and ally of Jon and Susie’s against the Sex Cops.

Sex Criminals #11 brings something old, something new, and definitely won’t leave long time Brimpers with comic book blue balls. Chip Zdarsky continues to be the master of visual innuendo and also gets to show off his sensitive side in some intimate moments (Read: sex scenes.) between the main characters while Fraction’s dialogue continues to be filthy and insightful as ever. And stay after the letters page for a special post-credits scene. (Wait, I thought Matt Fraction was done writing for Marvel.)

“Sexual assault has always been a part of the college experience,” laments a university administrator in Kirby Dick’s troubling documentary, The Hunting Ground. Unfortunately, this grim pronouncement is borne out by the statistics, which state that 20% of all female students will be assaulted during their college tenure. Through powerful interviews and a barrage of sobering data, Kirby exposes the epidemic of sexual abuse on campus, as well as the systemic efforts to cover it up. It’s a harrowing story about survivors reclaiming their sense of empowerment, both psychologically and legally.

2014 was an incredibly rewarding year to be a comics reader. Veteran creators, like Grant Morrison, Kurt Busiek, and Matt Wagner continued to churn out some of the best work of their career while new creators, like Noelle Stevenson, Babs Tarr, and Tula Lotay had very strong starts. Marvel and DC published their fair share of events, including Original Sin, …

Sex Criminals #5 Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: Chip Zdarsky Publisher: Image Comics Sex Criminals #5 deals with the problem of the Sex Police raised last issue and brings Jon and Suzie’s shenanigans to a satisfying end. Chip Zdarsky continues to build the world of the Quiet and have more fun background gags while Matt Fraction uncovers a secret about Jon and …

*SPOILER ALERT* This article contains spoilers for Sex Criminals #1-4 Even though there are only four issues out of Sex Criminals, the romance between its two lead characters Jon and Suzie has become one of my favorite relationships in comics. Jon and Suzie are a pair of bibliophiles stuck in dead-end jobs who share a big secret: they …

Sex Criminals #4 Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: Chip Zdarsky Publisher: Image Comics With the “origin” stories of the main characters Jon and Suzie out of the way, Sex Criminals #4 inches closer to the end of its story arc while fleshing out Jon and Suzie’s motivations for robbing the bank in the first issue and looks at an important moment from her …

Sex Criminals #1 Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: Chip Zdarsky Publisher: Image Comics Sex Criminals #1 is one of the weirdest comics of 2013. The basic premise is that the main character, Suzie, can stop time every time she has an orgasm. The comic emphasizes Suzie’s slow discovery of her “power” and uses a non-linear narrative. The …