Hatching fresh capers with the creators of ‘Perfect Crime Party’ • AIPT

When it comes to the anthology (and, really, just crowdfunding in general), Iron Circus Comics is always on top of their game. The publisher’s past titles include the horror-centric The Sleep of Reason and YOU DIED, which celebrates “death positivity.” Now, Iron Comics is launching another especially-jam-packed, equally exciting anthology with Perfect Crime Party.

The 300-page, 25-story Perfect Crime Party features over 40 total creators (as well as a cover by the legendary Jeff Smith). Perfect Crime Party will provide a veritable smorgasbord of crime stories, from “club-style murder mysteries to anxious teens hijinx to acts of protest.” But whatever the “flavor” of the various contributions within, Perfect Crime Party ask the only question that really matters: “What’s the perfect crime? And what do you think you could get away with?”

We asked just that — as well as a few other nonetheless important questions — to a dozen Perfect Crime Party creators: Amy Chase, Bevan Thomas, David Brothers, Illuminated, John Konrad, Mariah McCourt, Nathaniel Wilson, Nick Mamatas, Reetta Linjama, Rodrigo Vargas, Tayson Martindale, and Van Jensen. The resulting Q&A will give you something to read as Perfect Crime Party‘s BackerKit runs through September 27. (They’ve already raised some $5,300-plus of a $20,000 goal.) To pledge your support, and/or for a full list of creators and stories as well as pledge levels, head here.

AIPT: Why do crime stories still prove interesting? What about these tales do we want/need?

Amy Chase: There’s something aspirational and intriguing about crime stories, especially that end in a success for the criminal. I think of vigilante types like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor – operating just on the other side of the law to achieve a goal, whether it’s high or low stakes, is deeply engrossing. There’s an element of wish fulfillment to them. Of course, there’s the darker extremes of crime too, which have more psychological components that most individuals will never engage with on a daily basis. It’s a versatile and fascinating genre when done well.

Bevan Thomas: Crime stories help us understand the criminal that lurks within each of us. They hold a mirror up to our souls and make us ask ourselves if we too would break the law in a similar situation. Some crime stories comfort us by saying that only bad people commit crimes, and they always get punished. Others warn us by saying that sometimes it’s the good who get punished and the bad who go free.

David Brothers: Crime stories happen right next door to reality, or maybe with a foot wedged in the door of it. You can approach them from a wide variety of angles, from light-hearted like our Perfect Crime Party anthology to lyrically grim like 100 Bullets from Eduardo Risso and Brian Azzarello. I think they tell us that there’s an order to reality that can be grasped, understood, and maybe even exploited in our favor (in a comforting way), but sometimes they’re just a real fun adventure. I love both, myself.

Illuminated: It’s just the gut instinct I think. The word itself, “Crime” — it sounds harsh, it sounds cool, it promises danger, all stuff people want to see and feel.

John Konrad: I think crime stories appeal to reader’s desires for both justice and danger, which are very primal desires. It’s fun to root for the investigator as they balance the scales, and it’s fun to root for the criminal as they indulge our more unsavory appetites. Whether the criminal gets away with it or not, the reader still wins.

Mariah McCourt: Just based on my own experience with “cozy mysteries,” I think it’s that we know these stories are, in a way, wish fulfillment. In real life mysteries don’t always get solved, justice isn’t always served, or it targets the wrong person. With a cozy mystery, even ones like this where the goal is getting away with it, you get a sense of satisfaction from the construction of the crime to how they ultimately avoid being caught.

Nathaniel Wilson: I think we need the vicarious release of seeing someone discard the limits imposed by society. I think that’s extremely cathartic, but there’s also that other, darker thing where we want to see people punished in the story for behavior we object to.

Nick Mamatas: Crime is just a specific form of social trespass, and trespasses can be sometimes terrible and something to be wary of, and sometimes socially necessary to push culture forward. There are lots of “outlaw” artists, thinkers, and have always been. Everyone daily makes their own decisions to trespass or not, to step over a border, and so of course reading or watching about other people making similar decisions is very interesting.

Reetta Linjama: There can be so many tones within the crime genre, cozy mysteries can be escapism, darker fiction can make you wonder what tiny steps in the wrong direction could have left you with different morals; how far you’d go; how haphazard is the definition of who’s on which side of the law. Crime fiction can bring up big questions. One facet that I consider important in making the genre endure: detective characters (or master criminal main characters) don’t ever quite change too much and they’re a comfortable kind of host to visit again and again.

Rodrigo Vargas: It’s weird. On the one hand there’s an enjoyment of the thrills of a car chase or people getting away with stuff. We relate to that. But also there’s a strange fascination in society for punishment and sending people to jail. We be weird sometimes.

Tayson Martindale: I think there’s something really fun about getting lost in a good mystery, and also something really satisfying about seeing justice being served, the wrong righted, the loose ends tied.

Van Jensen: I suppose there’s a dark inner self that we all have, a voice that whispers evils big and small. And crime stories give us the chance to imagine what would happen if we didn’t just listen to that voice, but acted on it.

Courtesy of Iron Circus Comics.

AIPT: Do you have a favorite crime story across whatever medium (but perhaps focusing on comics)? Why’s it a singular example of the genre for you?

AC: Might be an unconventional pick, but I’m going to say Sex Criminals by Fraction and Zdarsky from Image Comics. It’s raucously funny and exceptionally human. Despite the fantastical circumstances that enable the time-stopping, bank-robbing crime, it’s a series that gets you invested in the people and the “why” of their actions. The stakes aren’t world-shattering, and it breaks all the laws of physics to tell a very emotional, very slippery story.

BT: The “Tombstone Saga” was a long-running Spider-Man comic story, written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Sal Buscema. Joe Robertson, one of Spider-Man’s bosses at the Daily Bugle, is being blackmailed by Tombstone, a mob assassin who many years ago had forced Robertson to cover up one of Tombstone’s murders. Joe had always been the most morally upstanding character in the Spider-Man comics, and it was a shock to discover how entangled he had become in Tombstone’s world. Like many good crime stories, it showed how the line between moral citizen and criminal often blurs, and how once someone is dragged into the criminal underworld, it’s hard to pull oneself back out. A far more psychologically and morally complex story than I was expecting from a superhero book at the time.

DB: Richard Stark’s The Hunter, adapted to comics by Darwyn Cooke as Parker: The Hunter, is about as perfect of a story as you’ll ever find. You’ve got someone that’s been wronged, and all they have left is two fists and a whole lot of malice. The novel is a breeze to read, and homages to the original story are one classic crime trick that always works.

Illuminated: There’s a number of stories that pop into my head, but I started really dreaming of pursuing comics as a job after reading Frank Miller’s Sin City in my teens, so those are very important to me. Other examples I can think of are Brubaker and Phillips’ work on Criminal, which is exceptional, and of course, the entire 100 Bullets series by Azzarello and Risso.

JK: Blacksad is one of my favorite crime comics. It plays to all of the strengths of noir and all of the strengths of comics. It wouldn’t be as successful in any other medium because the characters completely come to life through cartooning talent.

MM: Agatha’ Christie’s “Nemesis” is still my all time favorite. Miss Marple is and has always been the absolute favorite “detective.” In “Nemesis,” she goes to solve a decades old crime at the request of a friend. He calls her “Nemesis” after the Greek goddess, basically saying that she goes where justice is needed and has been denied. Which is a concept I really love because it goes deeper than just mystery solving, but into this idea that justice is necessary and some people, like a little old lady that people underestimate, can bring it about.

NW: For comics, I suppose the EC reprints of Crime Shock SuspenStories were formative when I was a kid, but I usually avoid crime stuff because it can get super dark in ways I find too real. I tend to stick with horror that is obviously fiction because you can indulge, deal with your anxiety, and then put it away. If I had to name my favorite crime story, I’d probably go with The Big Lebowski – all the characters in one way or another exist outside of the law or at least conventional behavior, and the absurd way they bounce off each other is something I can watch any time.

NM: My favorite crime novel is The Burnt Orange Heresy by Charles Willeford; it’s not about comics, but is about visual culture, specifically about art and an art critic, so is of interest to anyone who likes art as well as crime, I’d think.

My fave crime comics are My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and to stretch things a bit, Ann Nocenti’s run on Daredevil in the late 1980s, which focused not just on street villains and the Kingpin, but also put Matt Murdock in the courtroom, dealt with Karen Page’s heroin addiction, etc.

RL: When it comes to comics I haven’t read crime extensively but my personal favourite is Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover. Bandette is a classic gentlewoman thief in whimsical comics-referencing Paris. It’s definitely devil-may-care escapism but it also has cool hair-raising moments with deadly foes. When it comes to crime novels Carl Hiaasen is my go-to for the aspect of environmental revenge fantasy.

RV: Aside from the Brubaker books I don’t think I read many crime comics. There’s one I really liked, Last Gang in Town, drawn by Rufus Dayglo. It’s a heist story with punks and goofy as hell.

TM: My favourite crime stories are those locked room whodunnit tales — characters connected and all hiding something. LOST was one of my favourite TV series of all time and, even though it wasn’t specifically a crime story, it had those ingredients that my favourite crime stories have.

VJ: You can do no better than The Friends of Eddie Coyle. The novel is great, and the film is maybe a touch better. It has it all. Down-on-his-luck career criminal. One last big job. A host of colorful rogues (the “friends”). And a searing tragedy, which also serves as a reminder: Do not listen to that dark inner voice!

Courtesy of Iron Circus Comics.

AIPT: What can you tell us about your story? And, if you’re feeling extra brave, additionally explain it with this formula: “(Blank) is (’90s TV show) meets (Marvel/DC Comic).”

AC: Well, I don’t want to do a disservice to any of the comp titles, but I’ll say: “Play It Again” is a little bit of Buffy meets Brubaker, as a punk rock vampire has to heist back a valuable personal possession that he thought was lost to time – turns out, it’s now in a celebrity’s private collection. It’s playful, punny, and perilous all at once!

BT: “The Good Word” is written by me and illustrated by my brilliant wife Reetta Linjama. It’s the 1988 comedy/crime movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels meets the Great Brain children’s novels, then given a religious spin. It’s about a young snake oil salesman in Mississippi selling small town folks a “healing” elixir he claims came from Biblical times. It’s about how people’s beliefs can be exploited and how easily the tables can turn on someone, and how often the person who can tell the most convincing story is the person who wins.

DB: Alissa Sallah and I made “Polyphonic Funk: My Outlaw Melody” together. We share a love of manga, an interest in cars, and Alissa has a beautiful style, so we hopefully came up with something that plays to her strengths and is a little bit self-indulgent in ways our readers will appreciate. Melody is a young woman who has to either go to college (her mom’s idea) or become the top dog of the criminal underworld of her city (her idea). Advised by the ghost of her father, she tries to come up with a crime that’ll help her get her way.

Illuminated: “Psikotika Will Strike at Midnight” is Diabolik directed by David Zucker, 60s italian crime comics with the surreal anarchic energy of a Naked Gun movie.

JK: My story is “Darling Doesn’t Know,” a noir screwball comedy set during the Golden Age of Hollywood. It’s about a celebrity couple that resort to murder to inherit each other’s fortunes. What they don’t realize is that both of them are flat broke.

MM: “PYRM & BURN” is Miss Marple meets Batman. Kind of. Vengeance and a kind of vigilante justice is at the heart of the story.

NW: “Plague of the Living Rest Benches” is a David Cronenberg movie where he was inspired by the color palette of Lucky Charms marshmallows and thought to himself, “Y’know, I’d like to try making something nice and cuddly today,” but then he didn’t because we live in a deterministic universe, and he’s still who he is meets I can’t find a place to sit down.

NM: Hmm, how about Gilmore Girls meets Uncanny X-Men #124, which features the conniving villain Arcade? Well, maybe not. Anyway, “The Twenty-One Foot Rule” is about a pair of rival sisters, and the game one of them suggests to the other — a sort of duel with surprising results. Surprising to one of the sisters, anyway.

RL: Even for scammers there’s no such thing as overnight success. The characters in “The Good Word” are working at it not because of the returns but because there’s no business like show business. “The Good Word” is Northern Exposure meets Impulse. Not one of my comfort ’90s shows, but to fit with our comic it has to be a small town setting and Twin Peaks would be the polar opposite vibe of “The Good Word.” And Impulse because Humberto Ramos specifically is one of the only superhero artists I paid attention to.

RV: “Spirit Duplicator” is a story of a group of kids that learn to counterfeit trading card games inside of Yu-Gi-Oh or other shows like that. It’s a fun little story, I swear.

TM: My story is a whodunnit murder tale set in the North Pole! Santa’s latest hotshot reindeer, Bluedolph, has been murdered and it’s up to Bruce Justice (the world’s leading expert in mythical homicide) to find the culprit!

VJ: Neal Obermeyer and I told the story of a newspaper crime reporter who has seen every crime there is, and he decides to commit one of his own. I guess you’d say it’s a very cynical Jimmy Olsen in the world of Homicide: Life on the Street.

Courtesy of Iron Circus Comics.

AIPT: What do these kinds of anthologies mean for creators?

AC: Speaking from my own personal experience, anthologies are a wonderful chance to meet your peers in the comics space while flexing valuable shortform storytelling muscles. Anthology themes are often engaging rather than inflexible, inspiring creativity with prompts you might not have otherwise considered for yourself. But equally valuable is the experience for readers, who get to sample amuse bouche-style comics. Quick, entertaining, unique. And it’s a great way to introduce yourself to current creators and their styles.

BT: It’s really hard for many people to break into the comic industry, and these anthologies with their open calls for submission are often the best way for talented newcomers to get involved. Certainly, anthologies similar to Perfect Crime Party were what opened the door to comics for me. It’s also great that these anthologies have such a wide range of genres, allowing creators to practice lots of different styles and stretch their creativity and craft to the limit.

DB: In addition to crime stories being basically my favorite genre, I think short stories are an incredible form in any medium. For Perfect Crime Party, we have a good amount of space (you know some 2000 AD stories only run five pages? Or one?), so there’s plenty of space to showcase Alissa’s storytelling and designs. Being in an anthology alongside our peers is cool too. Comics can feel very solitary, even if you have a crew, and this kind of concrete project where everyone stands side-by-side makes it feel more like a scene than a series of disparate dots.

Illuminated: They’re fundamental for newcomers as they’re the easiest and most reliable way to get our voice across and for people to notice it. If you want to get into comics as a job, you have to make them, and we all agree on that, but having people actually see them, that’s the real hurdle.

JK: Crowd-funded anthologies like this allow creators to benefit from a functioning editorial environment while engaging directly with their readership. A lot of creators are attracted to that, which is why you can see so many talented creators attached to this project.

MM: It’s so great to get work in a shorter format, personally, I love a chunky story but there’s something so freeing about having limited space to challenge your storytelling skills. Plus, it means you get to share your work and the work of others all in one place. I love the variety of perspectives and interpretations of the concept you get with anthologies, too.

NW: A lot of artists probably work solitarily like myself, and it’s really cool to be a part of a collective and see how everyone else explores the theme. We’ve received preview copies, and readers will not be disappointed with this book. It’s really fun.

NM: Personally, I think they’re great! I’m primarily a prose writer, and write short stories in both the crime and speculative genres. I’ve had work in Best American Mystery Stories, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and several noir anthologies. “The Twenty-One Foot Rule” was originally a short story; the prose version appeared in the first issue of a newish magazine named Dark Yonder. Short fiction is rough sledding, but it strikes me that short comics, anthologized around a theme, is a great opportunity for creators to “get their reps in” as it were by trying new things, and great for readers. I always loved a back-up story in my floppy-reading days.

RL: For myself, they prompt me to try new genres and styles. They can introduce you to readers who might not have come across your work otherwise. Anthologies can make an indie comics creator’s workload quite a bit lighter — even though keeping so many people organised is a balancing act for the editor, you can be sure that every single moment one of the participants, somewhere, is putting a little bit more work towards the book. And for readers it’s so much variety.

RV: I can’t speak for all creators, but I really appreciate these crazy anthologies that IC puts out. They let you play and have fun with comics in a way that you can’t find in all places.

TM: They are a wonderful way to get your stories in front of an audience who may never have come across them. There’s such a wide array of creators and types of stories and styles of art and writing in this anthology. Someone who may never have picked up a story in one particular style will now have that tale in their hands, and maybe they find out they like it!

VJ: I can only speak for myself, but I just wanted a reason to get Neal to draw comics. He and I were college friends, and he’s been a super-accomplished editorial cartoonist for decades. And he loves comics! So, for me, this was my way to pull him into the industry, even if just for one story.

Courtesy of Iron Circus Comics.

AIPT: If you planned the actual perfect crime, how might it go (entirely theoretical, of course)?

AC: Honestly, I say, “It’s the perfect crime!” in real life a lot for someone who couldn’t even think of a hypothetical crime to commit for the purposes of this question. I feel like on a heist team or murder mystery interrogation, I’d be the information person – I’m a beast at escape rooms with 47 successful completions under my belt. I’m really good at searching for things online and in imagery, zooming in and spotting little clues. So if any other folks are theoretically looking to assemble their Ocean’s Eleven, hit me up.

BT: It probably wouldn’t go very well. I’m not especially tactical, and I have a hard time changing my plans on the fly. As my story in Perfect Crime Party shows, a successful criminal needs to be able to think quickly on their feet.

DB: I hate when plans change and do everything I can to meet my deadlines. Any plan I may or may not have would go off perfectly, and you’d only find out about it long after you could do anything about it. Theoretically.

Illuminated: I would try to target somebody that can afford the loss, or deserve it. Steal from the rich to give to myself, like a chaotic neutral Robin Hood.

JK: I think I could get away with stealing small artifacts from a museum. I would enlist a child as my partner in crime and get them to throw a tantrum on cue, which would draw attention to me but make everyone uncomfortable enough that I could just hurry out of there, my pockets lined with jewels.

MM: I’m a middle-aged mom so, to be frank, I could probably get away with a lot these days and no one would notice.

NW: Well there would definitely be food. Really good food that I would get to eat. If it’s a perfect crime, there have to be dogs involved, right? Can’t have a perfect anything that doesn’t involve hanging out with dogs. I can’t share the details, but it would end with all the billionaires in the world having explosive, hot sauce diarrhea they could only staunch by redistributing all of their wealth, and me and the dogs hanging out in a lakeside cabin in a foggy pine forest with a lot of good food far away from all the billionaires’ fecal effluvium.

NM: Buy Perfect Crime Party and see!

RL: To me the perfect crime would be one that no one even knows happened. Strangers only, leaving a replica, absolutely no returning to the scene… A random target, maybe even an act of impulse. Now, there’s no guarantee that just because there was no plan you wouldn’t get caught, but the gamble, winging it in the moment to see what happens, would make the attempt worth it to me even if it was unsuccessful. For the story!

RV: So far it’s going great, as long as I don’t talk about the stash of cash hidden in— Ahh! You almost tricked me! That’s all I will say.

TM: Oooh — I’d have so much fun plotting it out and fill sketchbooks galore with all the plans and details. And then when the day comes to actually execute the plan I would be too lazy and just stay inside reading and making tea. My apathy keeps the world a safer place.

VJ: I think I’ll leave that for my next novel…

Courtesy of Iron Circus Comics.

AIPT: Is there anything else you want to add about the story, crime comics, the comics industry at-large, storytelling, life in 2024, etc.

AC: I hope people have a chance to support the book and really explore these exciting stories that break all the genre conventions and some laws in the process! It’s an honor to be included in an Iron Circus anthology alongside other creators I admire, including our “Play It Again” team. Thanks for featuring us!

BT: I normally write fantasy and horror, so it has been really intriguing to build a story around a crime rather than around a supernatural figure or event. That’s another big appeal of crime stories, that each story is so tied to one specific, dramatic action whose presence affects everything around it, like ripples on a pond from where someone has tossed a stone. Reetta and I have had a lot of fun tracing all the ripples of the crime in “The Good Word.”

DB: If you want a look at what Alissa can do, check out her one-shot Sun Tribe: Waffle Shack Index on the Viz Manga app. She’s got some really slick work in there, the kind of stuff that made me excited to work with her. Also, please make more crime comics. They’re really cool.

Illuminated: I just want to thank Iron Circus and our editor Kel McDonald for believing in my contribution and giving me the chance to be in this book.

JK: My comic work is typically black and white, so I had a lot of fun experimenting with color in this story. In the days before digital color when coloring capabilities were more limited, comics had to cheat and innovate and create their own visual language with color. Because my story is visually inspired by 1950s adventure comics, I tried to incorporate some of the color choices of that era.

MM: Be kind!

NW: I heard someone say that the industry, the North American industry anyways, is in a slump at the moment. Whether or not that’s true, the only way I know to get out of or to prevent slumpage is if people make excellent, engaging work. So, everyone should go do that right now. If you have an itch to make something, please make it and get it out there so we can read it. Buy a copy of Perfect Crime Party if you need some inspo.

NM: I would just like the chance to write more comics. I’m cheap and available!

RL: For. The. Story.

RV: Read comics, make comics, have fun making comics. If you’re able, don’t steal them. That’s a crime!

TM: Life these days can sometimes feel like there is more darkness than light out there (depending on what the algorithms feed you), and that can be a pretty awful feeling. I don’t believe it’s true for a moment, though. And one of the things I love most about comics and storytelling is that they are things that connect us all. We all love to get lost in stories and see the light overcome the dark. I’m very grateful for that.

VJ: If you’re interested in my crime writing, check out my debut novel Godfall, coming soon-ish as a TV series directed by none other than Ron Howard.

Courtesy of Iron Circus Comics.