IDW Publishing has announced it will launch a new imprint for crime genre comics in May. The San Diego–based comics publisher said in the announcement that the expansion was spurred by widespread hunger for "true crime and cult stories," as well as the success of its horror imprint, IDW Dark, which launched in October 2024.
Stories of lawlessness are a perennial presence on comic store shelves, senior group editor Heather Antos noted. "Crime has a deep, often under-celebrated history in comics, from hard-boiled noir to social thrillers that pushed the medium to be bolder, sharper, and more adult,” she said in a statement. "With the IDW Crime imprint, we’re honoring that legacy while giving it a modern spotlight."
IDW Crime will kick off with three new series, beginning in May with Seven Wives #1, created by Zoe Tunnell and artists V Gagnon and Tesslyn Bergin. Focusing on the social dimensions of crime, the Seven Wives series centers on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints compound in remote Arizona, where a mysterious death unravels "the horrors of brainwashing" and delivers "a compelling whodunit," per the publisher.
Eisner Award–nominated writer Joey Esposito and artist Valeria Burzo’s Killer Influences #1, about a murderer who partners with an aspiring true crime influencer, will follow in July. Another new series of the serial-killer variety will arrive in September, with Amy Chase and artist Savanna Mayer’s Fixation #1, which "blends true crime tension and thrills with razor-sharp commentary on fandom and toxic addictions," per IDW.
All three launch titles are the first in three-installment, limited series, and are currently available for preorder via comic stores nationwide.
In a statement, senior group editor Jake Thomas spoke to the visceral pull that the crime genre holds over many fans—we are "hardwired to want order and justice, so we root for the hero to take down the villain," while also feeling an uncomfortable affinity to them. "No other genre explores the warring impulses of humanity like crime," he said.
