The MAZE Agency

The MAZE Agency was a comic created in the 1980s by Mike Barr for an independent comic company named Comico. It only lasted for about three years, but it won several awards because it was something quite different than the fantasy/super hero material that dominated (and still dominates) the comic industry. The MAZE Agency is a classic mystery series, featuring a charming and funny boyfriend/girlfriend couple as the detectives: Jennifer Mays, a private eye, and Gabriel Webb, a true crime author (and amateur sleuth). Each issue, the couple tackle a new whodunnit and the key to solving the mystery is always some subtle clue that appeared early in the story (much like Murder, She Wrote). I stumbled across an issue or two when I was a kid and first started collecting comics, and it was something of a revelation to me that comics could tell all kinds of different types of stories.

After the Comico incarnation ended in 1991, the series popped up again for three issues with Caliber Comics in 1996, and then for the third (and so-far last) time with IDW for three issues in 2006. The IDW issues look great, with glossy paper and nice artwork. Issue 1 involves the murder of 60s radicals, issue 2 is about someone trying to knock off beauty pageant contestants, while issue 3 takes place at a Chinese restaurant. There's usually too many new characters and too little exposition to make it realistically possible to figure out the murderer in advance, and there's not much in the way of continuing character development--but then, that's one of the hallmarks of classic detective fiction.

Anyway, they're cheap to buy so try out an issue or two if you're in the mood for something different in the comic book universe.