# Recommend me a detective comic or that has good plotting and stories (short story writers too) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078 "2015-05-02T07:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/21 "2015-05-06T16:21:27Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > The mid-'70s _Batman_ comics written by [David V. Reed](http://www.comics.org/writer/name/david%20v.%20reed/sort/alpha/) (aka Dave Vern) were mostly short, punchy deductive-reasoning type stories. DC also had a number of short detective features in the fifties that were of the “Reader, you’ve seen all the clues…” style; the _[Roy Raymond, TV Detective](http://www.thrillingdetective.com/raymond.html)_ series comes to mind. Thanks that’s exactly what I’m after. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/22 "2015-05-06T20:39:18Z")
The first two issues of Fables presented a very nice murder mystery, with lots of clues visually presented for the reader to study. From there on, Fables is a fantasy series (and a very good one!) But that opening mystery was wickedly clever. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/23 "2015-05-07T01:43:18Z")
As far as currently published manga/comics go, Viz is translating [Master Keaton](http://www.viz.com/manga/print/master-keaton-volume-1/11344) into English. The main character is an archaeology professor with a military background who moonlights as an insurance investigator specializing in antiquities. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/24 "2015-05-08T23:12:48Z")
Chesterton’s “Father Brown” mysteries tend to be pretty clever. You also might want to try to check out “Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine”, which publishes short mystery stories. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/25 "2015-05-09T01:01:42Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Chesterton’s “Father Brown” mysteries tend to be pretty clever. I was tempted to mention them, but I didn’t know whether they were the kind of thing the OP was looking for, since they don’t involve much traditional detective work. Chesterton’s mystery stories, including but not limited to the Father Brown stories, tend to involve mysterious circumstances that look bizarre, paradoxical, or impossible, until the explanation comes which makes the reader go “aaaahhh.” The “detective” (e.g. Father Brown) comes up with that explanation, not through any systematic investigation, but through an ability to look at things from a different angle (or “think outside the box”), along with cleverness, intuition, and insight into human nature. They’re good stories if you like that sort of thing; Chesterton has a flair for paradoxes and twists, in both his fiction and his nonfiction. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/26 "2015-05-09T02:01:54Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Chesterton’s “Father Brown” mysteries tend to be pretty clever. . . . > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > . . . Chesterton’s mystery stories, including but not limited to the Father Brown stories, tend to involve mysterious circumstances that look bizarre, paradoxical, or impossible, until the explanation comes which makes the reader go “aaaahhh.” . . . “The Man Who Knew Too Much” is a Chesterton collection of little mysteries, which, however, are all tied together into a larger theme, which only becomes clear with the final story. At first, they seem very much like Sherlock Holmes stories, but, as **Thudlow Boink** notes, they begin to take on a bizarre tone. (Sigh… They’re quite good, but I do feel the need to warn the reader of Chesterton’s anti-Semitism. It was the 1920s, and many, many good people succumbed to the deadly trap of thinking “The Jews” had inordinate control over the world’s high-level political policies. I suggest being aware of it…and reading and enjoying the stories anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078/27 "2015-05-09T03:20:52Z")
These two paragraphs of “Visual wit” in the Wiki article on Chesterton are well worth a read: [G. K. Chesterton - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Visual_wit) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-detective-comic-or-that-has-good-plotting-and-stories-short-story-writers-too/719078.md?page=1)