I love the hell out of crime fiction. Like, if you take my Netflix queue, to-read list, and daily internet reading habits and add them all together, it's just hours of arrests and crimes and court transcripts. I LOOOOVE crime fiction. So I wanted to talk about some of the best crime fiction available in comic book form.

Special Note: For the purposes of this list, I'm separating crime fiction from detective stories. If the story is focused on the investigation officer, I'll cover it on another list, but if it's about the down and dirty lowlifes that perpetrate those crimes, then read on to find it ranked below. Just don't get caught.

                                                    Source: ranthollywood.com

10. A History of Violence

(Vertigo)

Man, this one is good. And I’ve heard that it made for a pretty good movie. I've never seen it. But I have read the comic.

A History of Violence starts with two criminals trying to rob a small café in Michigan and owner Tom McKenna beating the tar out of them. Seriously, that scene is awesome. Just pure unadulterated awesome. Tom tries to avoid the press, but he becomes a minor local hero, and pictures of him circle the country on the news. And some bad people take notice.

The New York Mafia shows up in town, led by John Torrino. He keeps calling Tom "Joey", and Joey seems to have screwed him over pretty hard 20 years ago. And he sure does want to kill him for it. Turns out Tom is Joey, and he pulled off a spectacular heist with his friend Richie, only for it to go bad. Richie was captured and tortured, and Tom disappeared into the night. And now it's time to pay the piper.

With violence.