SEX CRIMINALS X

wait what

I’m going to need you to sit down. Are you sitting? Sitting suggestively? Good, excellent, because I have something shocking to tell you.

This week marks the tenth anniversary of Sex Criminals issue one.

I know, right?! Which basically means I’ve been a “professional” comic book creator for a decade now. And, according to the Comic Professional Rules, I’m to be executed by the end of the year. I’ll be sad to go, but what a journey!

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Sex Criminals began because both Matt and myself were at points in our life where we needed to do something different. He was phasing out of being a Marvel writer and I was finding my job at the newspaper a little repetitive. We’d known each other for years on a variety of message boards, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see if he was interested in a collaboration. Up to that point I’d done some online strips and a handful of self-published black & white comics, but I had no illusions of it being a career. I just wanted to do something fun with a pal.

So Matt gave it some thought and then sent me the weird email that changed my life.

What followed was a flurry of emails back and forth as we fleshed out characters and story, late night phone calls where we talked about sex and relationships. I was still full-time with my day job, so any extra moment I got I spent designing characters and effects and logos.

I almost got Jon and Suzie right at the start, though they were maybe overdone, and the linework was weak in spots. The second drawing I ever did of the characters was for the promotional image announcing the book, which, obviously felt like a big deal, so I maybe put too much work in?

Now, obviously, people were skeptical. A book called “Sex Criminals”? And who the fuck was this “Zdarsky” guy? But Matt and I put our heads down and just got to work. What started as, essentially, a dick joke book, started to morph into something more substantial: a comic about sex and relationships. That’s the thing about Matt. He has the big, fun ideas, but he can’t help but infuse them with humanity and empathy.

For the issue one launch Matt flew to Toronto. The morning the book came out we were in a car on our way to our first signing at Gotham Central Comics. In the backseat we both absentmindedly checked Twitter and were both stunned. Everyone was talking about the book. It was a hit.

We did the signing and then, that night, we had our launch party at a sex club, where I read erotic poetry while dressed as Garfield and Matt got his nipples pierced on stage.

Photos by Paul Hillier

Obviously I have aged horribly while Matt is some sort of vampire.

That night was such a whirlwind, as most parties are when you’re the host. Toward the end when I went to put Matt in a cab back to his hotel, we hugged for a long time ‘cause I think both of us knew that things were going to be different after that day.

Sex Criminals turned Matt and I from pals into best friends, it brought us across the world, it introduced us to the greatest readers possible and it also started my second career. It’s impossible to overstate how life changing that book was for me.

For the 10th anniversary we’ll be doing a couple of small things, but really I’m just looking forward to even more people discovering this special book. We poured our hearts into those dick jokes, dammit.

If anyone hasn’t read issue one, I’m putting it here for everyone. Some of the drawings are embarassing, some are surprisingly okay. But it’s still two chums doing their best to make each other feel things.

Sex Criminals 1

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