After starting his career as a penciller at Valiant Comics, David Lapham followed Jim Shooter when he left to launch Defiant Comics, but in 1995, it was his turn to open his own indie publishing house: El Capitan Books. His flagship self-published title was something quite different from what he was known to draw. No superheroes, but black & white crime fiction with the award-winning Stray Bullets series.
Entirely written, illustrated, and lettered by Lapham himself (who won the Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist in 1996), the long-running series targets a mature audience with bleak stories of violence dipped in drama, romance, desperation, and disillusionment. It’s about regular people and criminals, children and adults, growing up and dying, at the periphery or in the heart of the crime world.
David Lapham’s Stray Bullets is not about one character going forward, as it follows a panel of different characters in stories told in a non-chronological fashion. It builds a large narrative, piece by piece, focusing on human experiences, developing thematically complex, rich tales defying clichés and tropes, notably about the consequences of violence and the cyclical nature of trauma. They are tragic vignettes revolving around people pushed to their limits. Every bullet makes an impact.
“Stray Bullets is a series of interconnected short stories dealing with…mostly innocent people…whose lives are affected by violent events. Many times emotional, psychological but also physical. And how that sort of warps them. And how they lead, basically dysfunctional lives. It’s a crime drama series heavy on the drama.”
-David Lapham Anti-gravity Room Interview, 1997 (source)
Highly influential in the crime noir comics genre, most notably on Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips‘ collaborative work, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets, and others, Stray Bullets is one of the successes of the world of indie comics that emerged through the 1990s. The initial run spanned 40 issues over ten years, from 1995 to 2005, before entering an extended hiatus. It came back in 2014, relaunched under the Image Comics banner, and continued for years. The series may be on hiatus for now, but it could return soon.
Stray Bullets Reading Order:
Thanks to its non-linear structure, issues of Stray Bullets can be read independently of one another. However, it is much more interesting to read them in order and see how each piece adds to the others to build the larger story, as initially shaped by David Lapham.
The recommended starting point is the original trade paperback Stray Bullets: Volume 1 – Innocence of Nihilism, which introduces several of the series’ central characters, most notably Virginia Applejack, and establishes the tonal and structural blueprint for the rest of the work.
The first series is composed of 41 issues. The first 40 were published between 1995 and 2005, the 41st only came in 2015 when Lapham ended his extended hiatus on the series. At that time, all those issues were made available in the Stray Bullets: Über Alles Edition, a single 1,200-page omnibus.
- Stray Bullets: Uber Alles Edition
Collects Stray Bullets #1–41. The original five-story arcs of one of the all-time greatest crime comic series are collected in this GIANT 1,200-page volume. “The Innocence of Nihilism,” “Somewhere Out West,” “Other People,” “Dark Days,” and “HiJinks and Derring-Do” appear in their entirety.
You can also find those issues in the following five trade paperbacks:
- Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism
Collects Stray Bullets #1–7. - Stray Bullets: Somewhere Out West
Collects Stray Bullets #8–14. - Stray Bullets: Other People
Collects Stray Bullets #15–22. - Stray Bullets: Dark Days
Collects Stray Bullets #23–30. - Stray Bullets: Hi-Jinks and Derring-Do
Collects Stray Bullets #31–41.
Published in 2009, “Open the Goddamn Box” is a 10-page Stray Bullets story starring known characters (Virginia Applejack, Mike Hussey, and Kevin) set in 1986, during the events of Stray Bullets #40.
- Stray Bullets: Open the Goddamn Box
A ten-page story that appeared in Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics, an anthology book published by Dark Horse Comics.
Stray Bullets: The Killers (2014)
When David Lapham came back to Stray Bullets in 2014, he immediately launched an 8-issue mini-series. The Killers functions as an entry point for new readers. It offers a more serialized story arc and features returning characters like Spanish Scott and Virginia. Chronologically, the first issue (set in 1978) takes place before issue #4 of the original series #4, but the rest is set (in 1986) after the series conclusion.
- Stray Bullets: Killers
Collects Stray Bullets: Killers #1–8.
Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses
Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses in a 42-issue arc that explores key events and relationships between characters introduced in both the original series and The Killers. Nevertheless, you can still start your exploration of Stray Bullets by starting here.
- Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses Volume 1
Collects Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses #1-8. - Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses Volume 2
Collects Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses #9-16. - Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses Volume 3
Collects Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses #17-24. - Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses Volume 4
Collects Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses #25-32. - Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses Volume #33-42 (digital)
The Amy Racecar Collection
Amy Racecar is a creation of Virginia Applejack’s. David Lapham dedicated some issues to Virginia’s fictional Amy stories, which are fantasy tales of various genres and offer an insight into her psyche. This work of metafiction can be read as entertaining pulp adventures.
- Amy Racecar Volume 1
This volume collects the Stray Bullets issues featuring Amy Racecar as well as both issues of Amy Racecar Color Special.