Broken Frontier

IDW Publishing has finally gotten to the bottom of the Case of the Missing Maze Agency, a case file that’s been open since the book’s mysterious disappearance in 1998. At last, the truth can be told—The Maze Agency, the comic book home to writer Mike W. Barr’s crime-solving tandem of Private Eye Jennifer Mays and her boyfriend, true crime writer Gabriel Webb, will return this November.

The Maze Agency, created and written by Barr and first published by Comico in 1988, is the Eisner- and Harvey Award-nominated series that brought artist Adam Hughes to the attention of comics fandom. Now, these original stories by Barr and Hughes, who was aided and abetted by inker Rick Magyar, will get the special trade-paperback treatment in multiple volumes. The Maze Agency, Vol. 1 TPB collects the first adventures of the crime-solving couple, including the rare series “pilot” with art by Uncanny X-Men artist Alan Davis.

And that’s not all—also premiering in November is an all-new four issue Maze Agency, also written by Barr and featuring art by artist Ariell Padilla. The new series kicks off with Mays and Webb juggling romance and sleuthing in “the Crimes, They Are a’ Changin’.” In this latest Maze mystery, the release of a 1960s radical from prison is the springboard of a series of murders that were born in that turbulent decade–and reach their climax four decades later. And once again, following the book’s “fair play” approach, crafty readers are welcome to try and follow the clues and solve the mystery alongside Mays and Webb.

“The Maze Agency was born from the commingling of two of my
foremost passions, comic books and the classic detective story, as
exemplified by the work of mystery writer Ellery Queen,” said writer Barr. “I am delighted, after years of trying to sell the series to publishers who understood nothing more complex than double-page splashes of super-heroes clubbing each other, to have the series revived by IDW, who combines the best features of the big publishers and the independents—big-guy production values and independent nurturing of its titles. To all readers who became fans of Adam Hughes: someday you’ll be a fan of Ariel Padilla’s, so you may as well start here.”

The Maze Agency, Vol. 1 trade paperback, a 156-page, full color edition, and The Maze Agency #1, a 32-page, four-part miniseries, are both scheduled to be released in November.