Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) remains the number one TV show in the U.S. with over 30 million viewers each week, and IDW, whose CSI comic series debuts in January, is going for the marketing jugular with an exclusive 3-page self-contained story that will appear in the mega-circulation TV Guide magazine in January.  IDW's CSI comic has already received loads of national publicity thanks to articles in USA Today, Variety, and dozens of local papers (see 'CSI Comic From IDW'), and the appearance in TV Guide in January and the show's consistently high ratings should allow retailers to use the CSI comic as a 'window item' to attract walk-in traffic.  Each issue of the CSI comic will ship with two covers, a regular edition painted by Ashley Wood and a 'secret rare' photo cover that will showcase one actor per issue.  Retailers will not be able to order the photo covers-they will be inserted into the run on a consistent, but random basis.

 

Max Allan Collins, who wrote the Road to Perdition graphic novel and is acknowledged as one of the foremost contemporary writers of crime comics, will write the entire CSI series including the 3-page TV Guide story.  Gabriel Rodriguez will handle most of the art chores with Ashley Wood on hand for covers and for the flashback and forensic sequences, which are such an important part of both the series and the comic book. 

 

Back in the late 1940s crime comics were the most popular of all, easily outselling superhero and humor titles.  While the CSI series is hardly likely to replicate the success of Crime Does Not Pay, it may well help revive and revitalize the crime comics genre.  After all the property itself is huge -- not only is CSI the top show on American TV, the spin-off series CSI-Miami is also doing extremely well -- demonstrating that Americans can't get enough of these forensic-filled crime detection series.