Image Comics has been one of the best independent comic publishers in the world, in part because of the varied works that come from all of its creators, all of whom maintain ownership of their titles. As a result, that means you get everything from Spawn and Saga to Invincible and Feral. There was a time in the 2010s when Image was really on fire, though, as they brought in key creators from the “big two” and allowed them to do whatever they wanted, with the likes of Rick Remender, Grant Morisson, Jonathan Hickman, and more bringing their talents to the publisher.
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At the same time, one of the most unique comics from Image’s stable was released, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Chip Zdarsky uniting to bring the world Sex Criminals. Though fans of Law & Order may hear that title and think it means something else, the series was a hilarious crime comic with, ahem, fantasy elements, as the two lead characters, Suzie and Jon, discovered they both could stop time after having sex. With their powers combined, they decide to use this free frozen time to rob banks, thus Sex Criminals. Now, the series is about to live on the small screen thanks to Prime Video.
Prime Video Orders Series Adaptation of Sex Criminals Comic
Just over three years after it was first reported, Prime Video has handed out an eight-episode order to a TV series adaptation of Sex Criminals. According to Deadline, the Oscar-nominated writers of The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, are attached to the series. Working alongside their Little America collaborator, Tze Chun, the trio has adapted the comic for the small screen, with Nanjiani also set to act in the show. Furthermore, the series will be produced by LuckyChap, the production company that has Margot Robbie among its founders, alongside Gordon and Nanjiani’s Winter Coat Films.
“Sex Criminals is the exact kind of thing Winter Coat aims to bring to life: love stories in weird places,” said Gordon and Nanjiani. “From the moment LuckyChap brought us Matt and Chip’s comic book, we knew we wanted to bring these characters to screen and are so excited to do that alongside Tze Chun and Prime Video.”
“We’re overjoyed to have such talented people bring our dumb comic to life,” added Fraction and Zdarsky.
Upon its release in 2013, Sex Criminals immediately became a fan favorite; Time listed the series as the #1 comic of the year it debuted, writing that the series is “a precision-tuned screwball comedy on its surface…but it’s also genuinely insightful about the ways sexuality shapes people.” Sex Criminals went on to be nominated for two Eisner Awards, including for Best Continuing Series, and actually won for Best New Series.
It’s worth noting that the premise for the series goes much deeper and gets a little more raw than the initial pitch makes it sound, with a web of unique characters that have their own “powers” and even secret societies that police them as well. The series is a wild one, and is, naturally, explicit, with the American Library Association noting that Sex Criminals was the “seventh most banned and challenged book in the United States” back in 2016.
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