SEX CRIMINALS: Bigger and Better Than Ever

Deluxe hardcover of hit Image series hits stores in March

It’s big; it’s hard; and it’s coming in March — the highly anticipated deluxe hardcover of the Image Comics phenom SEX CRIMINALS by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky! BIG HARD SEX CRIMINALS, BOOK ONE collects the first two volumes of the #1 New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon best-selling, Eisner-and-Harvey-Award-winning, 2013 Time magazine Best Comic of the Year, 2014 Paste magazine Best Comic of the Year, sex-tip-book spinning-off, reader-beloved comic book series.

SEX CRIMINALS is the story of Suzie and Jon, two people with the same secret: when they have orgasms, time freezes. Suzie is a feisty librarian, determined to keep the local library from closing. Jon is a discontented assistant to a banker, looking for an excuse to turn on his unscrupulous employer. When they discover they can stop time together, it's obvious what they should do with their extraordinary ability: rob banks to save Suzie’s library.

And of course: complications ensue. And it’s not just that the Sex Police (yes, the Sex Police) are on to the time-freezing bank bandits. Suzie and Jon will have to grapple with what a relationship means when it stops being about just sex and starts being about love.

BIG HARD SEX CRIMINALS, BOOK ONE will be in comic book stores on March 25 and in bookstores on April 7.

BIG HARD SEX CRIMINALS, BOOK ONE by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky

• ISBN 978-1-63215-243-5
• Diamond Comic order code NOV140582
• 320 pages, oversized hardcover, full color
• $39.99
• Collects SEX CRIMINALS #1-10
• Rated Mature
• In comic book stores March 25, bookstores April 7
• Retailers, librarians, and reviewers may request a PDF galley from Jennifer de Guzman, Director of Trade Book Sales, jenniferdeguzman@imagecomics.com

Praise for SEX CRIMINALS:

“Sex Criminals is not just one of the best comics I’ve ever read, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read, period.” –Wil Wheaton, actor

“The best debut of 2013” –Rolling Stone

“Sex comedies usually focus on the pursuit of orgasm; the writer Matt Fraction and the artist Chip Zdarsky have devised an ingenious one about the stillness that follows it. Zdarsky’s fluid, brightly hued artwork is dense with smutty gags, but this is a deeper, more understated comedy than it initially seems.” –New York Times

“Fraction’s best work yet. It’s a precision-tuned screwball comedy on its surface, and that surface is gorgeous, thanks to Zdarsky’s ace sense of design and inventive color technique.” –Time

“An honest, heartfelt story about relationships that was more John Hughes than John Holmes.” –USA Today

“Sex Criminals bubbles over with joyous energy.” –NPR, Best Books of 2014

“I wouldn’t trust most comic creators to turn a sexual awakening into compelling pulp fiction, but Fraction and Zdarsky pull it off masterfully.” –Paste, Best Comics of 2014

“A sex comedy with a splash of crime thriller, the title is a fascinating examination of the pleasures and pitfalls of intimate relationships, using the central fantastic conceit as a metaphor for the way sex distances people but also, under the right circumstances, brings them together.” –The A.V. Club

“Wildly imaginative, randy and true with characters whose sexual satisfaction freezes time and facilitates crime. Artist Zdarsky’s staging, storytelling and character designs make this even crazier. Great fun!” –Miami Herald

“Despite having such a ludicrous, high concept premise — and the pair definitely go whole hog with that, Zdarsky filling porn shops with dirty punning titles and the first issues list of made up sexual positions being particular highlights – the series frequently touches upon serious issues of sexuality.” –What Culture, Best Comics of 2014

“There is no other comic out there quite like Sex Criminals. After its strong debut last year, it now qualifies as a phenomenon with sales big enough to make it a career-defining book for its two creators.” –Mental Floss, The Most Interesting Comics of 2014