Tzvetan Todorov, speaking of the "whodunit" in his 1966 essay The Typology of Detective Fiction, famously noted that the detective novel "contains not one but two stories: the story of the crime and the story of the investigation." This dual structure — one narrative hidden, one revealed — has shaped the development of mystery and crime across modern storytelling. It also helps explain why investigative modes travel so easily: wherever narrative worlds can conceal, distort, or withhold information, mystery and crime can take root. From classic detective fiction to noir cinema, from serialized radio dramas to contemporary streaming series, the investigative imagination has shown a remarkable ability to adapt, transform, and migrate. Comics, graphic novels, video games, and other visual narrative media have become crucial sites where questions of evidence, secrecy, revelation, and moral ambiguity take shape.

 Mystery and crime, then, operate less as a set of crystallized genres than as a discourse cutting across genres, infiltrating science fiction and fantasy, adventure tales, romantic narratives, historical fiction, and other traditions alike. This fluidity is precisely what allows mystery and crime to function as narrative engines capable of reshaping any fictional world they enter — a versatility reflected in the stylized grit of noir, the baroque plots and graphics of more recent crime and mystery stories, the procedural rhythms of investigative reportage, supernatural detective tales, and hybrid sci-fi/crime sagas.

 The medium has produced works that merit sustained scholarly attention, read against the broader history of crime fiction and its long fascination with the unknown. In comics, the genre began to gain popularity in the 1930s, often capitalizing on the success of hardboiled fiction — Dick Tracy is a clear case in point. At the same time, some of its tropes were soon absorbed into the superhero genre, from Batman to more recent series like Jessica Jones and Spider-Man Noir. It was only after WWII, however, that mystery and crime comics reached their peak — as seen in Crime Does Not Pay and Murder Incorporated — just as the superhero genre's popularity began to wane. Yet by the 1950s, the genre had become a target of censorship, as anti-comics crusaders campaigned against the depiction of violence in a medium perceived as aimed at children; Crime SuspenStories was among the most notable casualties of this hysteria. In the U.S., the genre found new impetus in the 1980s, when the CCA lost its grip and the rise of graphic novels — with their mature content — imposed new discourses on the medium. It was in this new landscape that landmark works like Sin City, El Borbah, and Hellboy emerged. As these examples attest, crime comics have repeatedly renewed themselves by absorbing elements from other genres. 

 Moreover, it is important to point out that even outside of the North American context, mystery and crime comics are one the most popular, prolific and successful genres. For instance, one can mention Martin Mystère, Dylan Dog, Nick Carter, Spy x Family, Cat’s Eyes, Detective Conan, Death Note, Lupin III, Alack Sinner, Kriminal, Satanik among others, whose success crosses national borders. Mystery and crime have of course been widely studied — yet the very fertility of the genre, its capacity to seed itself into new forms and traditions guarantees that its full range of possibilities, has yet to be charted. 

 To explore these questions, the ICLA Research Committee on Comics Studies and Graphic Narrative, in collaboration with the University of Pisa, invites proposals for FRAMES 2027: Unframing the Unknown, a conference dedicated to mystery, crime, and investigative storytelling in comics and related visual media. The event will take place on 13–17 September 2027, hosted by the University of Pisa, and will be held in dual mode (in presence / online). We welcome panel and presentation proposals on, but not limited to, the following lines of inquiry:

• Critical and theoretical approaches — How should mystery and crime comics be analyzed? What methodologies from crime fiction studies, narratology, or visual culture can be adapted? How do inter-genre dynamics complicate traditional frameworks?

• Transmediality and adaptation — Adaptations, remediations, and intertextual retellings across comics, video games, television, and film. How do clues, revelations, and investigative structures shift across media?

• Gender, race, ethnicity, disability, age, class, and justice — Feminist, queer and ethnic perspectives in crime storytelling. How do comics engage with questions of oppression, policing, surveillance, inequality, and representation? How can comics function as a medium for articulating critiques of race, class, and gender?

• Crime and the environment — how can crime and mystery comics be used to articulate discourses about slow violence and denounce the consequences of illegal acts that breach environmental laws and directly harm nature, biodiversity, and human health.

• Crime and punishment — what type of justice do comics articulate? How is punishment enforced? Do these comics depict fair trials, forms of reparative justice, or acts of revenge? Do the juridical system succeed or fail the victims?

• Histories and genealogies — Archaeologies of mystery and crime comics; tracing influences from pulp traditions, newspaper strips, global detective fiction, and noir aesthetics.

• Video games and interactive mystery — New horizons of investigative storytelling in interactive media. How do mechanics, player agency, and visual design shape the experience of solving a mystery?

• Canon formation — Locating key authors, series, characters, and settings in the larger mystery/crime comics tradition.

• Hybridization and genre-blending — Mystery and crime in dialogue with SFF, adventure, romance, horror, historical fiction, and other traditions: supernatural detectives, psychological thrillers, crime-infused horror, SFF/noir hybrids, and postmodern experiments. How do investigative modes reshape genre expectations?

• Crime, mystery and the superhero — The superhero genre and the legacy of hardboiled fiction. 

• Politics of the Unknown — How do mystery and crime narratives illuminate political/social issues, and especially contemporary ones such as corruption, digital privacy, environmental crime, or social unrest?

• Graphic migrations — Translation, transnational diffusion, and adaptation of mystery/crime comics across cultural contexts.

• Seriality and authorship — Collective vs. individual authorship, publishing policies, continuity, reboots, and narrative retcons in long-running investigative series.

• Mystery and crime beyond comics — Comparative approaches involving literature, cinema, television, and other audiovisual or narrative media. How do investigative structures, genre conventions, and representational strategies resonate across different storytelling forms?

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SUBMISSIONS

 Proposals (in English, Spanish, or Italian) should be submitted preferably as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file, including an email address and a 200-word bio for each presenter.

• Panel proposals (by February 14, 2027) should include a general introduction (200 words) and a 300-word abstract for each presentation.

• Standalone paper proposals (by March 31, 2027) should include a 400-word abstract.

 Send your proposals to frames@comicsstudies.com copying the conference organizers in: Angelo Piepoli, Marco Petrelli, Umberto Rossi, Mattia Arioli [angelo.piepoli@gmail.com, marco.petrelli@unipi.it, scardanelli15@gmail.com, mattia.arioli2@unibo.it].