100 Bullets

Somebody wronged you. Now here’s the proof, here’s a gun, and here are a hundred bullets that can never be traced back to you. No investigation will ever follow. The only question is whether you have the guts to use them.

That is the offer 100 Bullets makes to its readers — and, more importantly, to the battered, furious, morally complicated people at the center of its stories. Written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso, the series ran a perfect one hundred issues from 1999 to 2009 at DC’s creator-owned Vertigo imprint, and it became the benchmark every crime comic since has been measured against. Perfect for fans of Vertigo’s creator-owned golden age from The Sandman onward, Frank Miller’s Sin City, and the pulp-noir television of Fargo.

The Briefcase

Every issue opens with the same cold promise from the mysterious Agent Graves: an untraceable handgun, one hundred untraceable bullets, and photographic proof of who ruined your life. Graves and his shadowy Minutemen serve the Trust — thirteen families that have quietly run America for centuries — and out of those stand-alone engines of revenge, Azzarello and Risso slowly assemble one of the most intricate conspiracy narratives comics has ever produced. Dizzy Cordova, Loop Hughes, Cole Burns, the terrifying Lono, and a cast of dozens weave in and out of focus until the whole violent tapestry snaps into terrible clarity.

Noir as Architecture

Risso’s black-and-white artwork turned every page into shadow-soaked high contrast, while Dave Johnson’s iconic covers — posters, ads, and American icons twisted into menace — made the series unmissable on the stands. Patricia (Trish) Mulvihill’s muted, smoky color work did the rest. The series won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2002 and 2004, took home the 2001 Eisner for Best Serialized Story, and swept the 2002 Harveys for Best Writer, Best Artist, and Best Continuing Series. ComicsAlliance called it one of the sharpest, edgiest, best-looking books on the stands — a book that “changed the way a lot of people were thinking about comics.”

The Legacy Continues

After a 2014 sequel (Brother Lono), the team reunited for 100 Bullets: The US of Anger as part of DC’s revived Vertigo imprint — announced at New York Comic Con 2025 — returning Lono to a fractured America on the eve of its 250th birthday. “A lot of blood, blood, blood,” Azzarello warned. “Some characters are coming back, though not many of them lived the first time.”

The complete saga is collected across new editions from DC/Vertigo — and for readers who want more from the Azzarello–Risso partnership, Moonshine dials the noir up with werewolves. This is crime fiction with perfect aim.