The Crogan Adventures: Historical Fiction Comic Series

The Crogan family doesn’t just make history—they live it. Spanning three centuries and countless miles of ocean, desert, and battlefield, The Crogan Adventures is Chris Schweizer’s Eisner-nominated historical fiction series that turns a family tree into an exhilarating tour through the past, with each generation stepping into their own swashbuckling epic.

The saga launches in 1705 with Catfoot’s Vengeance (originally released in 2008 as Crogan’s Vengeance), which hurls honest sailor “Catfoot” Crogan into a maelstrom of betrayal and piracy when buccaneers seize his ship. From there, the series hurtles through the Saharan sands of the French Foreign Legion in Last of the Legion (Crogan’s March) and into the powder-smoke of the American Revolution with Crogan’s Loyalty—the volume that earned Schweizer his second Eisner Award nomination for Best Publication for Kids.

Schweizer frames each tale through a modern-day father sharing stories of his ancestors with his children, a warm narrative device that keeps the stakes intimate even as the scale expands across continents. Every volume stands entirely on its own—no reading order required—yet together they weave a rich, lived-in family tapestry. The historical research is meticulous (Schweizer is a former social studies teacher and longtime history obsessive), but it never bogs down the storytelling. As Booklist declared in a starred review of Crogan’s Loyalty, “It’s no easy feat to combine a high-energy historical adventure with a smart and nuanced look at the many shades of gray that tint notions of patriotism, loyalty, and family ties, but Schweizer does just that.”

The series underwent a stunning transformation when Oni Press reissued the original black-and-white volumes in full color starting in 2015. Inspired by collaborators Brian Hurtt and Matt Kindt, Schweizer adopted a bold, saturated palette that makes his clean, cartoonish linework practically explode off the page. The result is a series that moves with cinematic energy—expressive, inviting, and ablaze with color.

Published by Oni Press across four volumes (including the limited-release Crogan’s Escape), The Crogan Adventures set a new benchmark for all-ages historical fiction in comics. Though the series is currently on hiatus, Schweizer continues the swashbuckling tradition in his Webtoon fantasy serial Outlaw’s Apprentice. Readers should also explore Schweizer’s middle-grade horror series The Creeps and his acclaimed dark comedy Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton.

Perfect for fans of Bone, Amulet, and historical adventure in the tradition of The Adventures of Tintin.