Richie's Recommendation
Bad Idea
Hank Howard, Pizza Detective: The Two Hollywoods #1
(W) Robert Venditti (A) David Lapham (CA) Alex Maleev
Tropes be damned! I’m starting the year 2026 armed with every comfort item I can find. My first recommendation comes from a polarizing publisher. Bad Idea has been the center of plenty of discussion—distribution issues, exclusion, and broken promises chief among them. However, the one thing I’ve never personally questioned is their content. Once they commit to a genre, they consistently seek out masters of that craft and crank the final product up to eleven (RIP Rob Reiner).
A perfect example is the book releasing in early January, Hank Howard, Pizza Detective: The Two Hollywoods. Led by creative superstars Robert Venditti and David Lapham, the noir detective genre is displayed like a glistening trophy behind pristine glass. It’s gritty, smoky, and deeply engaging—every staple of noir is present and carefully nurtured. What makes it stand out, though, is how this nostalgic pulp exists inside a sandbox of modernity and the mundane.
Hank Howard is a man out of time, seeing his life through the lens of a 1950s private detective. He self-narrates his struggles through the darkened window of his mind. In reality, his “cases” mostly involve pimply teenagers and the daily grind of working at a pizza chain.
My first experience with this world came from a book released during Bad Idea’s first season. Once again, it was hampered by the publisher’s ludicrous promotional habits, but for those who managed to get their hands on it, the experience was incredible.
The good news is that Bad Idea seems to have recognized its early missteps and has begun settling into a more regular distribution model. That means if you’re looking for a surprisingly great read—and if, like me, you’re a sucker for noir tropes—I welcome you to the absolutely indescribable world of Hank Howard, Pizza Detective.