100 Bullets

• Schedule — Monthly • Crime — y • Publisher — Vertigo • Date — June 1999 – April 2009 • Issues — 100 • Main Char Team — Agent Graves Mr. Shepherd The Minutemen Dizzy Cordova Loop Hughes • Writers — Brian Azzarello • Artists — Eduardo Risso Dave Johnson • Colorists — Grant Goleash Patricia Mulvihill • Letterers — Clem Robins • Creators — Brian Azzarello Eduardo Risso • Tpb — First Shot, Last Call • Isbn — 1-56389-645-1 • Tpb1 — Split Second Chance • Isbn1 — 1-56389-711-3 • Subcat — Vertigo Comics • Sort — 100 Bullets

Both the writing and artwork in 100 Bullets exemplifies the noir and pulp genres of popular modern fiction. Consistent with noir convention, most of the characters are deeply flawed. As is also common in pulp and noir genres, 100 Bullets frequently portrays stylized and graphic violence. Initially presented as a series of self-contained episodic stories, 100 Bullets developed into a sprawling crime saga in which all the characters and events were connected.

The core concept of 100 Bullets is based on the question of people willing to act on the desire of violent revenge if given the means, opportunity, and a reasonable chance to succeed. Many of the early issues involve the mysterious Agent Graves approaching someone who has been a victim of a terrible wrong. Graves gives them the opportunity to take revenge by providing a handgun, 100 bullets, and documentation about the primary target responsible for their woes. He informs the candidate the gun and bullets are completely untraceable by any law enforcement investigation, and as soon as they are found at any crime scene, investigations will immediately cease. Although all the revenge murders enabled by Agent Graves are presented as justifiable, the candidates are neither rewarded nor punished for accepting the offer other than their own personal satisfaction. Several people decline, but others who accept find varied success or failure. The attaché and Graves' "games" are later revealed to be only a minor part of a much broader story. Agent Graves is the leader of a group known as The Minutemen, a group of seven men (plus one "Agent") who serve as the enforcers and police of a clandestine organization known as The Trust, which was formed by the heads of 13 powerful European families who controlled much of the Old World's combined wealth and industry. The Trust made an offer to the kings of Europe by which they would leave the continent and their considerable influence and holdings, in exchange for complete autonomy in the still unclaimed portion of the New World. When England ignored this proposition and colonized the Roanoke Island late in the 16th century, the Minutemen were formed. The original Minutemen, seven vicious killers, eradicated the colony and all of its inhabitants, leaving behind only the cryptic message "Croatoa" as a warning, reclaiming the land for the Trust. Since this time, the Minutemen's charge has been to protect the 13 Houses of the Trust, serving as their force against outside threats and more frequently as police of the internal conflicts between the Trust families themselves. The groups' interactions are often facilitated by a person holding the title "Warlord" for the Trust, who serves as the Houses' liaison to the Minutemen. Sometime in the late 20th century, the Minutemen were betrayed by the Trust and disbanded after Agent Graves refused to reenact "The Greatest Crime in the History of Mankind" (a re-expansion of the borders of the Trust). The Minutemen retaliated with the assassination of a hooded figure in Atlantic City, and they were then sent into hiding. Most of the Minutemen of that time were "deactivated" by Graves. These former Minutemen had their memories repressed for their own protection and were returned to "normal" lives. These events occurred prior (presumably some years) to the beginning of 100 Bullets. As the story plays out, many of those who are offered the chance for vengeance by Graves are revealed to have been people wronged by the Trust or its agents, and six are revealed to have been Minutemen at the time of the events of Atlantic City. During the course of the series, Agent Graves seeks to reactivate several of his Minutemen and recruit potential new members. With the occasional aid of the Trust's current Warlord, Mr. Shepherd, Graves sets into motion a plot of revenge against the Trust, which divides into factions, with younger members plotting against the older ones. The series culminates in the downfall of the Trust and its agents.

• # — Title — ISBN — Release date — Pages — Collected material • 1 — 100 Bullets - Book I — (HC) (TPB) — October 11, 2011 (HC) November 4, 2014 (TPB) — 456 — Vertigo: Winter's Edge #3, 100 Bullets #1–19 • 2 — 100 Bullets - Book II — (HC) (TPB) — April 17, 2012 (HC) April 21, 2015 (TPB) — 416 — 100 Bullets #20-36 • 3 — 100 Bullets - Book III — (HC) (TPB) — September 25, 2012 (HC) September 22, 2015 (TPB) — 528 — 100 Bullets #37-58 • 4 — 100 Bullets - Book IV — (HC) — April 23, 2013 (HC) January 12, 2016 (TPB) — 512 — 100 Bullets #59-80 • 5 — 100 Bullets - Book V — (HC) (TPB) — December 3, 2013 (HC) April 5, 2016 (TPB) — 512 — 100 Bullets #81-100

The series has been collected in two Omnibus hardcover editions. Although the second volume was initially solicited to include the follow-up Brother Lono miniseries in addition to the main series, ultimately only the original hundred issues were collected (plus an early short story). • # — Title — ISBN — Release date — Pages — Collected material • 1 — 100 Bullets Omnibus Vol. 1 — (HC) — January 12, 2021 — 1376 — Vertigo: Winter's Edge #3, 100 Bullets #1–58 • 2 — 100 Bullets Omnibus Vol. 2 — (HC) — June 28, 2022 — 1008 — 100 Bullets #59-100

Acclaim announced plans to release a video game based on 100 Bullets, but following the collapse of Acclaim's publishing house, the game was cancelled. It was intended that the player would be either Cole Burns or Snow Falls (a completely original character) and play in a third person view, with actor Keanu Reeves portraying Cole Burns. The plot was not publicly known, aside from a supposition that it followed the plot of the comic book. D3 Publisher of America obtained the rights from Warner Bros. to publish a 100 Bullets video game in 2006. They intended to make a video game completely independent from Acclaim's aborted vision, albeit still heavily reliant on input and plotting from Brian Azzarello and releasing it in Q3 2007, but was never released. In 2011, screenwriter David S. Goyer was attached to executive produce and write a TV series based on the comics for Showtime. Two years later, Goyer said that the project got "incredibly close" at Showtime before being turned down due to a multitude of mass shootings across the United States. He called the sudden turn of events "frustrating", further stating: "At one point, I thought it was going to happen at Showtime. It got to the three-yard line". In 2014, SciFiNow reported The Wall Street Journals release of information regarding upcoming Warner Brothers films based on DC Comics properties. The films that were revealed to be in development included the much anticipated Justice League film; Shazam!, Fables, and 100 Bullets were among the other films listed. A film adaptation was announced in August 2015, and was to be produced by Tom Hardy with the option for him to star in the film, written by Chris Borrelli and distributed by New Line Cinema.

The franchise's creative team behind the original 100 Bullets joined forces once again to work on a limited series sequel, Brother Lono, released in April 2014. It was an 8-issue limited series that detailed Lono's rehabilitated life in Durango after the events of 100 Bullets issue #100. The Brother Lono Deluxe Edition hardcover was released in 2024. It contains Lono is a Four Letter Word, an exclusive 8-page comic. It also has Dave Johnson artwork covers to match the five-volume hardcover 100 Bullets Deluxe Edition.

In 2025, DC officially unveiled their first line of titles for the Vertigo revival, including 100 Bullets: The US of Anger with Azzarello and Risso returning. The first issue of the eight-issue mini-series was released in July, 2026.

There are thirteen trade paperbacks in publication for this series. The titles of the trade paperbacks relate to their volume number (First Shot, Last Call; Split Second Chance; A Foregone Tomorrow; The Counterfifth Detective; Six Feet Under the Gun; Strychnine Lives; Decayed (a pun on "decade"; this is the tenth volume)), with four being indirect references (book 7 titled Samurai, for Seven Samurai; book 8 titled The Hard Way, a reference to a roll in craps; book 12 titled Dirty, as in The Dirty Dozen; book 13 titled Wilt, for basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, who wore the number 13 and was famous for scoring 100 points in a single game). Book 11 Once Upon a Crime is also a reference as "once" is Spanish for eleven. The exception to the rule is book 3, which was originally to be called The Charm — as in "third time's the charm" — but was given the title of the collection's largest plot arc, Hang Up on the Hang Low, when it won the Eisner Award. Another interpretation of this seemingly odd exception is that 'Hang Up on the Hang Low' is a coded allusion to Masonic symbology, the upwards triangle placed over the downward triangle, where the number 3 is alluded to, among other things, by this code. As The Trust can also be seen to be a Masonic type allusion, one should also look for other Masonic symbols throughout the books. A series of "Deluxe Edition" hardcover volumes collecting the series have also been published, and then released in paperback a few years later.

• Title — Format — ISBN — Release date — Pages — Collected material • 100 Bullets: Brother Lono — Softcover — April 15, 2014 — 192 — 100 Bullets: Brother Lono #1-8 • 100 Bullets: Brother Lono Deluxe Edition — Hardcover — August 13, 2024 — 216 — 100 Bullets: Brother Lono #1-8 Lono is a Four Letter Word (8-page comic)