A guide to Sherlock Holmes in comic books, graphic novels, and manga
Webcomics & Fan Creations
It’s difficult to catalog the various online and fan versions of Sherlock Holmes, as if they make it into print, it’s often a one-time or limited-audience release, so I welcome more information for this section. The following are alphabetical by creator/alias.
“simulated earth (it does not matter)” is a fan comic by Baku based on the Sherlock & Co. podcast.
Consulting Detectives by Basil (Ghostbees) was a comic strip updated from 2012-2016. It features canon-style Holmes and Watson, often sniping at each other or making jokes based on a modern take on the existing stories.
Kate Beaton created one of the most famous online Holmes comics with “The Case of the Two Watsons“, which covers the dumbing down of Watson for comic relief. The sequel, “Another Case of Watsons“, introduces Stupid Watson to Gay Watson.
Contact-guy on Tumblr is doing a series of sketches and doodles for each canonical story under the title Watson’s Sketchbook. Some even have sequential art! They’re so cute and emotional. Just as I imagined the characters.
Elfkin’s “Winter’s Solace” can be seen on Facebook, as they deleted their DeviantArt account where it was originally posted. It’s unfinished, but these few pages have a nice scene where John tries to take care of a sick Sherlock.
ItsAsta was illustrating The Sign of the Four online in 2022, but the comic is currently on hiatus. Two chapters were posted before then, getting us through the introduction of Mary Morstan and her presentation of the case. I love the brick red accent color, and the opening scene, illustrating Holmes taking his 7% solution because of boredom, is wonderfully broken down and captured. The visuals carry the emotion, as they should.
Kelly (AnotherWellKeptSecret) has posted a number of explicit Johnlock comics (stories where Sherlock and John are romantically involved).
Kitten-Kin has posted a bunch of short comics, with a longer work titled “The Science of Affection” that features Sherlock and John taking care of his daughter Rosie.
Baker Street Elementary is written by Joe Fay and Steve Mason and illustrated by Rusty Mason. A gag-driven strip, it features head shots of our favorite characters as school children, conversing among themselves about various subjects with Sherlockian references. Its longevity is to be admired, as it’s been running since 2015, with almost (at the time of this posting) 400 entries.
Reapersun (T Zysk) has Johnlock comics posted online. “All the Days” (explicit) was printed as As Many Days As You Will Give Me.
Korean creator sh2jw has released a collection of seven explicit Jonhlock comics called Always you (2019). (One is a Victorian-set omegaverse story.) They’re in English, and as a caution, they portray non-consensual sex acts.
The followup by sh2jw is Memories of the Heart (2020), made for the TV shows’s 10th anniversary. In it, an amnesiac Sherlock forgets that he and John are married and raising John’s daughter together.
Wai Au posted Sherlock fan comics online from 2012-2013, collected in two fanbooks (no longer available), Two Hundred Twenty-One Bee and I Will Follow You Holmes.