How to Create a Mystery Comic: Clues, Red Herrings, and the Perfect Reveal

Mystery is the genre of control. You know who did it from page one. Your reader doesn’t. Everything you draw, every panel you compose, every word you write—it’s all manipulation toward that final reveal.

That’s not deception. That’s craft. Here’s how to master it.

The Anatomy of a Visual Mystery

What Makes Comics Different

Mystery works differently in comics than in prose:

Visual Evidence:

• Readers can see the crime scene
• Clues can hide in plain sight in the art
• Body language reveals more than characters admit
• The environment itself can lie or tell truth

Pacing Control:

• You control exactly what readers see and when
• Panel composition directs attention
• Page turns create natural reveals
• Silence works differently than in prose

The Re-Read Factor: A great mystery comic rewards re-reading. When readers flip back through after the reveal, they should find clues they missed—things that were always there but only make sense now.

Mystery Subgenres for Comics

Classic Whodunit:

• Focus on puzzle-solving
• Fair-play clues throughout
• Detective or amateur sleuth protagonist
• Examples: Detective Conan, Kindaichi Case Files

Noir/Hardboiled:

• Atmosphere over puzzle
• Morally ambiguous characters
• Crime and corruption themes
• Examples: Sin City, Criminal

Psychological Thriller:

• Internal mysteries (who can be trusted?)
• Unreliable narrators work beautifully in visual medium
• Focus on character psychology
• Examples: Monster, 20th Century Boys

Cozy Mystery:

• Lighter tone, smaller stakes
• Community setting
• Amateur detective
• Puzzle-focused but warm

Supernatural Mystery:

• Impossible crimes with fantastic explanations
• Blends mystery with horror or fantasy
• Rules of the supernatural world become clues
• Examples: The Promised Neverland (early arcs)

Choose your subgenre based on tone, not just plot preferences.

Building Your Mystery Framework

The Three Questions

Before you draw a single panel, answer these:

1. What actually happened? Write the complete true version of events. Every detail. Who did what, when, why, and how. This is your bible—never contradict it.

2. What does the reader think happened? At each story beat, what’s the reader’s current theory? You need to control this perception, leading them toward wrong (but reasonable) conclusions.

3. What does your detective think happened? Your protagonist’s theory can match the reader’s, diverge from it, or be completely off-track. This creates different effects.

Clue Architecture

Map every clue before you start:

The Clue Document:

CLUE: [What it is]
WHERE: [Panel/page it appears]
OBVIOUS INTERPRETATION: [What reader/detective thinks it means]
TRUE MEANING: [What it actually means]
REVEAL: [When the truth comes out]

Do this for every single clue. Yes, every one. This prevents plot holes and ensures fair play.

Types of Clues:

Physical Evidence:

• Objects at the crime scene
• Weapons, tools, personal items
• Environmental details

Behavioral Evidence:

• Character reactions
• Timeline inconsistencies
• What people do vs. what they say

Visual-Only Clues:

• Background details the reader sees but characters don’t mention
• Expressions that contradict dialogue
• Continuity details across panels

Red Herrings That Work

A red herring isn’t just wrong information—it’s wrong information that seems right.

Effective Red Herrings:

• Point toward suspects with actual motive
• Based on true information, just misinterpreted
• Lead somewhere interesting before dead-ending
• Make sense in retrospect (“I see why I thought that”)

Bad Red Herrings:

• Random suspicious behavior from innocent characters
• Information that’s simply untrue (and the author knows it)
• Arbitrary misdirection that doesn’t connect to the crime
• Making a character act suspiciously just because

Your readers should think “that was clever” not “that was cheap.”

Visual Storytelling in Mystery

Hiding Clues in Plain Sight

The comic medium gives you unique tools:

Background Planting:

• The murder weapon visible in an “unimportant” scene
• Character photos that reveal relationships
• Documents or notes partially visible
• Environmental details that matter later

Panel Composition Misdirection:

• Focus reader attention away from the clue
• Use character dialogue to direct the eye
• Place clues at the edge of busy panels
• Use action in one part of the panel to hide stillness elsewhere

The “Throwaway” Panel: Panels that seem to exist just for transition or atmosphere—but actually contain crucial information. Readers skim these. Later, they kick themselves.

Body Language as Evidence

Comics show what characters feel:

Micro-Expressions:

• The guilty party’s moment of reaction
• Relief when suspicion turns elsewhere
• Fear at unexpected questions
• The tell they can’t quite hide

Positioning:

• Who stands near whom?
• Who creates distance?
• How do characters orient their bodies?
• What are their hands doing?

Eye Contact:

• Who looks at whom during revelations?
• Who avoids looking?
• Where do eyes go in group scenes?
• The meaningful glance between accomplices

Draw these consistently. When readers re-read, they should see the guilt in body language they missed the first time.

Managing Reveals

The Page Turn: Use page turns strategically:

• Clue on the right page → detective notices on the next spread
• Question posed at page bottom → revelation on turn
• Suspect cornered → their confession after the turn

Panel Sizing:

• Large panels for important reveals
• Small panels for rapid deduction sequences
• Full-page spreads for major climactic moments
• Tiny inset panels for sudden realizations

The Flashback Panel: When revealing the truth, briefly show earlier panels now recontextualized:

• Same scene, different framing
• What was hidden, now visible
• The clue, now highlighted
• The guilty expression, now unmistakable

Writing Your Detective

Detective Archetypes

The Genius:

• Sees what others miss
• Reader follows their deduction
• Risk: becomes boring if too perfect
• Variation: Genius who’s socially incompetent

The Everyperson:

• Reader-surrogate who figures it out
• Makes mistakes, follows wrong leads
• More relatable but harder to write clever solutions
• Works well in cozies

The Flawed Professional:

• Police detective or PI with personal problems
• The mystery intersects with their issues
• Noir/hardboiled standard
• Personal stakes beyond solving the case

The Outsider:

• Someone who shouldn’t be investigating
• Natural suspicion from others creates tension
• Has unique perspective or access
• Often in amateur sleuth stories

Making Deduction Visual

Comics struggle with internal monologue. Your detective’s thinking needs to show:

Techniques for Visual Deduction:

• Evidence fragments floating around the detective’s head
• Connecting lines between clue images
• Timeline panels showing reconstructed events
• The “I see it now” expression shift

The Deduction Sequence:

Panel 1: Detective examining clue A
Panel 2: Flashback to relevant conversation
Panel 3: Clue B from earlier scene
Panel 4: Detective's eyes widen
Panel 5: New understanding of what really happened

Compress the logic but show the key connections.

The Detective’s Blind Spots

Perfect detectives are boring. Give yours limitations:

Useful Flaws:

• Bias toward certain suspects
• Missing expertise in relevant areas
• Personal connections that cloud judgment
• Assumptions based on their worldview
• The thing they refuse to believe

These create drama and let readers potentially beat the detective to the solution.

Pacing the Mystery

The Investigation Structure

Act One: The Crime

• Establish the situation and victim
• Initial suspects and obvious motives
• First clues planted
• Detective takes the case (or is drawn in)

Act Two: The Investigation

• Interview suspects, each interview reveals something
• Follow leads (some dead ends, some breakthroughs)
• Complications arise
• Detective’s theory forms (probably wrong)
• Midpoint twist that changes everything

Act Three: The Solution

• Final pieces fall into place
• The confrontation
• The reveal/explanation
• Resolution and aftermath

Managing Information Flow

The Rhythm of Revelations:

• Each chapter should reveal SOMETHING
• Alternate between clue chapters and suspect chapters
• Build toward “pinch points” where everything seems clear (but isn’t)
• Time compression and expansion based on tension

The False Solution: Consider having your detective announce a solution—wrong—before the real revelation. This:

• Shows how clues could be misread
• Increases tension when the truth emerges
• Demonstrates fair play (the wrong solution used real clues)
• Makes the real killer feel safer (and sloppier)

Panel-Level Pacing

Tension Building:

• Smaller, more panels as tension rises
• Close-ups on faces during interrogation
• Silent panels for suspense beats
• Environmental establishing shots to slow down before action

Investigation Flow:

• Establishing shot of location
• Interview sequence with panel-per-exchange
• Evidence discovery with reaction shots
• Transition to next location/suspect

The Reveal:

• Slow down dramatically
• Larger panels for key moments
• Show the guilty party’s face
• Flashback sequence showing truth
• Return to present for consequences

Common Mystery Comic Mistakes

Cheating the Reader

What Readers Consider Cheating:

• Clues visible only to the detective, never shown to reader
• Information withheld that the detective has
• The solution depends on facts introduced in the reveal
• “The killer was someone never mentioned before”
• Red herrings that are just lies

Fair Play Standards:

• If the detective sees it, so should the reader (even if obscured)
• Major clues should appear before the midpoint
• The solution should be guessable, even if unlikely
• All relevant suspects should be introduced early

Making the Mystery Too Obvious

Signs You’ve Made It Too Easy:

• Only one character has motive
• The clues point only one direction
• You’ve forgotten to provide alternative explanations
• No meaningful red herrings

Solutions:

• Multiple characters with genuine motives
• Clues that could mean multiple things
• At least one convincing wrong suspect
• Plant doubt about the obvious answer

Making the Mystery Too Obscure

Signs It’s Too Hard:

• The solution depends on knowledge readers won’t have
• Clues require massive logical leaps
• The explanation takes pages of exposition
• Beta readers universally don’t get it

Solutions:

• Test on readers unfamiliar with the story
• Add more connecting clues
• Simplify the actual crime
• Make the detective’s reasoning more explicit

Losing the Characters to the Plot

Symptoms:

• Characters exist only to be suspects
• No one has personality beyond their role in the mystery
• Investigation scenes all feel the same
• No emotional stakes beyond “solve the puzzle”

Treatment:

• Give suspects lives beyond their suspicion
• Make the detective’s journey personal
• Add relationships that matter regardless of the mystery
• Let characters be funny, sad, complex—not just suspicious

Genre-Specific Techniques

Noir Visual Style

The Look:

• High contrast lighting
• Heavy shadows, especially on faces
• Rain, night scenes, urban decay
• Cigarette smoke, neon signs

The Feel:

• Morally ambiguous protagonist
• No clear good guys
• The system is corrupt
• Solutions are imperfect

Panel Approaches:

• Dutch angles for disorientation
• Silhouettes for mysterious figures
• Close-ups on details (guns, hands, lips)
• Wide shots emphasizing isolation

Cozy Mystery Approach

The Look:

• Warm, inviting settings
• Clear, friendly character designs
• Less emphasis on violence
• Community feels lived-in

The Feel:

• The detective is likable
• The community is worth saving
• Justice is achievable
• Death is taken seriously but not graphically shown

Panel Approaches:

• More medium shots, social interactions
• Environmental storytelling through cozy details
• Conversation-heavy, violence-light
• Characters shown in daily life, not just investigation

Psychological Thriller Style

The Look:

• Reality distortion in art
• Panel structure can become unstable
• Same scenes shown differently based on who’s remembering
• Visual unreliability

The Feel:

• Question everything
• Paranoia is justified
• Internal experience matters
• The mystery might be “what’s real?”

Panel Approaches:

• POV shots that might be lying
• Memory sequences with inconsistencies
• Visual metaphors for mental states
• Breaking traditional panel boundaries during breakdowns

Building Your Mystery Comic

Pre-Production Checklist

Story Bible:

• Complete true timeline of events
• Character sheets for all suspects with motives
• Clue document with fair-play mapping
• Red herring list with debunk plans
• Scene-by-scene outline

Visual Planning:

• Key location designs
• Character designs that support their role (who looks guilty vs. is guilty)
• Style guide for mood/genre
• Panel templates for common scene types

Production Order

1. Write the solution first

   • Know exactly what happened before anything else
   • Work backward from reveal to crime

2. Map the clues

   • Place them throughout your outline
   • Verify fair play

3. Draft the investigation

   • Write scenes that plant and discover clues
   • Track what the reader knows at each point

4. Design the reveal

   • The confrontation scene
   • The flashback/explanation sequence
   • The aftermath

5. Revise for consistency

   • Do all the clues line up?
   • Are red herrings properly defused?
   • Does the solution work with everything shown?

For creating mysteries with multiple possible solutions or branching investigations, Multic’s node-graph storytelling lets you map detective paths and ensure each route has proper clue placement.

The best mystery comics respect their readers’ intelligence while still surprising them. That balance—fair but unpredictable—is what separates “clever” from “cheap.” Put in the work on your clue architecture, and your readers will put in the work following your trail.

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Related guides: How to Make a Comic, Panel Layout Basics, Dialogue Writing for Comics, and Branching Narrative Writing