Real world invades "CSI"

IDW has posted an 11-page preview of “CSI: Dying in the Gutters” at its Web site, www.idwpublishing.com. The first issue of “Dying in the Gutters,” the latest CSI miniseries from IDW, arrives in stores in August. I talked to Chris Ryall, IDW’s publisher and editor in chief, about the book for a future Comics Fan column. “Dying in the Gutters” finds the CSI team investigating a murder at a Las Vegas comic-book convention. The fun part for comics fans is that the victim is Rich Johnston, a real-life online gossip columnist, and the suspects are real people in the comics industry, such as Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.

Once it was decided to set the story at a comic-book convention, Johnston was a natural choice for the victim, Ryall says. “We thought, if we’re going to kill anybody, let’s do in a comic what a lot of people have said they’d like to see happen in real life.”

It’s all in fun, though. I’ve seen the first issue and it’s a hoot.