David Lapham, born in 1970, is an American cartoonist and writer-artist who built his reputation largely outside the mainstream superhero industry. He is best known as the creator of *Stray Bullets*, a crime anthology series he has written, drawn, lettered, and self-published with remarkable consistency across decades — a body of work that stands as one of the more distinctive long-form achievements in independent American comics.
Catacomb of Torment #9 (2026)
Lapham entered the industry in the early 1990s and has remained active through the mid-2020s, accumulating credits on over 400 issues spanning writing, art, inking, coloring, and lettering. *Stray Bullets* and its companion volume *Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses* represent the core of his output, though he has also contributed to publisher-driven projects including *Young Liars*, *Harbinger*, *Ferals*, and *Crossed Badlands*. His storytelling tends toward the gritty and psychologically intense, favoring crime, violence, and morally complex characters rendered in a clean but expressively grounded linework style.
*Stray Bullets* earned significant critical recognition, including an Eisner Award, affirming that Lapham's patient, self-directed approach to serialized crime fiction had resonated well beyond cult readership. His willingness to sustain a creator-owned series across shifting market conditions distinguishes him as one of the more committed independent voices of his generation.
