I mean crime and western stories that are serious and have some emotional weight, not payed for laughs (like ennis's punisher).

I've read a few arcs of Stray Bullets, Criminal, Blacksad and most of the Brian Bendis black and white comics.

For westerns I've really only read Jonah Hex, but wanted to check out Bouncer and Blueberry, but havent hear much about them. Also not really sure if there's a lot of American western comics.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

I think the only straight Western I've read is Loveless, and only a few issues.

Stuff like The Sixth Gun and Rotten are more fantastical.

For crime, I like Darwyn Cooke's Parker series.

I recall liking Desperadoes, but it's been quite awhile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperadoes

Ed Brubaker wrote a mini called Point Blank, which was good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Blank_(comics)

Which led into Sleeper, with art by Sean Phillips, which was great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_(comics)

The Moebius Blueberry GNs are great. Some of the most entertaining Western material you will ever read. There's a bunch of them too- far more than the 6 volumes that Marvel published in the late 80's/early 90's.
Someone really needs to get this material back in print here in worthy editions. If you can find the Marvel trades at a reasonable price, they are definitely worth picking up. Each volume by itself reads like a huge Sergio Leone film.

More great Western material is found in Rio by Doug Wildey. It's been collected and all the work appears in a beautiful volume by IDW. Highly recommended.

In addition to the Cooke Parker books I would suggest Torpedo by Bernet and Abuli. There are six softcover volumes, though IDW has expressed plans to collect them all in one HC Omnibus. Either way they are quality work about a Depression era hired gun. If you like the Coen Brothers Miller's Crossing, I would swear this material is the template for that film.

Some of the all time best crime stories can be found in Fall Guy For Murder by Johnny Craig, which is one of the Fantagraphic EC artist-centric volumes. When I discovered EC books back in the 80's, this was the stuff that impressed me the most. Lots of Noir-ish tales of cheating lovers, greedy grifters, and the occasional charming sociopath.

i second the darwyn cooke parker series -- you definitely need to read that if you havent.

also, Loveless by Azzarello

http://smile.amazon.com/Loveless-Vol...less+azzarello

especially if those jonah hex you read were by palmiotti and gray (and you liked them).

Awesome, thanks guys, thats a lot of recommendations.

I've read two of the Parker books, the hunter and the score. I liked them both, so I don't know why I haven't picked up the other two.

And Jordi Bernet did a lot of work on Jonah Hex, and I thought his stories were the best so I probably should check out Toledo

The old Rio books by Doug Wilder were great iirc.

Another vote for Parker and Rio!

On the crime front, has anyone read the Blue Estate series? I blind-bought a volume but haven't read it yet.

Just read the first volume of "Near Death" from Image. I've given up on the super hero type comics, so figured I'd try reading some independents. Image seems to have quite a few different titles in that genre.

Oni Press has some good crime books, and half price at Comixology right now.

dude, great call. i loved that series. i wish it was more than two volumes.

http://smile.amazon.com/Near-Death-T...h+image+comics

I actually enjoyed All Star Western Vol. 3 for the first four of five story arcs...

Another vote for Moebius' Blueberry and Johnny Craig's EC crime comics.