Category: Crime Comics

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Last Fair Deal Gone Down – A Nick Travers Graphic Novel


By Ace Atkins & Marco Finnegan (12-Guage Comics/Image)
ISBN: 978-0-9836937-1-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

For the majority of private eyes, unshakable ethics, deductive reasoning and an attitude are not enough. The best ones also enjoy a specific time and/or location as well as a quirk or fascination that drives them. For Nero Wolf it was fine food and rare orchids, Marcus Didio Falco was an anti-establishment family man in first century Rome, Miss Marple was elderly and genteel, and both Phryne Fisher and Lord Peter Wimsey were posh, rich, and socialist. Moreover, Harry Dresden abets sleuthing with wizardry, Dirk Gently favours a holistic approach and Detective Chimp is a chimp…

Locale and an overarching outside interest flavours so many great crimebusting ratiocinators, none more so than Nick Travers: a music-loving history-driven investigator plying his twin trades in the moody Big Easy and its shady, murder & melody immersed environs.

The musical mystery prodigy was devised by former footballer award-winning investigative journalist Ace Atkins, a prolific writer who was himself compelled to re-examine cold cases and forgotten crimes.

Born in 1970, Atkins began his fiction-weaving aged 30: penning Crossroad Blues before going on to write three more Travers books between 1998 and 2004, 11 novels of former soldier Quinn Colson and standalone novels White Shadow, Wicked City, Devil’s Garden and Infamous. In 2011, the estate of Robert B. Parker commissioned Atkins to continue that author’s saga of P.I. Spenser, with a further ten books resulting thus far.

All that industrious fictive intrigue stemmed from an unfinished, abortive early exploit of the still unformed Nick Travers. The author’s Introduction for this stunning monochrome graphic grimoire details the strange circumstances leading to that abandoned outline finally being finished in 2016 to become something of a crime-writing sensation. It pays particular heed to the fevered efforts of fan Marco Finnegan to adapt the potent parable into comics…

A masterpiece of mood and style, the story sees Blues historian and occasional Tulane University lecturer Travers enjoying the distinctive Saturday night ambience of JoJo’s Bar (as well as Loretta’s cooking). In that suitably seedy dive, veteran sax player Fats beguiles drink-sodden listeners whilst continuing his own gradual self-extinction via booze and betting. It’s the founding myth of this city…

At the close, Nick spots him a meal and realises the little legend is especially troubled. He talks about being in love Real Love. Two days later, Fats is dead… an accidental fall…

The bluesman had no friends or family so JoJo and Travers are asked to clear his meagre belongings from the flop he rented. Fats had practically nothing left but his vintage sax. It was worth a fortune if he could have ever conceived of selling it, but it’s missing now…

Outraged and overwhelmed, Nick relentlessly employs his other skillset to discover how Fats actually died, who did it and why. As more far-from-innocents are killed, he kicks open a viper’s nest of betrayal, twisted hopes, frustrated desires, criminal exploitation and bitter disappointment – which only confirms all the legends and lies of the men who make the music and the lovers they despondently play it for…

And of course, even when the case closes and the bad guy is dealt with, there’s one last moment of revelation and another betrayal to avenge…

Atmospheric, moodily authentic and drowning in potent edgy drama and tension, Last Fair Deal Gone Down is a perfect example of comics crime and Southern Noir: a wonderful passport to the world of passion, idealism and shop-soiled justice…
© 2016 Ace Atkins. Image Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Sam Hill™: In the Crosshairs


By Tom DeFalco, Greg Scott, Janice Chiang & Art Lyon coloured by Anne-Marie Ducasse, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Dark Circle Comics/Archie)
No ISBN: Digital edition

At the height of America’s Film Noir era of the early 1950s – and following the game changing emergence of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer in 1947 – comics concocted a flurry of lonely, tarnished knights. Like their literary and cinematic equivalents, they solved crimes and unravelled mysteries employing varying degrees of excessive violence, street savvy and frankly a high degree of manly misogyny.

We’ll be seeing the prime offender in action at the end of this week and I’ll be back with Hammer’s greatest disciple – Johnny Dynamite – in the not too distant future. Today, though, it’s the turn of a revived reincarnation of one of the gumshoe’s earliest imitators.

Swiftly moving to exploit the trend, recently rechristened Archie Comics (nee MLJ) launched sidebar imprint Close-Up, Inc. to carry the semi-sordid shenanigans of titular tough guy Sam Hill.

That series (boasting five or more adventures per comic) ran to seven issues in 1951 before shutting down until another century. The writer(s?) remain undisclosed to this day, but the majority of the casebook was illuminated by company A-Lister Harry Lucey (Archie, Betty & Veronica, The Hangman, Madame Satan).

For more broadminded modern times, the character was revived by Archie’s modern mature reading imprint Dark Circle. Enjoying a very contemporary setting and milieu, the enquiry agent is reinvented by scripter Tom DeFalco (Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Fantastic Four, Spider-Girl, The Phantom), illustrator Greg Scott (X-Files, Area 51, Black Hood, Steve McQueen, Wolverine), colourist Art Lyon & letterer Janice Chiang also suffered from company hesitancy, and the presumably traditional print-designed tales ultimately surfaced as a digital only compilation. Thankfully, the material itself is eminently readable genre fare that fills a gap between mature material like Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips’ Criminal, Jason Aaron & R.M. Guéra’s Scalped or Azzarello & Risso’s 100 Bullets and all-ages crimebusting fare such as Max Allan Collins’ CSI comic adaptations, Marvel’s Cops: The Job (Larry Hama, Joe Jusko & Mike Harris) or Robert Loren Fleming & Ernie Colón’s Underworld from DC.

So, in the cosy manner of a post-watershed TV show, ‘The Case of the Willful Widow’ sees a now late middle-aged veteran sleuth hired to discreetly retrieve a sex-tape lost by or stolen from recently bereaved cougar Mrs. Clare Wentworth.

Offering no judgement, Sam scrupulously swears not to watch it before checking out family members who might profit from Clare’s public humiliation: accumulating a few suspects in the husband’s murder, and soon finding all leads point to lethal and grudge-bearing old adversary Philip “Big Marco” Marconi…

It’s not long before this poking around confirms that there’s a double cross in play, no one is telling the truth and that Hill is marked for murder… again…

After skilfully avoiding that trap, Hill and secretary assistant Molly Barsdale relax until life gets hectic again when notorious District Attorney Nathan Geller blows his brains out. ‘The Case of the Purged Politician’ latterly exposes the playboy politico’s corrupt connections to Big Marco and results in Hill being hired to shadow the DA’s successor amidst rumours that his entire staff were on the take…

Bullets replace flying accusations and more bodies drop, and just who is clean becomes a moot point when Sam’s cop buddy Detective Rufus Stack is forced to act on behalf of the city police chief who hates Hill’s guts. When another motive becomes embarrassingly clear, the true cost of power politics is apparent to all…

Sleazy glamour seizes the Private Eye’s attention in ‘The Car, the Chorus Girl and the Killers’ with Sam paid to find missing showgirl Jenna Ray DeCarlo. Gleefully checking out nightclubs, the suave shamus learns that other, far shadier guys are also seeking her…

Once again he’s stepped on the toes of Marconi and – crucially – his heirs. Oddly, Sam’s client – mob-accountant Mr Mopely – seems more eager to locate her car than his latest squeeze, and when he’s found executed in the traditional manner, Sam realises Jenna wasn’t missing but hiding…

Big changes are happening in the Marconi family, and when what everyone is looking for falls into Hill’s unwilling hands, the P.I. is hunted by the cops and the robbers…

Set square ‘In the Crosshairs’ the investigator goes on the run but doesn’t escape unscathed, (prompting an easter egg guest-shot for Archie’s own medical hero as originally seen in Young Doctor Masters) and a spectacular trap and showdown that offers no conclusion but just a precarious détente…

Stylish, smart, sassy and classy, Sam Hill: In the Crosshairs delivers plenty of action and comfortable crime drama to please any genre fan, with DeFalco’s steadfast tributes to past glories and mob fiction superbly realised by Greg Scott’s slickly atmospheric yet understated art.
© 2015 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Misery City


By K. I. Zachopoulos & Vassilis Gogtzilas (Markosia)
ISBN: 978-1-905692-81-1 (TPB)

For purists every literary genre is sacrosanct – unless you can come up with a way to mix or blend them with such style, verve and panache that something new is born which feels like it’s always been one of the gang…

Lurking in the shadows since first released in 2013, Misery City is a dark, bleak and ferociously introspective tale that relates the cases of Max Murray. He’s a dowdy, down-at-heel private eye stalking the meanest streets imaginable, in a vast and ever-changing metropolis situated on the outskirts of Hell – and, no, that’s not poetic license or flowery prose, it’s a satnav instruction…

Following an effusive Foreword from arch-stylist Sam Keith and Introduction from writer J. M. DeMatteis, the first 5 issues of the original comics series unfold in this pocket novel package: a stark, unrelenting procession of grimly trenchant case-files starring a shabby, unshockable shamus just trying to get by uncovering other people’s secrets whilst making some sense of the most pitiless town in creation.

Of course, Max has a few secrets of his own…

The black parade begins on the ‘Night of the Corpse’ when the world-weary peeper is attacked by a giant skeleton and must employ his beloved and handy handgun Fat Betty to end the undead animate. Times are both tough and weird, so he doesn’t give it much thought before retiring to his dingy office to await a new client and case…

When the phone rings it’s that sexy waitress Pakita from The Bar. Max has suffered the serious hots for the hot totty simply forever, but his rising hopes take a dive when the mercurial Mexican only hires him to check up on her cheating boyfriend.

With heavy heart and azure cojones, the gumshoe goes looking, utterly unaware that an old enemy has returned seeking vengeance. Professor Ego was penned in unimaginable torment because of Murray, and now he’s out and wasting no time in sending a plague of devils to secure some payback…

As a host of demonic clowns hunt the private detective, Max finds Pakita’s man. However, catching the faithless dog with another woman drives the PI crazy, and Murray goes ballistic, beating the cheating Dick to a pulp. Appalled and repentant, he then heads over to Pakita’s place to apologise but finds her gone, snatched by his long-forgotten foe.

Answering the ‘Call of Ego’, Max heads for the horror’s Tower hideout and a brutal showdown…

Despite his shoddy appearance, this detective is no dumb palooka. His secret vice is reading, and Max’s unceasing internal monologue is peppered with quotes and allusions from poets like Dante and Tennyson. They’re the only thing comforting him as ‘A Wooden Coffin for Max Murray part I’ sees him taking the Hell train to a surveillance job in the worst part of Misery City.

Horny as always, Max is disappointed to discover what the owner of that so-sexy French voice on the phone really looks like, but nevertheless agrees to check out the abandoned timber-framed family house the tearful widow fears property developers crave…

Maybe he should have been more suspicious, but the client’s stunning daughter Josephine had turned his head and all points south…

Upon entering the ramshackle old pile, a colossal zombie fiend attacks and before he can react, the entire house explodes out of the ground and rockets into orbit. Lost in space and out of options, the gumshoe reveals a few of his own incredible survival secrets, destroying the monster (said client’s vengeful and very angry husband) in ‘A Wooden Coffin for Max Murray part II’ before escaping the timber trap to settle scores with the murderous she-devils. It appears Max is on a first name basis with the Big Boss of the Inferno, and the head man is keen on renewing a satanic acquaintance with the understandably reluctant detective…

These malign mystery yarns conclude with a stunning surprise in ‘The Last Drag of a Pocket God’ with Max dogging a phantom with astounding delusions of grandeur. However, after sending Marty “The Voice” Coronado to his final rest, an uncomfortable conversation with Pakita forces the shamus to confront his own long-suppressed thoughts: examining the illusions that keep him going on the pitiless streets of Misery City…

Potently targeted vulgarity and a brusque, verbally confrontational narrative style gives Kostas (Mister Universe, The Fang, The Cloud) Zachopoulos’ manic scripts a supremely savage edge, whilst the freakish, surreal Horror-Noir milieu is perfectly captured by frequent collaborator/illustrator Vassilis (The Biggest Bang) Gogtzilas’ astoundingly frenetic art, delivered in a melange of assorted styles.

This mean, moody and menacing chronicle is topped off with a host of powerful pin-ups and a cover art gallery to further disquiet and beguile the unwary reader.
Misery City ™ & © 2013 Kostas Zachopoulos, Vassilis Gogtzilas and Markosia Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Stumptown volume 2: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case


By Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Rico Renzi & various (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-93496-89-7 (HB) 978-1-620104-80-4 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62010-032-5

Plenty of superhero, supernatural and sci fi comics make the jump to TV and movies these days, but not so many crime sagas. One that did came from ever-entertaining, prodigiously prolific, multi award-winning Greg Rucka.

A screenwriter (The Old Guard) and novelist (Atticus Kodiak crime sequence, Jad Bell series and a whole bunch of general thrillers), he also crafts astounding graphic thrillers like Whiteout, Queen & Country, Lazarus or The Old Guard whilst excelling on major properties and characters including Star Wars, Batman, Gotham Central (co-scripted by Ed Brubaker), Superman, Wonder Woman, Grendel, Elektra, The Punisher, Wolverine and Lois Lane. He has been a major contributor to epic events such as 52, No Man’s Land, Infinite Crisis and New Krypton.

To my mind this most engaging original comicbook concept features a non-traditional private eye barely getting by in the writer’s own backyard: Portland Oregon – AKA “Stumptown”…

The series launched in November 2009 as a 6-issue miniseries, with modern day Portland a vibrant and integral character in the story. A huge hit, the series was indefinitely extended and ran until #19. The TV show launched September 25, 2019 and was equally entertaining and initially successful, before dying after one superb season during the worst days of the pandemic.

Fronted by Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Introduction ‘On Stumptown’ and illustrated by Matthew (Savage Dragon, Ares, Infinity Inc.) Southworth and supplemental colourist Rico Renzi, the daily grind resumes with ‘The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case’. Here we meet again Dexadrine Callisto Parios, independent private detective and sole owner/primary operative of Stumptown Investigations.

Professionally, things are on the up. “Dex” now has an actual office to work out of, but still struggles with bills, two mortgages, a gambling problem, impulse control and dangerously implacable ethics. She’s also caring for dependent brother Ansel and ignoring other people’s opinions of her bisexuality – or more likely her attitude to them shoving their noses into problems she doesn’t want to confront yet…

After a missing persons case struck far too close to home made her name, briefly secured her future and brought her to the unwelcome attention of billionaire crime-boss/legit businessman Hector Marenco, Dex hoped life would settle down to regular PI gigs: cheating spouses, lost wills and the like.

In fact, there is a lot of that, like the potentially rewarding work-pilferage job she turns down after learning it would be for one of Marenco’s shady enterprises…

Suddenly, things get complicated and crazy again when a living legend walks through the door of her new office. Miriam “Mim” Bracca is a local legend made good globally and her band Tailhook are the epitome of wild success and excess. The megastar has a unique problem though: someone has stolen her baby…

The sweet child in question is a 1977 Gibson Les Paul, perfectly restored and utterly adored. It’s her favourite guitar: more crucial to her life and wellbeing than all her internal organs combined. The sweet precious vanished during or after the last gig and she doesn’t care if it’s just lost or been stolen. Mim will pay anything to get her true and perfect soulmate back…

Parios is astounded and reminds the star that the police work for free. Bracca however, has just ended an affair with Detective Tracy Hoffman (Dex’s inside pal on the Portland Police Bureau) and resoundingly rules that out…

Swallowing a huge amount of sheer fan froth, Dex gets down to business: checking Mim’s mental state and physical dependencies. Once convinced she’s serious, it’s all about the process, and Dex looks into just how much Mim Bracca’s go-to guitar is worth on the open market before interviewing the other band members, roadies and crew. It all seems silly but straightforward: a simple case of following well-rehearsed steps until the axe is recovered or uncovered, but there are levels of betrayal, criminality and deception in play that will make this job lethally risky business…

Dex gets her first inkling visiting Mim’s personal guitar manager Fabrizio Pullano, who she finds being beaten up by manically violent and remarkably dumb skinheads prepared to torture and kill to find the guitar. Being smart and handy, she soon sends them packing, and learns she’s in the middle of a covert DEA operation. Obnoxiously abrasive agent Cathy Chase and her so-mellow associate Mike Vela try to arrest, implicate and then co-opt her…

No stranger to legal officialdom and blinkered procedures, Dex correctly assesses there’s a lot more going on than a missing instrument, and despite hot Tailhook drummer “Click” Mayes being far more open and forthcoming than he needs to be in his interview, she leaps to an obvious conclusion…

A confrontation with her client convinces her that if drugs are being smuggled on Tailhook tours, the band know nothing about it, but Dex’s notion that she’s now got it all sussed bar some legwork evaporates when she gets home and finds Ansel and neighbour Grey playing with “Baby”.

An unidentified stranger left the hot item at Her House (!) in an obvious attempt to deliver a threat and end her involvement, but a quick examination of the case proves her suspicions and Parios knows this isn’t over at all…

In fact, the return of Baby triggers a rapid spiral of manic events as Tracy Hoffman confronts her old lover, the DEA try to arrest everybody, and viciously stupid skinheads Brad and Mick burst in guns blazing and spark one of the most spectacular car chases in comics…

Insanely, when the dust settles, the mystery remains. No one admits to taking Baby in the first place and Dex has to think again…

Happily, she deduces whoactuallydunnit just in time, and is there when the drug smugglers, their skinhead clients and the enigmatic mystery supplier move to recover their product and seek redress for their trouble. With a fluid and potentially deadly standoff resulting, Parios – as always – hangs tough, thinks fast and exploits her gift for making plans on the fly…

A superbly stylish thriller perfectly exploiting the nature of Oregon myth and culture, this yarn perfectly captures a magical place and its self-appointed shop-soiled white knight. Extras include Artifacts of Stumptown – a feature on Southworth’s art process plus promo posters.

Rucka excels in capturing character in meaningful but believable ways that add to understanding whilst always advancing the plot. Ansel (a superbly positive take on a neuro-atypical character: living with Downs Syndrome but realistically rendered, sensitively realised and fully participatory) is used to great effect and, as always, serves to ground Dex’s more dangerous impulses.

…And it’s all clever, witty fast paced and superbly action-packed. If you love crime drama, detective fiction, strong female role models or just bloody great storytelling, you need to pay a visit to Stumptown.
Stumptown volume 2: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case ™ & © 2013 Greg Rucka & Matthew Southworth. All rights reserved.

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Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe: A Trilogy of Crime


Adapted by Tom DeHaven & Rian Hughes; Jerome Charyn & David Lloyd; James Rose, Lee Moyer & Alfredo Alcala, & various (iBooks)
ISBN: 978-0-7434-7489-4 (HB), 978-1-59687-839-6 (TPB 2016 edition)

If you’re going to adapt classic, evocative crime stories into graphic narrative there really isn’t no better source material than Chandler. This follow-up to the adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe: The Little Sister was last reissued in 2016 as Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe: The Graphic Novel: once again the fruit of comics visionary Byron Preiss.

It adroitly adapts three short tales from the master of hard-boiled fiction. Significantly, they are all rendered in a variety of unique and impressive styles by an international array of top-flight creators…

Opening the show is ‘Goldfish’, first published in 1949 and the writer’s ninth short story sale. It preceded his first Marlowe novel by three years and is here adapted by Tom DeHaven (Green Candles, It’s Superman!) & lettered by Willie Schubert. The stylish illustration comes courtesy of British designer/artist Rian Hughes (Dare, I Am a Number) using muted colour tones that have only the merest hint of hue to them. The effect is powerfully evocative and atmospheric.

When former cop Kathy Horne sidles into the tough guy’s seedy office, she brings a tale of lost pearls, an absconded convict and a huge reward just waiting to be claimed. Dragged far out of his comfort zone and sent up and down the Pacific Seaboard, our world-weary shamus is just steps ahead of sadistic, casually murderous Carol Donovan and her gang of thugs in a superb thriller of double-cross and double-jeopardy…

Next up is ‘The Pencil’, scripted by award-winning mystery novelist Jerome Charyn (Isaac Sidel series, The Magician’s Wife, New York Cannibals), brilliantly rendered by British comics legend David Lloyd (V for Vendetta, Hellblazer, Wasteland, Aces Weekly) in moody, dry-brush black and white, and lettered by long-term collaborator Elitta Fell. This was Chandler’s 21st – and final – Marlowe adventure, published posthumously in 1959, shortly after the author’s death. You might know it as Marlowe Takes on the Syndicate, Wrong Pigeon or even Philip Marlowe’s Last Case.

Hollywood 1955: Ikky Rossen is a bad man, a career gangster and mob leg-breaker. When he crosses his bosses he hopes Marlowe can get him safely out of the City of Angels before The Organization’s East Coast “button men” send him to Hell. Marlowe knows these are people to be avoided at all costs and only one thing is always true: everybody lies…

Closing the casebook – and somewhat ill-considered and misplaced to my mind – is ‘Trouble is My Business’ as interpreted by James Rose (Thundercats, Savage sword of Conan), Lee Moyer (Starstruck, Dungeons & Dragons) & Alfredo Alcala (Voltar, Swamp Thing, Man Thing, Batman, Savage Sword of Conan), with Schubert again filling the word balloons.

This is a weak tale of vengeful Harriet Huntress who intends to destroy two generations of wealthy socialites mixed up in the gambling rackets originated in 1939: a rather tame and straightforward yarn in comparison to the other stories here, not to mention the landmark first full novel The Big Sleep, which was also published in that year.

Moyer and Alcala do a solid job of illustrating the plot (although it’s a little pretty for my tastes) but the cynical edge that is the hallmark of Chandler’s iconic creation is muted if not actually extinguished here.

Despite ending on a sour note, this is still a superb sample of Detective comics any fan can revel in, with the incredible Steranko cover alone well worth the effort of tracking down…
Adaptations and illustrations © 2003 Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc. Original stories “Goldfish” and “Trouble is my Business” © 2003 Philip Marlowe BV (Estate of Raymond Chandler) All Rights Reserved. “The Pencil” © 1971 Helga Greene, Executrix, Estate of Raymond Chandler. All Rights Reserved.

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Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: The Little Sister


Adapted by Michael Lark (A Byron Preiss Book/Fireside Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59687-535-7 (TPB)

If you’re going to adapt classic, evocative crime novels into graphic narrative you really can’t start from better source material than Raymond Chandler. His fifth novel, The Little Sister, was published in 1949, after nearly a decade of hard living and work as a Hollywood screenwriter, and it is a perfect example of his terse yet poetic hard-boiled style.

All the beloved and iconic imagery is present in Michael (Gotham Central, Legend of Hawkman, Terminal City) Lark’s static snapshot style as prim Orfamay Quest hires the laconic Marlowe to track down her missing brother, a spiritual soul who seems to have gone off the rails since hitting the sin city of Los Angeles.

Little Orfamay seems wound up pretty tight for such a run-of the-mill case, but the world-weary detective soon starts to take things a little more seriously after the bodies begin to drop and corpses start showing up in the strangest places…

This taut and twisted compote of mobsters, blackmail and double-dealing is an ideal example of a tale adapted well: underplayed art and direction augmented by controlled pace and a sensitive use of a deliberately limited colour palette.

A cool look at a period classic, this is a crime-fan’s dream book, and what’s truly criminal is that it’s been allowed to remain out-of-print.
© 1997 Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc. Text of The Little Sister © 1949 Raymond Chandler, © renewed 1976 Mrs Helga Greene. All Rights Reserved.

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Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow (Will Murray Pulp History Series)


By Will Murray, illustrated by Frank Hamilton, Rick Roe, Colton Worley, Joe DeVito, Edd Cartier & various (Odyssey Publications)
ISBN: 979-8-54I38-708-7 (PB/Digital edition)

In the early 1930s, just as the Great Depression hit hardest, a new kind of literary (and ultimately multimedia) hero was born …or more correctly, evolved. The Shadow afforded thrill-starved Americans measured doses of extraordinary excitement via cheaply produced periodical novels and over eerily charged airwaves via an iconic radio show.

Made exceedingly cheaply and published in their hundreds for every style and genre, “Pulps” bridged stand-alone books and periodical magazines. Results ranged from unforgettably excellent to pitifully dire, and amongst originals and knock-offs of every conceivable stripe, for exotic or esoteric adventure-lovers there were two stars who outshone all others in terms of quality and sheer imagination.

The Superman of his day was Doc Savage, whilst the premier relentless creature of the night darkly dispensing grim justice was the enigmatic vigilante/ultimate detective discussed here.

As seen in Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow (successor to this book) the enthralling enigma grew out of a combination of sources: radio show Detective Story Hour and the Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine it promoted; a succession of scary voices variously deployed by Orson Welles, James LaCurto and Frank Readick Jr.) but above all a Depression-era populace in dire need of cathartic entertainment.

From the very start on July 31st 1930, that narratorial “Shadow” was more popular than the stories he highlighted…

How that aural phenomenon was translated into an iconic literary/media sensation and exactly who was responsible forms the basis of this compelling testament as prolific author, scripter and historian Will Murray turns his spotlight on those who contributed to the amalgamated marvel of mystery and imagination.

Following his reminiscence-fuelled Introduction, Murray restates the origin of the character in photo-filled feature ‘The Five O’clock Shadow’ and details how the Street & Smith campaign to make a voice and a feeling real and remunerative spawned a landmark of broadcast entertainment, before ‘Out of the Shadows: Walter Gibson’ offers an engaging and revelatory interview with the magician-turned-crime writer conducted by Murray and Jim Steranko at the 1975 New York Comic Art Convention.

That interview was in a public forum, and the transcript omitted a lengthy digression comprising Gibson’s oral history of the Shadow’s signature fire opal ring. Here – in its entirety – it comprises ‘The Purple Girasol’, after which it’s the turn of ‘Heroic Editor: John L. Nanovic’ to be rediscovered and awarded his share of the acclaim.

Prolific and underrated, successor scripter ‘Theodore Tinsley: Maxwell Grant’s Shadow’ is celebrated all his many works after which we concentrate on illustration as cover artist ‘Graves Gladney Speaks’.

‘Walter B. Gibson Revisited’ revisits an interview with the author from PulpCon 5 (Akron Ohio, July 1976) conducted by Murray and Bob Sampson, discussing his working stance and fellow creatives at Street & Smith, whilst his connection to, expertise and excellence in conjuring and legerdemain are celebrated in ‘Walter Gibson’s Magical Journey’…

Back in the realm of visions, an appreciation of a true master of pulp art exploring the mysterious ‘Edd Cartier: Master of Shadows’ is augmented by acknowledgement of the Dark Detective’s most obvious legacy in ‘The Shadowy Roots of Batman’, with ‘Memories of Walter’ synthesizing the emotions stirred up by the author’s passing in December 1985.

Packed with fascinating detail and elucidatory anecdotes, plus plenty of pictures and photos, this beguiling documentary of bygone times and appreciation of the giant shoulders we all stand on, this so readable tome also includes biographies ‘About the Author’ and ultra-fan Tim King, whose crucial role is covered in ‘About our Patron’.

If heroes and history are important to you this Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow is truly unmissable.
© 2021 Will Murray. All rights reserved. Artwork © Condé Nast & used with permission.

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The Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume Two


By Will Murray, illustrated by Gary Carbon, Joe DeVito, Jason C. Eckhardt (Odyssey Publications)
ISBN: 979-8-379327-44-6 (PB/Digital edition)

I’m always saying it, in fact we all are: Something Strange is Going On. Let’s address that situation with a week of detective-themed reviews…

Way back in the days when even the shabbiest waif or emphysema-riddled ragamuffin could read, story periodicals for young and old ruled. Countless stories recounted the exploits of adventurers, do-gooders and especially detectives. None ever matched the cachet and pulling power of Sherlock Holmes. Even today the meta-real household name continues and thrives, both in countless reworkings and adaptations of canonical classics and in new material by and for devoted and dedicated admirers ever-hungry for more…

Holmes wasn’t the first but he is most assuredly the most popular and well known. His success spawned a storm of imitators and tribute acts – some even going on to immortality of their own. In1893, just as The Strand Magazine published the “last Sherlock Holmes story” (The Adventure of the Final Problem – and it nearly was as Conan Doyle held out against incredible pressure from fans, editors and bankers until 1901 when The Hound of the Baskervilles began serialisation) another profoundly British criminologist was beginning his own spectacular multimedia career: Sexton Blake…

As described by physician Arthur Conan Doyle via the narratives of companion and stalwart factotum Dr. John Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ fictional exploits (54 short stories and 4 novels beginning in 1887) popularised and formulated detective fiction: mythologising the processes of observation, deduction, logical reasoning and forensic science. Britain became a nation of crime fans and Holmes went on to repeat the process for most of the planet…

The first exploit was A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual 1887, with the majority of stories thereafter in The Strand Magazine. Inevitably, the character soon escaped the page to appear in countless, stories, plays, films, television shows, adverts and anything else canny entrepreneurs could think of.

Although graphic adaptations are plentiful, original English language comics have not excelled with regard to the Great Detective: a trio of newspapers strips, brief comic book runs by Charlton (1955) and DC Comics (1975) and some few later miniseries by independent publishers such as Caliber and Moonstone. Holmes is, however, an evergreen guest collaborator: popping up to aid everyone from Batman to The Muppets to The Shadow himself.

If you can find them, Scarlet in Gaslight: An Adventure in Terror and A Case of Blind Fear by Martin Powell & Seppo Makinen would provide resolute pictorialist devotees with a rare and worthwhile treat: showing the Master Ratiocinator testing himself against other literary touchstones of the period – specifically Bram Stoker’s Lord of the Undead in alliance with the truly evil Professor Moriarty and then H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man…

He has also faced such contemporary challengers as The Phantom of the Opera and Mr Hyde in the company of Henry Jekyll, Toulouse L’Autrec and Oscar Wilde…

Writers and fans alike share an oddly perverse but clearly overwhelming desire to “mix and match” favourite literary figures: especially from the Victorian Era, that birthplace of so many facets of popular culture. Holmes is so much a household name that his inclusion in any venture is a virtual guarantee of commercial success, but regrettably often no guarantee of quality. Of course, no one can get too much of a good thing and happily Holmes and Watson have thrived under the aegis of many creative stars ever since Doyle’s death. Writers adding to the oeuvre include Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, A.A. Milne, P.G. Wodehouse, John Dickson Carr, Anthony Horowitz and so many more, and today I’m sharing the efforts of another with a well-earned reputation in the field….

Will Murray is something of a classic fiction force of nature. Journalist, editor and author, he produces scholarly histories and critiques on cult characters in the Will Murray Pulp History Series (as seen in today’s other posting) and celebrates the pulp experience in general and especially fading genres via new prose stories for the canon of so many landmark literary characters and concepts. Through print, audio and eBooks, Murray has extended the legends and shelf life of The Shadow, Doc Savage (and Pat Savage), The Spider, King Kong, The Green Lama, The Bat, The Avenger, The Destroyer (Remo Williams), Tarzan and The C’thulu mythos, He is especially adept at crafting combinations: teaming individual stars and concepts in team -up tales such as King Kong vs Tarzan…

You’ll probably want to see – or may already enjoy – Murray’s comics too: gems like prose novel Nick Fury, Agent of S.H. I.E.L.D.: Empyre, and visual delights like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (co-created with Steve Ditko), Spider-Man, Hulk, Secret Six, The Destroyer, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Spider, The Gray Seal, Ant-Man, Green Hornet, Zorro, The Phantom and more…

These stories were originally published in magazines and books from MX Publishing, Thrilling Adventure Yarns and Belanger Books, and are set in various periods of the consulting Detective’s long and prestigious career. This tome is the second and latest of two volumes and I’m happy to confide that I enjoyed it so much when my comp copy arrived that I actually paid with my own money to get the first one too…

Following an effusive and informative ‘Introduction’ discussing how this collection concentrates on stories challenging Holmes’ rational mindset and non-rationalistic encounters, the casebook reopens with ‘The Singular Problem of the Extinguished Wicks’ as the investigator reveals his fascination with Spontaneous Human Combustion and its effect on a particularly gruesome demise, after which ‘The Mystery of the Spectral Shelter’ sees Holmes approached by a Hansom cab driver who has had a decidedly close call with a vanishing café used by his professional compatriots…

The irascible ratiocinator’s perennial problem with mind-numbing boredom is highlighted in ‘The Problem of the Surrey Samson’ and assuaged by a theatrical turn whose seemingly miraculous strength does not endure Holmes’ close scrutiny, whilst ‘The Uncanny Adventure of the Hammersmith Wonder’ exposes a body in incredible circumstance and – once properly pondered – sees the detective solve a long-hidden generational crime…

Weird – but still plausible – science and a truly grotesque murder inform ‘The Repulsive Matter of the Bloodless Banker’ before Murray adds his own choice pick to that army of previously established associates.

A ghost story – or is it? – bringing mysteries of ancient Egypt to Edwardian England, ‘The Adventure of the Abominable Adder’ is set in 1903 and introduces the champion of rational thought to his equally estimable but operationally opposite number. This tale sees Algernon Blackwood’s spiritual detective John Silence – Physician Extraordinary also consulted by a terrified client with both valiant advocates needed to solve the mystery.

Silence was among the best of a wave of “ghost-breaker” heroes from that death-obsessed era, appearing in six stories by the prolific Blackwood (1869-1951), beginning with ‘A Psychical Invasion’ (1908).

A genteel and refined war of world-views having been declared, Mind and Soul met again in ‘The Adventure of the Sorrowing Mudlark’ as Dr. Silence asks the esteemed logician to assist a dead woman trapped in an eternal search, before a mythological mystery manifests when a green-hued lad long ago abducted by fairies abruptly returns to a rustic village in ‘The Adventure of the Emerald Urchin’, with Silence again offering unique insights…

With Holmes assuming the narrator’s role, 1908-set conundrum ‘The Adventure of the Expelled Master’ details how he deduced the manner in which a maths teacher was actually murdered despite his body being observed flying up a chimney and rocketing across the heavens, before this embassage into eerie esoterica concludes with Watson’s already crucial role in the stories expanded. It’s 1915 and whilst involved in the war effort the military doctor seeks to drag his old comrade out of retirement to verify the provenance of an unearthed hoard seemingly minted in fabled Atlantis in ‘The Conundrum of the Questionable Coins’…

Wrapping up the investigations are fulsome biographical dossiers on Murray in ‘About the Author’ and artist Gary Carbon in ‘About the Artist’.

Compelling, rewarding and just plain fun to read, these tales are a delight and a must for any Holmesian follower.
© 2023 by Will Murray. All rights reserved. Front cover image & frontispiece © 2023 by Gary Carbon. All rights reserved. Back cover image © 2023 by Joe DeVito. All rights reserved.

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The Phantom: The Complete Sundays Archive Volume Three 1945-1949


By Lee Falk, Ray Moore & Wilson McCoy: introduction by Daniel Herman (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-100-7 (HB/Digital edition)

Born Leon Harrison Gross, Lee Falk created the Ghost Who Walks at the request of his King Features Syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed champion in comics, The Phantom became the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits…

The generational champion debuted on February 17th 1936, in an extended sequence pitting him against an ancient global confederation of pirates. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. The spectacular and hugely influential Sunday feature began in May 1939.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been quite poorly served in the English language market (except for the Antipodes, where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god). Many companies have sought to collect strips from one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history, but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. That began to be rectified when archival specialists Hermes Press launched their curated collections…

This third edition is a lovely and large (229 x 330 mm) landscape hardback/digital tome, displaying a complete full colour Sunday per page. Released in March 2016, its 208 pages are stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies like panel and logo close-ups, comics covers and lots of original art and opens with publisher Daniel Herman’s ‘Introduction: The Sunday’s Continue…’ recapping all you need to know about the feature and disclosing how Wilson McCoy assumed the illustrator’s role from Ray Moore – and why nobody knows exactly when he did…

For those who came in late: 400 years previously, a British mariner survived an attack by pirates, and – after washing ashore on the African coast – swore on the skull of his father’s murderer to dedicate his life and that of his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights evil and injustice from his fabulous lair deep in the jungles of Bengali. Throughout Africa and Asia he is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice led to his being considered an immortal avenger by the uneducated, credulous and wicked. Down the decades, one heroic son after another has inherited the task, fought and died in an unbroken family line, with the latest wearer of the mask indistinguishable from the first and proudly continuing the never-ending battle.

In his first published exploit the Phantom met and fell for wealthy American adventurer Diane Palmer and his passion for her was soon reciprocated and returned and she became a continuing presence in both iterations of the series as ally, partner, sounding board, a means of reader identification and naturally a plot pawn and perennial hostage to fortune.

Almost every saga featured powerful, capable and remarkably attractive women as both heroes and villains, and in opening tale ‘Queen Pera the Perfect’ (running from December 9th 1945 to March 17th 1946), Diana saw the tables turned…

The aforementioned ruler of remote but rich Karola was constrained to find a husband, and so sent her fanatical minions into the world to find a man worthy of her. They returned with a musical genius, celebrated fighter pilot, champion pugilist and cinema’s greatest lover, but wherever they went they heard legends of an incredible superman…

After The Phantom repeatedly refuses her men’s offer, and gives her stern lesson in manners, she responds by having him imprisoned in her dungeons until he sees sense, and this time it’s his true love who has to save the day…

Spanning March 24th to August 4th 1946, ‘King of Beasts’ sees the liberated champion retuned to Bengali in time for Diana to be unjustly imprisoned. A priceless pearl necklace has been stolen from a maharajah and nobody believes the story of who actually took it: not the police and certainly not American mobster Poison Ivy and his boys…

When The Phantom tries to engineer a jailbreak, he’s caught too and charged with being an accomplice, only for the true thief to free him and Diana by sending a pickpocketing monkey to unlock their cell. In the ensuing flight, Diana is snatched by the mobsters, who don’t believe a word about a hidden mastermind using trained beasts to burgle. That all changes when a trained troop of elephants bust into the bank and porcupines empty a packed casino for their masked master…

With chaos unleashed, The Phantom retrenches and calls in his own equine ally and canine corps. Mighty steed Hero and lupine assistant Devil soon track down the King of Beasts who is far from what anyone expected. However even after he’s handled, there’s still increasingly murderous Poison Ivy to deal with…

Another female fury debuts in ‘The Scarlet Sorceress’ (August 11th – December 22nd) as a royal visit to the Deep Woods of the Bandar People introduces little Princess Valerie and her grandfather the Rajah of Volara. The child will soon become a pawn in a wicked plot…

When the princess of neighbouring kingdom Wogu falls ill, a devious manipulator “prophesies ” that only golden-haired Valerie’s blood can save the ailing waif, prompting a kidnapping and a frantically fast response from the Ghost Who Walks. Not all the monstrous forces set against him can slow the Phantom, but after exposing the witch as a charlatan, the hero discovers that he’s fighting not a villain but another victim. Soon, however, his efforts save all involved and pacify two kingdoms…

December 29th 1946 to June 29th 1947 finds The Phantom once more battling to save Diana after the filthy rich and spoiled Potentate of Ptjar Prince Pepe abducts her to be his very best bride. Law and reason mean nothing to the repulsive despot and by the time the hero reaches the distant kingdom, she is beyond even the Ghost’s reach. His only recourse is to play Pepe’s game and in a dozen days complete ‘The 12 Tasks’ conceived to frustrate and humiliate the hero. However, wit and ingenuity married to his mighty physicality make short work of the impossible – such as capturing an invulnerable giant bandit, emptying a river of carnivorous fish, banishing every shark in the bay or stopping all crime for 24 hours – and despite Pepe’s cheating equivocations the final task changes the nation forever and for the better…

A return to jungle warfare and tribal feuding underpins ‘The Dragon God’ (July 26th to November 16th) as Diana’s interest in an ancient Wambesi idol presages the fire-breathing saurian coming to life and demanding its worshippers kill and plunder their neighbours the Ulangi. With “The Phantom’s Peace” broken, the Ghost Walks amongst them to re-establish order and quickly discovers white instigators and recovered wartime weaponry behind the uprising, but once begun war has its own momentum and tribal grudges run deep and burn forever…

With bloodshed ended, a change of pace and tone heralds the return of an appalling duo who had previously made life miserable for The Phantom. Spanning November 23rd 1947 to May16th 1948, ‘The Marshall Sisters’ sees over-privileged brats Lana and Greta return to Africa in a ruthless no-holds barred competition to seduce and wed the mighty jungle avenger. This is after their last attempt to land the ultimate trophy husband was foiled by Diana Palmer…

When allure, deception and blackmail all fail, the hellions even try shanghaiing and blunt force trauma to achieve their aims, but lose all control when the various thugs they hire hijack the caper…

A relatively short story running from May 23rd through September 5th follows, revealing how a long-running annual sporting contest devised by the original ancestral Phantom has served to ameliorate tribal tensions for four centuries. Although its dollar value is meaningless to the competitors who strive for pride and bragging rights alone, the gem-stuffed urn that acts as ‘The Phantom Trophy’ is an irresistible prize for cop-killing fugitives Spike and Grunt.

When they rope in more scallywags to swipe the prize from the previous holders/custodians, before it can be handed over to the new champions tribal war erupts. Although The Phantom hunts the thieves he might be too late as naked greed turns the rogues against each other…

The final sequence in this volume visits ‘The Haunted Castle’ (September 12th 1948 – February 13th 1949) as Diana goes exploring alone and is propelled into wild unexplored country. As The Phantom and Devil search for her, she wanders a lost valley whose people are enslaved by sinister wizard Great Moogoo who shrinks anyone who opposes him to the size of a plaster gnome and adds them to his terrifying garden…

As the lascivious sorcerer captures her, Diana’s man has tracked her to the stone citadel and begun a one-man siege that exposes his nefarious trickery and wrecks his powerbase…

Taken from America’s immediate post-war period, these brief encounters are bold, brash, uncomplicated fare, full of despicable rogues, lost kingdoms, savage tribes, dangerous but still redeemable dames and very bad guys, but thrillingly reassuring entertainment for all that. Just remember, different times have different values. If the kind of fare you’d encounter in a 1940s Tarzan movie or cop thriller might offend, you should consider carefully before starting this…

Finally rediscovered, these lost treasures are especially rewarding as the material is still fresh, entertaining and addictively compelling. However, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians – manic devotees of the implacable champion from the get-go) surely the Ghost Who Walks is worthy of a little of your time?
The Phantom® © 1945-1949 and 2016 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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The Newsboy Legion by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby volume Two


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Don Cameron, Joe Samachson, Ed Herron, Arturo Cazeneuve, Curt Swan, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7236-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Just as the Golden Age of comics was beginning, two young men with big dreams met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. As kids they had both sold newspapers on street-corners to help their families survive the Great Depression…

Joe Simon was a sharp-minded, talented guy with 5 years’ experience in “real” publishing; working from the bottom up to become art director on a succession of small papers – such as the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American – before moving to New York City to freelance as an art/photo retoucher and illustrator. Recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc. This was a production “shop”: a conveyor belt of eager talent generating strips and characters for numerous publishing houses eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman.

Within days, Simon created The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (now Marvel) and met Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with the Blue Beetle for the Fox Feature Syndicate.

Together, Simon and Kurtzberg (who went through many pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) enjoyed a stunning creative empathy and synergy: galvanizing an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres.

They produced influential monthly Blue Bolt, rushed out Captain Marvel Adventures #1 for Fawcett and – after Martin Goodman appointed Simon editor at Timely – created a host of iconic characters such as Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, Young Allies and million-selling mega-hit Captain America.

Famed for his larger-than-life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual hard-working family man who lived through poverty, gangsterism and the Depression. He loved his work, hated chicanery of every sort and saw a big future for the comics industry…

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to industry leader National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and open chequebook. The pair were initially an uneasy fit, bursting with ideas the staid company were not comfortable with and thus given two strips that were in the doldrums until they found their creative feet…

Turning both around Sandman and Manhunter virtually overnight and – once established and left to their own devices – went on to devise the “Kid Gang” genre (technically, it was “recreating” as the notion was one of the duo’s last innovations for Timely as seen in 1941’s Young Allies). The result was unique and trendsetting juvenile Foreign Legion The Boy Commandos.

The little warriors began by sharing the spotlight with Batman in flagship publication Detective Comics, but before long they won their own accompanying solo title – which promptly became one of the company’s top three sellers. Frequently cited as the biggest-selling US comic book in the world at that time – Boy Commandos was such a success that the editors, painfully aware that the Draft was lurking, green-lit the completion of extra material to lay away for when their star creators were called up.

S&K assembled a creative team that generated so many stories in a phenomenally short time that publisher Jack Liebowitz then suggested they retool some of it into adventures of a second kid gang…

Thus was born The Newsboy Legion and super-heroic mentor The Guardian…

Probably based on the Our Gang/Little Rascals film shorts (1922-1944) and pitched halfway between a surly comedy grotesques and charmingly naive ragamuffins, the Newsboy Legion comprised four ferociously independent orphans living together on the streets of “Suicide Slum” peddling papers to survive. Earnest, good-looking Tommy Tompkins, garrulous genius Big Words, diminutive, hyper-active chatterbox Gabby and feisty, pugnacious Scrapper – whose Brooklyn-based patois and gutsy belligerence usually stole the show – were all headed for a bad end until somebody extraordinary entered their lives…

Their exploits offered a bombastic blend of crime thriller and comedy caper, leavened with dynamic superhero action and usually seen from a kid’s point of view. The series debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7, forcing Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy off the covers and to the back of the book. The Legion remained lead feature until the end of 1946 when, without fanfare or warning, issue #65 was published without them.

The lads had been ousted and replaced by solo tales of Robin, the Boy Wonder. His own youth-oriented solo series subsequently ran all the way to SSC #130 in 1952, by which time superhero romps had largely been supplanted throughout the industry by general genre tales.

This second superb collection concludes their Golden Age exploits, with tales from Star-Spangled Comics #33-64 (cover-dated June 1944 – January 1947), including every stunning cover by Kirby, Simon, Fred Ray and teenager Gil Kane all inked by Arturo Cazeneuve, John Daly, Steve Brodie, George Roussos & Stan Kaye. There’s also an informative Introduction from The Jack Kirby Collector/Two Morrows’ publishing guru John Morrow setting the scene for the fun that follows…

In the very first tale, rookie cop Jim Harper adopted a superhero alter ego to administer hands-on justice when The Law was not enough. His vigilantism resulted in the capture of an infamous kidnap ring. Newspapers dubbed the mysterious hero the Guardian of Society and sold like hotcakes on all street corners, making money for even the poorest junior entrepreneurs.

Harper initially had no intention of repeating his foray into vigilantism but when he caught Tommy, Big Words, Gabby and Scrapper shoplifting, his life changed forever. The tough little monkeys were headed for reform school, but he made an earnest plea for clemency on their behalf and the judge appointed him their responsible adult: their “guardian”.

“The Newsboy Legion” were set on a righteous path, but their suspicions were aroused. Frustratingly, no matter how hard they tried, the boys could never prove that their two Guardians were the same guy…

With tales of the war declining in popularity, Star Spangled Comics #33 opens this concluding compilation with ‘The Case of the Bashful Bride!’ Regular illustrator Arturo Cazeneuve limns a fast-paced but uncredited yarn as gangster Sloppy Sam seemingly hangs up his gat after marrying into money. The nosy kids simply can’t accept the transformation and their poking around soon uncovers a cunning plot, cruel criminality and just a hint of hilarious hoity-toity crossdressing behind the scheme…

Naturally, by the time they’re in over their heads, Harper has again swapped his badge and gun for golden helmet and shield to wrap up the case…

The boys’ lives were peppered by dozens of get-rich-quick notions that inevitably uncovered crimes and unleashed chaos. In ‘From Rags to Ruin!’ (#34, by Cazeneuve, July 1944), Gabby discovers the power of positive thinking and talks himself into a high-paying executive position at an insurance company. His dream sours after discovering he’s the figurehead – and fall guy – for a protection racket. Time to call in some old pals…

Still calling himself Eli Katz, future superstar Gil Kane illustrated #35’s ‘The Proud Poppas!’ as the Newsboys adopt a homeless orphan fleeing a cruel and repressive institution. Peter wants to be an artist and gleefully moves into the Boys’ orbit – and shack – but his rightful carers desperately want him back and ruthless kidnappers now know who he is and where he’s hiding…

Cazeneuve returned for ‘The Cowboy of Suicide Slum!’ as grizzled former western sheriff Hawkeye Hawkins of Howlin’ Gulch comes Back East to see the sights. The Legion are all beguiled by his tall tales and before long hip-deep in trouble after they convince the ornery coot to display his talents by going after local gang boss Little Dodo…

After saving a swell from bullies in the slum, Scrapper is offered an apprenticeship by the city’s top gem cutter in ‘Diamonds in the Rough!’ However, as a business prone to criminality, the benefactor expects the fisty firebrand to protect his hands and quit fighting…

When workmen fixing waterpipes trigger a crude oil gusher in Suicide Slum, everybody wants to cash in whilst the toffs in swanky Doughbilt Apartments don’t want their views ruined by derricks. Into that bubbling cauldron of trouble come opportunists; crooks too, so it’s not long until The Guardian and the Legion discover what’s actually going on in ‘Roll Out the Barrels’…

Steve Brodie begins inking Cazeneuve in #39’s ‘Two Guardians Are a Crowd!’ (December 1944) as a crooked doppelganger plays hob with the hero’s reputation and the boys’ conviction of Harper’s double life – until the inevitable face-off – after which notorious thief Danny the Dip bids ‘Farewell to Crime!’ by writing a tell-all memoir. When the kids get involved, it’s exposed as less a confession and more perjury and blame-shifting, leading to the Guardian getting truth – and justice – his way…

When a criminal set fires and create street accidents to tie up first responders in ‘Time Out for the Guardian!’, cop Harper is among the injured. Mistakenly diagnosed with a broken leg, he uses the mistake to convince his wards that the superhero is another guy when they go after the culprits. However, they are just young, not idiots…

In #42, the Legion discovers ‘The Power of the Press!’ when they produce a grassroots periodical going after crooks at ground level. It’s good enough to get them framed by malign mastermind The Undertaker until good old Jim steps in, before the boys test their musical chops in a (naturally fixed and wildly comedic) barbershop quartet singing competition designed to expose the ‘Trials of a Tenor!’

Misguided philanthropy and unthinking privilege steer Ethelreda Winkle and her nephew Cuthbert when the daft dowager sets up an institute to elevate the poor by teaching them proper manners in ‘Etiquette Comes to Suicide Slum!’ With thieves flocking in to improve their chances of better scores, Harper asks the Newsboys to get with the program and learns all is not as seems, after which ‘Crime Gets Clipped!’ finds the lads setting up a …news-gathering “clipping service” and catching a vain bigshot plundering the city’s banks…

‘Clothes Make the Criminal!’ finds the kids on the trail of crooks using a selection of stolen uniforms and costumes to commit outrages before Jim and the boys again prove they have the right stuff…

With George Roussos inking Cazeneuve, ‘The Triumph of Tommy!’ sees the bold Newsboy gunned down by a robber. To recuperate, he’s carted off to Camp Woko-ni-to (“for underprivileged children of the slums”) by his doctor, and when his comrades visit, it sparks another fight when Tommy spots the thug who shot him laying low. Meanwhile, The Guardian has been following another trail and pops up just when he’s most needed…

‘Booty and the Blizzard!’ is one of the few stories we know the writer of. Don Cameron scripts for Cazeneuve & Roussos as an icy cold snap cuts off Suicide Slum and the industrious boys shovel out a network of tunnels for fellow residents trapped behind ten feet of hard-packed snow. Too bad it’s also an ideal escape route for wily bank bandits, until the Guardian learns to ski…

The same creative team measure out ‘One Ounce to Victory!’ as a scrap paper drive gets hyper-competitive when the Newsboys compete with rival news peddlers the Hawker Street Hawks. As if bitter enmity isn’t enough, the effort is made more dangerous after recently released convict Tightlips Leo hides the map to his stashed loot in one of those collected paper piles and resorts to murderous means to retrieve it…

Cover-dated November 1945, Star Spangled #50 features Joe Samachson, Joe Kubert & Roussos adding a flash of film fantasy in ‘The Leopard Man Changes his Spots!’ Here the boys help a meek movie star specialising in monsters channel his inner hero and escape the clutches of a racketeering mobster.

Another industrious enterprise transforms into a means of corralling crooks when the boys start a second-hand apparel business. Naturally, any way to help poor folk advance draws cunning connivers with a perfidious plan, but ‘The Style Show of Suicide Slum’ (Cameron & Kubert) also triggers a wicked comedy of errors when the ugliest jacket on Earth (concealing a fortune in stolen cash) is inadvertently passed from one ungrateful recipient to the next…

Cameron, Cazeneuve & Brodie reunite for #52’s ‘Rehearsal for a Crime!’ as Gabby breaks into an abandoned theatre and mistakes a practise run for robbery for a new play pre-debut. When he comes back with his pals they are all captured and it’s up to Harper to seek them out, shut them down and save the day…

Kirby returned in the next issue where Gabby won a jingle contest – and $500 – and pursued a career in rhyme as ‘The Poet of Suicide Slum!’ (script by Cameron and inked by Brodie). His delusions and propensity for naming gangsters and their plans in his odes soon made him a target for early immortality… until The Guardian applied his own brand of two-fisted criticism…

Another acknowledgement of the rise in western themes informs ‘Dead-Shot Dade’s Revenge!’ (by an uncredited writer, Kirby & Brodie) as a spiky relic of pioneer days drives his “prairie schooner” into Suicide Slum. He’s come 2000 miles in pursuit of Gaspipe Gosser, who stole Dade’s life savings, and it’s all The Guardian can do to stop the old coot shooting him dead like a dawg just to see him drop…

Happily, Gosser’s guilt triggers a pre-emptive strike that gives the hero all he needs to put the thug away, after which Curt Swan & Jack Farr depict how ‘Gabby Strikes a Gusher!’ He had been tending his vegetable garden when he discovered oil, but just as he looks into setting up a company, the thugs who originally stole the stuff came calling…

Cooking for the Newsboys was done on a strict rota basis, with dealer’s choice the prime consideration. When Gabby accidentally came into possession of oysters dropped by fleet-footed Willy Wetsell, he thought it solved his problem of what the gang would eat that night.

Instead, each mollusc contained a superb, huge fully processed Arabian pearl and Jim Harper realised that this ‘Treasure of Araby’ (art by Kirby & Ray Burnley) was far more than chance and not in the least lucky…

Kirby & John Daly limned Star Spangled Comics #57’s cunning shocker as mobster Snake Huggins resolved to fix the interfering brats for good. His plan was to hit him at his weakest point and resulted in ‘A Recruit for the Legion!’ but wealthy Timothy Tuck was not what he seemed and proved a far bigger threat that he looked…

Kirby handled exotic diversion ‘Matadors of Suicide Slum!’ as the boys befriend elderly janitor Perez and hear rousing tales of his glory days in the bullrings of Mexico. Coincidentally, Yankee businessmen are trying to bring the bloody sport to Suicide Slum, leading to a decades-delayed concluding duel between the man and his nemesis El Diabolo. Only, it’s not quite as they recalled or any onlooker quite expected…

From sentimental slapstick, we turn to criminal mystery in Kirby’s Daly inked ‘Answers, Inc.!’ (#59, August 1946) wherein Tommy cashes in on an unsuspected gift for solving riddles, puzzles and general knowledge quizzes. Although he’s smart, he’s still a kid though and when a cunning cove poses a pithy conundrum, Tommy hands over a method for a foolproof heist. Happily, jaded, cynical Jim Harper is on hand to ask his own difficult questions whilst The Guardian is ready to answer them…

Ed Herron, Swan and Stan Kaye then detail a whimsical winner as Scrapper seeks to become ‘Steve Brodie Da Second!’ to one-up friendly rivals the Boy Commandos. The Brodie in question is not the inker, but the turn of the century sportsman who claimed to have survived jumping off the East River Bridge. Here, however, Scrapper’s idiotic emulation ends when he jumps right into a gangster’s secret submarine, and silly season stunt escalates to front page crime caper…

Swan & Kaye then continued the new trend for stunts as Guardian’s pursuit of a crook leads to a syndicate dictating the demise of him and the Newsboy Legion under the pretence of sponsoring them in ‘The Great Balloon Race!’ across America, after which ‘Prevue of Tomorrow’ sees a mysterious stranger spark chaos by handing out papers offering news from 24 hours into the future. Of course for our heroes forewarned is simply forearmed…

Brodie inked Swan on penultimate outing ‘Code of the Newsstand!’ as the boys visit Chinatown just as Harper enters the enclave to find escaped convict Stiletto Mike. Of course, they are first to find the felon but it’s The Guardian who has the last word… and punch.

Cover-dated January 1947, Star Spangled Comics #64 closed the Newsboy Legion’s eclectic run with ‘Criminal Cruise!’ wherein Swan & Brodie had the kids literally sailing off into the sunset after winning an all-inclusive holiday to the South Seas. Naturally, trouble followed with lost tickets, stowaways and a gang of jewel thieves spicing up the voyage…

And that was that for almost 25 years, until Kirby brought them back in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970), spearheading his mega revitalisation of DC’s continuity – but let’s talk of that another day…

There is a glorious abundance of Jack Kirby material available these days: true testament to his influence and legacy, with this magnificent and compelling collection in collaborations with fellow pioneer Joe Simon being another gigantic box of delights perfectly illustrating the depth, scope and sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics. Funny, thrilling and ideally accessing simpler days, this is a treat every fan should enjoy and share.
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