Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Corpse that Wouldn't Sleep"

It's almost Halloween, so let's present a scary private eye story...

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage, starring private dick Ken Shannon, to whom this sort of thing happened quite often, as seen HERE!

This tale from Quality's Ken Shannon #3 (1952) was one of several cover-featured stories during his run that featured horror comics elements, though the "monsters" were fakes created to cover-up crimes!

The superb artwork by Reed Crandall makes up for the fairly obvious plotting by an unknown writer.

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Weird Detective

The Stars are Wrong
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ALL-NEGRO COMICS "Ace Harlem" Conclusion

When Last We Left Ace Harlem, Famed Negro Detective...

...well, I'll let the author explain what's going on...

A second issue was written and illustrated, but, sadly, was never published, and no art for it has ever been seen by the public.

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Invisible Men

Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books
(Including Ace Harlem's John Terrell)

ALL-NEGRO COMICS "Ace Harlem" Part 1

Before Virgil Tibbs!

Before John Shaft!

Before Easy Rawlins!

There was..Ace Harlem...

...the first Black detective in any literary format to star in his own story!

To Be Continued...
Friday!
Written and illustrated by Black creative John Terrell, this tale features a fashion phenomenon unique to the 1930s/40s...zoot suits!

There's a superb article about the trend HERE that explains it far better than I could.

As to Ace himself, publisher, Orrin C. Evans, wrote in his editorial...

Through Ace Harlem, we hope dramatically to point up the outstanding contributions of thousands of fearless, intelligent Negro police officers engaged in a constant fight against crime throughout the United States.

A second issue was written and illustrated, but, sadly, was never published, and no art for it has ever been seen by the public.

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World of Shaft
Complete Guide to the Novels, Comic Strip, Films and Television Series

Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Vampire Mob"

It's Halloween season, so let's present a scary private eye story...

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage!

Ken Shannon started in 1950 when Police Comics dropped all their superheroes (including Plastic Man and The Spirit) in favor of crime stories.

Beginning with #103, Ken took the cover and lead story slot until #126.
Simultaneously, Ken received his own title, which ran for 10 issues.
As you can see from the story, Ken was the typical hard-boiled private dick with an internal monologue, obviously patterned after already-popular detectives like Sam Spade and Mike Hammer.
His only distinctive characteristic was that he was of Irish descent.
(In fact, his premiere tale was called "The Mad Irishman"!)
The art for almost all his tales (including this one) was by Reed Crandall, one of the best illustrators in the business who went on to become one of the mainstays of EC Comics, handling horror, war, romance and sci-fi with equal panache.

JOHNNY DYNAMITE "Wire Trap"

Did you know there was a Johnny Dynamite prose story?

Told in hard-boiled style, of course...

This never-reprinted short by Ken Fitch (with a Pete Morisi spot illustration) from Comic Media's Dynamite #8 (1954) makes us regret Fitch never tried doing a Johnny Dynamite novel.

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Johnny Dynamite

by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty

JOHNNY DYNAMITE "Eye for an Eye!"

We showed you Johnny's premiere...

...but this cover should tip you off that a major change would occur in his second issue!

There's hard boiled...and there's HARD BOILED!

This was HARD BOILED!

If there was any doubt Johnny Dynamite was the equal to Mike Hammer or any of the other private dicks of the era, this story wipes it out!

Co-creator/writer Ken Fitch worked in comics from the earliest days (National Allied Publications' [Later DC Comics] New Fun Comics in 1935) to the early 1960s at Dell Comics doing movie and TV adaptations!

Along the way, he co-created several characters besides Johnny Dynamite including DC's Tex Thompson: AmeriCommando, and HourMan!
Be here tomorrow for a one-of-a-kind text story starring Johnny Dynamite !

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Johnny Dynamite

by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty