SHERLOCK HOLMES "Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Challenge"

Far afield from his usual British haunts...

...the Greatest Sleuth of All deduces the truth about a murder mystery in the wilds of Canada!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Sherlock Holmes #2 (1955) is an original story of Holmes (minus Dr Watson) aiding the RCMP in present-day Canada.

Both the writer and artist(s) of these tales is unknown and the art style seems to be a combination of the techniques of several different illustrators.

SPIRIT "League of Liars"

Of all comic strip/book detectives, none was as complex as The Spirit...

...even when multi-award* winning creator/writer/illustrator Will Eisner wasn't the man behind the story, as in this case, where future Oscar/Obie/Pulitzer/Writers' Guild award winner Jules Feiffer scripted and laid out the tale...

The Spirit was unique among comic heroes since he had not only his own feature in an anthology comic (Police Comics), his own monthly/bi-monthly comic book (from Quality, and later Fiction House), and a weekly comic book (distributed with Sunday newspapers throughout the country) from 1940 to 1952!

The newspaper weekly comic contained new stories which were then reprinted in the other comic books.

It also didn't have slick covers, using the same newsprint stock as the inside of the booklet, making them extremely fragile and hard to find in good condition today despite having a circulation of several million (you read that right) per issue!

This particular story initially appeared in November 25, 1951 newspapers before being reprinted in Fiction House's Spirit #3 (1952), where this version is taken from.

Written and laid-out by Feiffer (who started as an art assistant in Eisner's studio), the penciling and inking was done by Jim Dixon with Eisner himself editing, art directing, and occasionally retouching to keep characters "on-model".

*Today, the comic book industry equivalent of the Emmy/Oscar/Tony/Grammy is known as "The Eisner".

SPACE DETECTIVE ""Metal Murderers of Mars"

When Last We Left Our Galactic Gumshoes...

Art by Joe Orlando & Wally Wood

Note: this was at our "brother" blog, Atomic Kommie Comics™, so faithful readers of this blog haven't missed anything!
Now, on with Part 2...

The story concludes tomorrow back at  
Atomic Kommie Comics™

Nobody's been able to identify the writer or artist(s) of this middle of a kool 3-part tale from Avon's Space Detective #2 (1951).
Personally, I see elements of Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, and Joe Kubert in the art, but nothing definitive.

Visit our

Space Detective

Comic Collectibles Store

Tell a Tale of Terror TWICE! #2 THIS IS SUSPENSE "Short Step to Oblivion"

We saw this tale of terror and justice uncut in Part 1...

...at our "brother" blog Seduction of the Innocent™!
Now let's see how it looked after the Comics Code Authority took their censoring scissors to the reprinted version...

The knife, seen in panels 5-7 on the original page HERE, is now missing!

The knife in panels 3 and 5 HERE is missing in the reprint page!

Despite being removed from the previous pages, the knife is shown to be the murder weapon!

But how did the knife get there if it was deleted from the earlier pages?

Ruth's word balloon in the last panel is rewritten to eliminate reference to the knife shown HERE on the original page!

Why is Ruth screaming? It's not like there's a dead body, like there was in the original page HERE!

Why did the villain fall to his death?
Maybe it's the fact that Holiday shot him in the original version of the first panel HERE!

This Comics Code Authority-eviscerated reprint appeared in Charlton's This is Suspense # 24 (1955).

The writer is unknown and the illustrator is George Evans.

A comic with no more violence or blood than a TV cop show of the period is gutted by the CCA to Protect the Morals of the Youth of America.

Take a good look at your parents.

Did it work?

Visit our

Crime & Punishment

Comic Collectibles Shop

CHARLIE CHAN "Trick Ending"

As our contribution to RetroBlogs' Black History Month articles we present...

...a tale from a series already notorious for racial stereotypes!

(NOTE: Story may be NSFW due to politically-incorrect stereotypes)

In this tale from Charlton's Charlie Chan #7 (1955) Birmingham the Black chauffeur/aide solves the case and brings the police.
It's interesting to note that most of Birmingham's word balloons appear to be relettered, perhaps to make his dialogue less "Stepin Fetchit" than in his previous comic book appearance.

Charlie Chan (Sidney Tolier), Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung), and Brimingham Brown (Mantan Moreland)

Not a character from the original novels, Birmingham Brown was introduced into the Charlie Chan film series in Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944), and appeared in all 14 remaining films until the series ended in 1949.
Birmingham appeared in only two issues of the comic book series.
In both appearances, he was featured on the cover.

Mantan Moreland, who played Birmingham on-screen, was a gifted comic performer who was one of the few actors to play both leading roles in "race" films (shown almost exclusively to Black audiences), and featured roles in mass-market b-movies, often listed in the credits right after the lead actors.

Charlie Chan (Roland Winters), Tommy Chan (Victor Sen Yung), and Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland)

Here's a couple of examples of Moreland performing a variation of his trademark act with Ben Carter (his partner in a comedy routine the two performed on radio and stage) in a couple of Chan films, Scarlet Clue and Dark Alibi...

Support Small Business!

Visit Our

Crime & Punishment™

Comic Collectibles Shop

HEADLINE COMICS "To My Valentine"

You thought we were gonna send roses?

Hell, no!
We bring you the sordid story of the most famous crime ever perpetrated on the Day for Lovers!

In 1947, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby took over editorial control for several titles of the Prize Comics line, giving them much-needed revamps, upping the action and violence quotent.
This tale was from Prize's Headline Comics #23 (1947), the first issue under their stewardship.
When this story was published, the massacre was less than twenty years earlier, and the incident wasn't history, but news the authors read and heard as kids and now re-presented in four-color form.
It's not totally historically-accurate, but then, what dramatization is?

Support Small Business!

Visit Our

Crime & Punishment™

Comic Collectibles Shop