Carter Mason

Created by Vernon Henkel

CARTER MASON is another of those one-shot wonders who popped up in a comic book story once, never to be seen again.

In his one appearance, “Mr In-Between,” a story in the October 1946 (and only) issue of A-1 Comics, a comic anthology, we’re told that “They call him Mr. In-Between because he’s between the Law and the Underworld!”

Not that anyone in the story seems to call him that. To them, he’s just Carter Mason, a broad-shouldered “special investigator,” with a one-man office in “midtown,” and nobody’s fool. To clear a client charged with the murder of her husband, he finds himself teamed up with Phineas P. Bizzyhead, a bored pickle factory owner out for a little excitement, who’s as quick with smoke bombs or a pickle as Carter is with his fists. He finangles his way into the case, but ultimately proves useful.

The mismatched pair quickly solve the case, clear Carter’s client and expose the real villain — the District Attorney!

There’s nothing really outstanding about the story, but it’s a good example of how familiar (and often, generic) a trope the private eye had become by the 1940s.

COMICS

• A-1 COMICS
  (1946, Magazine Enterprises)
  One issue
  • “Mr. In-Between” (October 1946, #1)

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.