My Bookshelf: The Detectives

My Bookshelf

The Detectives (April 1993, Alpha Productions)

A  classic one-shot comic book anthology of comic book private eyes, edited and designed by Christopher Mills, “celebrating seventy years of the American private eye.”

A great idea, and groundbreaking for 1993, this 32-page comic book was handsomely produced, and simply an amazing collection, with both original and reprinted stories by Nicola Cuti, Mike W. Barr, Max Allan Collins, Nicholas Alascia, and David Darrigo, and art by Joe Staton, Paul Pelleiter, Terry Beatty, Peter Grau, Nicholas Alascia, and Ted Slampyak, plus a great intro by private eye writer Ed Gorman. Definitely worth looking for!

Mills returned a year later with the ambitious but criminally short-lived Noir: The Illustrated Crime Fiction Quarterly, an attempt to re-create The Detectives on a regular basis.

COMICS

  • THE DETECTIVES | Buy this book
    (April 1993, Alpha Productions)
    1 issue, colour cover, B&W inside
    Cover price: $4.95
    Edited and designed by
    Christopher Mills
    Cover by Adam Hughes and Myke Maldonado

    • “The Private Eye Tradition” by Ed Gorman
      Introduction
    • “The Old Farmhouse” by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton
      Featuring Mike Mauser.
    • “The Adventure of the Chinese Dissident” by Mike Barr, Paul Pelletier and Bob Cram, Jr.
      Featuring Jennifer Mays & Gabriel Webb of The Maze Agency.
    • “Image of Death” by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty
      Featuring Mike Mist.
    • “Gambling with Hercules” by Dave Darrigo and Peter Grau
      Featuring Tony Bravado
    • “The Hundred Cadillacs” by Nick Alascia
      Featuring Johnny Dynamite.
    • Ace Mifflin Pin-up by Ted Slampyak
      Featuring Ace Mifflin of The Jazz Age Chronicles.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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