My Scrapbook
 “The Private Eye Who Couldn’t See”
Front cover for August-September 1952 issue of Gang Busters
I came across the cover while looking, as is the way of the internet, for something completely different. I have, like, zero idea what the story of “The Private Eye Who Couldn’t See” is, but that cover just intrigues the hell out of me.
The story appeared in the August-September 1952 issue of Gang Busters, and that’s about all I know for sure. The story was eight pages long, pencilled by Curt Swan and inked by Ray Burnley, the cover artist was Ruben Moreira
So… was it a lost gem, or a complete waste of space? Was the story a rip-off of Baynard Kendrick’s Duncan Maclain, or the secret inspiration for television’s Longstreet? Or was it a totally original story? Did the sightless P.I. take a dive off that building? Or did he realize the error and somehow apprehend the two mooks on the next rooftop. And what dear friend of our endangered sleuth that an all-yellow suit was a good fashion choice?
Gang Busters was DC’s attempt to hop on the crime comic bandwagon of the forties and fifties, but it was fairly timid stuff compared to its rivals over at EC and other publishers. No beheaded half-naked women with heroin needles jutting out of their eyeballs for DC. No, siree! This was the home of Super-Man! And just to play it extra safe, DC licensed an already established property: the popular Gang Busters radio show, which had been on since 1935. Edited by Jack Schiff, the comic focused on “real life” FBI cases and standalone crime stories.
Various stories from Gang Busters have surfaced in other DC comics over the years, in issues of Batman, DC Special, DC Super-Stars, World’s Finest and, of course, Detective Comics, but as far as I know, “The Private Eye Who Couldn’t See” has never been reprinted.
But if anyone knows anything about this story, please let us know.
COMICS
- GANG BUSTERS
(1947-59, DC Comics)
67 issues
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writers: Jack Schiff, France Herron, Bill Finger, Dave Wood, Alvin Schwartz
Artists: Curt Swan, Ray Burnley, Ruben Moreira, Win Mortimer, Ed Robbins, Henry Boltinoff, Nick Cardy
Comics anthology- “The Private Eye Who Couldn’t See” (August-September 1952; #29)
Artists: Curt Swan, Ray Burnley
- “The Private Eye Who Couldn’t See” (August-September 1952; #29)
RELATED LINKS
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
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