Created by Ken Ernst and Gardner Fox.    Â
TOM KERRY is NOT a private eye.
But he thinks he is, and he sure acts like one, in a dozen action-packed comic book adventures in Vincent Sullivan’s Big Shot Comics (is that a cool name or what?), alongside such other regulars as Joe Palooka, Charlie Chan and Dixie Dugan.
Tom’s actual tax returns may list his occupation as “district attorney,” but you wouldn’t know it from the way he carries on  (and on). No desk-bound civil servant here–Kerry’s a gun-toting, two-fisted, ass-kicking (and even dog-stabbing) kinda public servant, more than willing, as Jess Nevins points out, to leading “from the front, especially during shoot-outs, which are surprisingly common in his job.”
He rocks an orange overcoat, and “battles crime and lawlessness in every issue of Big Shot Comics!” How could anyone say no?
Most of the criminals he brings down are pretty meat-and-potatoes crooks, but this being the comics, a few are a little bit more colourful, such as “The Robot Killer,” where Kerry’s hot on the trail of a bankrobbing robot.
The character was created by comics legend Gardner Fox, the man responsible for creating or co-creating The Flash, Hawkman, Adam Strange, The Justice League of America, andhundreds more, and having penned, it’s believed, over 4000 comics scripts. The feature was first drawn by Ken Ernst (who also drew PI Larry Steele for DC Comics), and later by Fred Guardineer (credited as Gene Baxter).
COMICS
- BIG SHOT COMICS
(1940-42, Columbia)
29 issues
First issue: May 1940
Last issue: November 1942- “The Weasel” (May 1940, #1)
- “The Sport of Czars” (June 1940, #2)
- “The Suicide” (July 1940, #3)
- “The Dangerous Toy” (Ausust 1940, #4)
- “The Maori Spear” (September 1940, #5)
- “The Blue Light Murders” (October 1940; #6)
- “Slick Severn’s Bootleggers” (November 1940, #7)
- “The Robot Killer” (December 1940, #8)
- “The Blue Tie Diamond Murders” (January 1941, #9)
- The Terch Kidnapping Case” (February 1941, #10)
- “Untitled” (March 1941, #11)
- “Untitled” (April 1941, #12)
