Crime Cases — Private Eye

Monthly Comic Book
(1951-52, Atlas Comics)
(aka “Rocky Jorden, Private Eye,” “Private Eye”)

Crime Cases — Private Eye was a short-lived comic book anthology featuring crime and detective stories, published by Martin Goodman’s Atlas Comics (an early precursor to Marvel Comics) in the early fifties. It was but one of their many titles (Adventures into Terror! Apache Kid! Love Adventures!) in a variety of genres that included Western, romance, crime, war, monsters, humour, and even pre-code horror titles.

Each issue featured four or five stories, and a text story, but Crime Cases — Private Eye was really built around the feature character, hard-boiled private eye Rocky Jorden, who was good for two or three stories every issue. In fact, after five issues, the comic itself was re-titled Rocky Jorden, Private Eye — perhaps to build up Rocky’s profile, and maybe just to clear up the confusion over the book’s title, which many readers took to be simply “Private Eye,” thanks to the cover misleading typography.

Adding to the confusion? There was already an actual Crime Cases comic book on the newsstands, published by… Marvel.

But the title change didn’t help — the book only lasted three more issues, perhaps because, to be honest, Rocky was little more than a Mike Hammer clone. Sure, he had his moments, but not enough to make him stand out from the crowd.

And, in keeping with the murkiness of this title, Rocky was also often mistaken for radio’s Rocky Jordan, a popular show that was running at the time.

Which sorta makes you wonder if the similar names were coincidence, or a clumsy attempt to cash in. After all, the title wasn’t above “borrowing” stories from other media.

COMICS

• ROCKY JORDEN, PRIVATE EYE
  (1952, Atlas Comics)
  3 issues
  Writers: Carl Wessler, Stan Lee?
  Editor: Stan Lee
  Artists: Sol Brodsky, Vernon Henkel, Pete Morisi, Joe Sinnot, George Tuska, Hy Rosen

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Eyes on the No-Prize
  Private Eyes of the Marvel Universe

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.