Created by Ken Ernst and Gardner Fox. 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 … Continue reading Tom Kerry, District Attorney
Category: Detective
John Blacksad
Created by Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido In JOHN BLACKSAD's world, the femme fatales really do have claws... I hate to break it to you, guys, but the dapper, world-weary hard-boiled private eye hero of this award-winning hard-boiled comic series really is a cat. And not as in "cool." As in “meow-meow.” I'm not … Continue reading John Blacksad
Al Rankin
Created by Bevis Winter Peseudonyms include Al Bocca, Peter Cagney, Sammy Coburn, Bennet Hill & Gordon Shayne; and the house pseudonym Hyman Zore (1918-1985) I don't know much about Bevis Winters’s 1948 novel, Redheads Are Poison, except that it starred hard-boiled gumshoe AL RANKIN, who at one point encounters the red-headed hottie Maisie Tewnham: “Her … Continue reading Al Rankin
Steve Craig
Created by Bevis Winter Pseudonyms include Al Bocca, Peter Cagney, Sammy Coburn, Bennet Hill & Gordon Shayne; and the house pseudonym Hyman Zore (1918-1985) A Los Angeles (possibly Santa Monica?) private eye from the pen of prolific British pulpster Bevis Winter, from the Mushroom Jungle era--in other words, one of those Brits pumping out cheap, … Continue reading Steve Craig
Glenn Bowman
Created by Hartley Howard Pseudonym of Leopold Horace Ognall Other pseudonyms include Harry Carmichael (1908-79) "Difficulty is a matter of degree. All I can promise is I'll do my best." --Bowman ensures nobody's expectationsare too high inThe Sealed Envelope. His creator, British author Hartley Howard, once boasted that New York-based shamus GLENN BOWMAN was "the … Continue reading Glenn Bowman
Giff Speer
Created by Don Tracy Pseudonyms include Barnaby Ross, Roger Fuller (1905-1976) GIFF SPEER is a special agent of sorts for the Military Police, occasionally even going undercover to investigate crimes involving the U.S. Army. So what's he doing here? Well, about halfway through the series by Don Tracy, following events in Pot of Trouble (1971), Giff … Continue reading Giff Speer
Doc Sportello (Inherent Vice)
Created by Thomas Pynchon (1937-) “PIs are doomed, man, you could’ve seen it coming for years, in the movies, on the tube. Once there was all these great old PIs--Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, the shamus of shamus Johnny Staccato, always smarter and more professional than the cops, always end up solving the crime while the … Continue reading Doc Sportello (Inherent Vice)
Guy Hanks (The Cosby Mysteries)
Created by William Link and David Black Did you miss The Cosby Mysteries? Don't worry -- almost everyone else did, too. The pilot of this series aired originally as part of The NBC Friday Night Mystery in January 1994, and introduced hot-shot New York criminalogist GUY HANKS (Bill Cosby!) who retires after winning $44 million in … Continue reading Guy Hanks (The Cosby Mysteries)
Frank and Steve Faraday (Faraday and Co.)
Created by Ken Pettus After spending twenty-eight years in a Caribbean jail for a crime he didn't commit (the murder of his partner), allegedly hard-boiled FRANK FARADAY (played by the movies' likable 40's song-and-dance man Dan Dailey) busts out and heads back home to Los Angeles... to a family he doesn't know anymore, on the short-lived series, … Continue reading Frank and Steve Faraday (Faraday and Co.)
A.Y. Jalisco (Chicanos)
Created by Carlos Trillo & Eduardo Risso "There is something worse than gringos... and that is rich Mexicans who look at you as if you were garbage." Chicanos follows the misadventures (it's hard to call them "cases") of ALEJANDRINA "A.Y." JALISCO, a short, stout, top-heavy (and, we're constantly told, unattractive) Mexican woman who follows her … Continue reading A.Y. Jalisco (Chicanos)