Drinkers, Stinkers and Occasional Tipplers "Alcohol is like love: the first kiss is magic, the second is intimate,the third is routine. After that, you just take the girl's clothes off." -- Terry Lennox in The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler It started out on the printed page, but it's mostly through all those damn movies … Continue reading Gentlemen, Name Your Poison (I)
Category: My Back Pages
Protected: Peter Gunn: The Television First That Dare Not Speak Its Name
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My Scrapbook: The Encyclopedia Brown Comic Strip
My ScrapbookThe Encyclopedia Brown Comic Strip(1978-80, Universal Press Syndicate)  I was more of a Hardy Boys and Three Investigators guy myself, but there’s no doubt that for many followers of this site that Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown was their gateway drug to crime and detective fiction.  Eventually numbering twenty-nine volumes, the series was … Continue reading My Scrapbook: The Encyclopedia Brown Comic Strip
My Scrapbook: The Shaft Comic Strip
My ScrapbookThe Shaft Comic Strip(Ernest Tidyman Productions, 1972) Can you dig it? Flush with the success of the Shaft novels and particularly the 1971 film, creator Ernest Tidyman commissioned veteran comic book artist Don Rico to develop a presentation package to shop around a Shaft comic strip. While their efforts went unsold, there’s no doubt … Continue reading My Scrapbook: The Shaft Comic Strip
Ah, Boston, You’re My Home
Beantown Eyes Spenser by Robert B. Parker Thomas Dreddiker 'Dred' Balcazar by Ned White Thomas Banacek by Anthony Wilson Tom Bethany by Jerome Doolittle Harvey Blissberg by Richard Rosen (Cambridge) Carlotta Carlyle by Linda Barnes Dennis Chase (21 Beacon Street) by Leonard Heideman Brady Coyne by William G. Tapply Tommy Crane by Richard Helms John Francis … Continue reading Ah, Boston, You’re My Home
Watching the (Private) Detectives
Rolling Stone Picks 10 Classics In their January 2023 issue (#1371, for those keeping track), the venerable rock mag served up their top ten television “whodunits," as a sidebar to an article by their TV critic Alan Sepinwall on the upcoming Poker Face TV show. No real surprises, but judging from the brief but pithy summaries … Continue reading Watching the (Private) Detectives
These Were a Few of My Favourite Things (2022)
Private Eye-Related Books, Movies, TV Shows, Comics & Other Stuff This is NOT a Best-of-the-Year list. No way. That would infer that I'm in any kind of position to judge and I most certainly am not. I have not read, watched, inhaled, scratched or sniffed everything. So these are just twenty-three of my favourite private … Continue reading These Were a Few of My Favourite Things (2022)
Top Ten Private Eye Shows
As chosen by Max Allan Collins and John Javna In their 1988 book, The Best of Crime & Detective TV, Collins and Javna served up an articulate, passionate, opinionated and often hilarious salute to crime and detective TV, including sections on cop shows, lawyer shows and more. And yes, a section on private eyes. They … Continue reading Top Ten Private Eye Shows
Night Moves: An Introduction
Sam Wiebe Introduces the 1974 Classic Slated to introduce Night Moves at the Vancouver Film Center in August 2022, Canadian crime writer Sam Wiebe, the creator of private eyes  Dave Wakeland and Michael Drayton,  confessed that "It’s one of my favorite PI films and neo-noirs, and a million times better than Altman’s very good The Long Goodbye, … Continue reading Night Moves: An Introduction
Welcome to L.A.
Opening Remarks by Robert Crais On Friday night, February 28, 2003 in Pasadena, 2003 Left Coast Crime Guest of Honor Robert Crais gave a speech, welcoming attendees. Here's the text: "I WANT TO EXPLAINÂ where we are and why we're here, so let me give you a fix in time and place: The year was 1958--a … Continue reading Welcome to L.A.