Created by Bill Watterson "The dame said she had a case. She sounded like a case herself, but I can't choose my clients." -- Tracer Bullet (Calvin) confronts his mom; something about a broken lamp. . TRACER BULLET is simply one of the best spoofs of the hard-boiled eye to hit the comics page since Snoopy dragged … Continue reading Tracer Bullet (Calvin & Hobbes)
Tag: Beautiful Dreamers
Eddie Ginley (Gumshoe)
Created by Neville Smith "He looked like the kind of guy your mother would like to marry your sister. If you had a mother. If you had a sister." -- the opening lines from Gumshoe The sleuth, the whole sleuth and nothing but the sleuth... Stephen Frears' served notice with his directorial debut, a slice … Continue reading Eddie Ginley (Gumshoe)
Red Diamond
Created by Mark Schorr Imagine if Robert Leslie Bellem had written Don Quixote... Once upon a time, there was a forty-something cab driver from Hicksville, Long Island by the name of SIMON JAFFEE. Now, Simon, well, his life wasn't going so well. He had a nagging wife that didn't understand him, a genius son that … Continue reading Red Diamond
The Projectionist (Sherlock Jr.)
Created by Jean C. Havez, Joe Mitchell & Clyde Bruckman Okay, the silent film classic isn't really a private detective film, not really. But it's private eye adjacent, and it's something of a classic, regardless--you won't regret checking out this little bit of surrealistic slapstick. The great Buster Keaton plays a lowly film projectionist (and janitor) who only … Continue reading The Projectionist (Sherlock Jr.)
Harry Dickinson
Created by David Black There have been plenty of attempts over the years to recast Don Quixote as a private eye. Possibly because the private eye is such an easy target, a big ass cliche just waiting to be lampooned (or harpooned), there has been no shortage of gentle parodies of the genre featuring mentally … Continue reading Harry Dickinson
Beautiful Dreamers
Looney Tunes & Other Reality-Challenged Eyes There are plenty of reasons someone one might become a private investigator, but I didn't know a tenuous grasp on reality was one of them... Personally, I think Humphrey Bogart's to blame. Except… how do you blame Buster Keaton’s 1924 silent classic Sherlock Jr. on Bogie? Although driving a … Continue reading Beautiful Dreamers
The Bogie Man (aka “Francis F. Clunie”)
Created by John Wagner and Alan Grant "Down these mean streets, a man must go, who is not himself..." -- artist Robin Smith's dedication to The Bogie Man Collection (1998) A limited series, and British cult favorite, featuring the comic (and comic book) misadventures of one FRANCIS F. CLUNIE, aka "BOGIE," an escaped mental patient … Continue reading The Bogie Man (aka “Francis F. Clunie”)
Sam Marlow (The Man With Bogart’s Face)
Created by Andrew J. Fenady Way back in the nineteen seventies, during the mini-nostalgia boom for all things from the thirties and forties, actor Robert Sacchi parlayed his spooky resemblance to Humphrey Bogart into a nice little career in TV commercials and movie cameos. The big payoff, though, came with the 1980 release of The Man … Continue reading Sam Marlow (The Man With Bogart’s Face)