My ScrapbookThe Last Three Dick HammersWritten and drawn by Chris Wisnia Hot-tempered, foul-mouthed, crotch-scratching DICK HAMMER is a private skulk working the web comic mean streets of Crude Bay, Southern California, written and drawn by Chris Wisnia. He first popped up in 2004 in Dick Hammer: Conservative Republican Private Investigator, a regular back-up feature in Tabloia Weekly Magazine (which … Continue reading My Scrapbook: The Last Three Dick Hammers
Tag: Comic Strip
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
Tracer Bullet (Calvin & Hobbes)
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)
See Ya in The Funny Papers
P.I. Spoofs and Callouts in Comics & Cartoons If Mickey Spillane Wrote NANCY… from MAD Magazine In the Tradition of Hammett, Chandler, Macdonald and Snoopy (Peanuts) by Charles Schultz Arlo, Janis & Spenser Bugs Bunny, Private Eye Private Eye Popeye (1954, Famous Studios) Meat Hamburg (Pogo) by Walt Kelly Tracer Bullet (Calvin & Hobbes) by Bill Watterson … Continue reading See Ya in The Funny Papers
My Scrapbook: Garfield’s Babes & Bullets Production Cel
My Scrapbook Garfield's Babes & Bullets Production Cel Nothing spectacular, maybe, and I was never a big Garfield fan (sorry, Stephen), but this production cell from the Emmy-winning 1989 animated television special Garfield's Babes and Bullets, wherein Jim Davis' famous feline makes like a private eye, still makes me smile. When it went up for … Continue reading My Scrapbook: Garfield’s Babes & Bullets Production Cel
Secret Agent X-9
Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) and Alex Raymond (1909-56) Despite being a collaboration between possibly the greatest private eye writer of all time, and one of the all-time great comic strip artists, the action/adventure strip Secret Agent X-9 was always something of a disappointment. The strip was originally conceived by King Features to compete with … Continue reading Secret Agent X-9
Speed Walker
Created by Cris Hammond For some reason, the number of comic strips featuring private eyes have been few and far between. Off the top of my head, there's Alex Raymond's Rip Kirby, his and Hammett's Secret Agent X-9, and the short-lived Mike Hammer strip, but that's about it. But in the eighties, just at the time that newspaper strips … Continue reading Speed Walker
Nick Knatterton (aka “Nikolaus Kuno Freiherr von Knatter”)
Created by Manfred Schmidt (1913–1999) Much loved West German private eye NIKOLAUS KUNO FREIHERR von KNATTER has possibly the longest monicker in gumshoe history. No wonder most folks, including his his well-off, hoity-toity parents, prefer to refer to him simply as NICK KNATTERTON. Anyway, whatever you call him, his loopy, tongue-in-cheek comic strip escapades, as chronicled … Continue reading Nick Knatterton (aka “Nikolaus Kuno Freiherr von Knatter”)
Detective Fork
Created by Kevin J. Guhl Okay, okay -- so he may not have always been the most polished piece of cutlery in the drawer, but Silver City's own private eye DETECTIVE FORK somehow managed to get the job done, in this heart-felt spoof by artist/writer Kevin J. Guhl that pleased fans of hard-boiled detective fiction and … Continue reading Detective Fork