Created by James Ellroy(1948--) It's 1942 in post-Pearl Harbor Los Angeles, the blackout's on and the "Jap scare" is going full-tilt, and SPADE HEARNS is a laudanum-tippling P.I. wondering where the lights went, in the short story "Torch Number" by James Ellroy. Hard up for paying cases, the former LAPD detective finds himself working for … Continue reading Spade Hearns
Tag: Comics
Mitsuko Hoshino (My Dear Detective)
Created by Natsumi Ito My Dear Detective (subtitle: "Mitsuko's Case Files"), the manga series featuring Japan's first female private eye, MITSUKO "MIMI" HOSHINO, is a far cry from the more hard-boiled, violent manga and anime antics of, say, City Hunter or Cowboy Bebop. In fact, the concept here is more often described as "light-hearted," "sweet" … Continue reading Mitsuko Hoshino (My Dear Detective)
Ricardo “Ricky” Tellez (Death to Pachuco)
Created by Henry Barajas & Rachel Merrill Set against the backdrop of June 1943 Los Angeles, Death to Pachuco is a five-issue comic mini-series (later a graphic novel) from Image worth investigating. The US has just entered World War II, but tensions — racial, political, cultural, economic — are ratcheting up back home, particularly in … Continue reading Ricardo “Ricky” Tellez (Death to Pachuco)
Spider-Man Noir
Created by Stan Lee & Steve DitkoSpider-Man Noir created by David Hine & Fabrice Sapolsky In their endless battle to reel in more customers, it's long been an established practice in the comic book biz to take established superheroes and revamp, revise, reboot and regurgitate them. Pump some new air into tired lungs. Or just … Continue reading Spider-Man Noir
Kid Maroon
Created by Christopher Cantwell & Victor Santos Red-haired, freckle-faced WALDEN "KID" MAROON is bored out of his gourd with his life as the local boy detective of small town Tiny Falls, solving minor mysteries (A missing kite! Butterflies! Stolen cookies!) without even trying. Two years ago, he ran away, lighting out for the Big City, … Continue reading Kid Maroon
“Digger” McCrae (Gravedigger)
Created by Christopher Mills & Rick Burchett "I'm a detail man. Figuring angles, covering bases -- that's what I do." — Digger gives us the facts, ma'am, just the facts. "DIGGER" McCRAE, aka "GRAVEDIGGER," is a professional thief, with the emphasis on professional. If there's one thing he can't abide, it's amateurs, in a great … Continue reading “Digger” McCrae (Gravedigger)
Jack Derringer (Derringer & So’n)
Created by Steve MacManus & Colin Maxwell Can something be both cheeky and cheesy? It's the early seventies, and former Vietnam chopper pilot turned "freelance fixer" JACK DERRINGER is working the "Golden Triangle" of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, because "that's where the money is." His motto? "Whatever the problem, I'm the solution." … Continue reading Jack Derringer (Derringer & So’n)
Keiichiro Nagumo (Detectives These Days Are Crazy!)
Created by Masakuni Igarashi KEIICHIRO NAGUMO used to be a somebody. He was once everybody's hero, a genius boy detective; a high school kid who could crack any problem that came his way. But that was then. Now he's just another grumpy, chain-smoking private eye, another professional struggling to scratch out a living. He's falling … Continue reading Keiichiro Nagumo (Detectives These Days Are Crazy!)
My Scrapbook: A Kent Murdock Murder Mystery TOLD IN PICTURES!
My ScrapbookA Kent Murdock Murder Mystery TOLD IN PICTURES! Is this cool, or what? Above is the actual cover of Four Frightened Women (1950, Dell), and right below is an ad for it. Occasionally touted as "the very first graphic novel" (it wasn't), it was number two in Dell's "Told in Pictures" line, Dell's ambitious … Continue reading My Scrapbook: A Kent Murdock Murder Mystery TOLD IN PICTURES!
George Harmon Coxe
(1901-1984) George Harmon Coxe was a journalist, prolific pulp writer, and novelist; an early star of hard boiled crime fiction, and one of Cap Shaw's beloved Black Mask Boys. In a long and prolific career, Coxe put his name to over sixty novels, the last being published in 1975, and hundreds of short stories. His … Continue reading George Harmon Coxe