Created by Jerold Last A globe-trotting married couple who find trouble wherever they go? If you were expecting Frances Crane’s Pat and Jean Abbott, you’d be wrong. This is a more modern itineration. Plus dogs! Former patent attorney and police officer ROGER BOWMAN and UCLA biochemist SUZANNE FOSTER are boyfriend/girlfriend visiting Montevideo, Uruguay, when we first … Continue reading Roger & Suzanne Bowman
Tag: Detective
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
Watson & Holmes
Created by Karl Bollers and Rick Leonardi "No time for explanation, the game's afoot!" Ever wonder what would have happened if Sherlock Holmes had been an inner city black dude? Me neither. But comic book scribe Karl Bollers did just that, and it was a pretty fun spin on the Great One. His HOLMES is … Continue reading Watson & Holmes
William Garrett
Created by Natalie Marlow British author Natalie Marlow (apparently her real name) reimagines Chandler's tarnished knight of 1940s Los Angeles as a private inqury agent who is all tarnish. Then she plops him on the decidedly mean streets of 1930s Birmingham, England, in the noirish Needless Alley (2023). Without a speck of chivalry, WILLIAM GARRETT has … Continue reading William Garrett
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)
Charles Rowland & Edwin Paine (The Dead Boy Detectives)
Created by Neil Gaiman & Matt Wagner Originally created by Neil Gaiman in his popular Sandman series from DC/Vertigo back in the nineties, EDWIN PAINE (died 1916) and CHARLES ROWLAND (died 1990) are two British schoolboys who have shuffled off this mortal coil--but that hasn't stopped them from making like the would-be Hardy Boys of the afterlife, … Continue reading Charles Rowland & Edwin Paine (The Dead Boy Detectives)
Todd Wright (So Help Me Todd)
Created by Scott Pendergast A disappointingly underwhelming TV show that smothers its own potential cleverness and wit with a thick, warm blanket of comfy family drama that never quite pays off, at least until the seventh episode—coincidentally a Thanksgiving-themed episode. Your enjoyment of So Help Me Todd (2022, CBS/Paramount) will depend on your tolerance for having … Continue reading Todd Wright (So Help Me Todd)
Mr. T (Trouble Man)
Created by John D.F. Black(1932-2018) “I come up hard baby, but now I’m cool,I didn’t make it sugar, playin’ by the rulesI come up hard baby, but now I’m fineI’m checkin’ trouble sugar, movin’ down the line.”— from Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye No, I’m not talking about that jewelery-bedecked buffoon with the mohawk from the … Continue reading Mr. T (Trouble Man)
Rick Deckard (Blade Runner)
Created by Philip K. Dick Developed for the screen by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples When the topic of sci-fi/private eyes comes up for air, so does director Ridley Scott's grim and gritty 1982 film Blade Runner, and, occasionally, the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that it was loosely (very … Continue reading Rick Deckard (Blade Runner)
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