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: Graphic Novel
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!
James Gordon (Gotham Noir)
Character created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger "Elseworlds" tale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Somehow, no matter how many twists and turns the on-going DC Comics' Batman saga takes, it never seems to entirely shake its roots in the hard-boiled detective pulps of the thirties and forties. A case in point is the … Continue reading James Gordon (Gotham Noir)
Frank Harding (Hard Bargain)
Created by Steven S. DeKnight (text) Leno Carvalho & Bruno Hang (art) He's HARD-boiled. The 2025 graphic novel he appears in is called HARD Bargain. And the name of this tough guy private dick in 1940s Los Angeles is FRANK HARDING. Do you think maybe the author, Steven S. DeKnight, is trying too HARD? Still, … Continue reading Frank Harding (Hard Bargain)
Steve Bullitt (The Case of the Winking Buddha)
Created by Manning Lee Stokes Pseudonyms include Nick Carter, Paul Edwards, Jeffrey Lord, Bernice Ludwell, March Marlowe, Ken Stanton, Kermit Welles, Kirk Westley, Ford Worth, Helen Sayles (1911-76) and Charles Raab (1908-66) For comic book nerds, it's a given that It Rhymes With Lust , published in 1950, was the first American graphic novel. A … Continue reading Steve Bullitt (The Case of the Winking Buddha)
Howard the Duck (aka Howard Duckson)
Created by Steve Gerber & Val Mayerik (art) 'Trapped In a World He Never Made!' -- the most-used tagline In the mythology of the Marvel Universe, HOWARD THE DUCK (real name Howard Dickson) looms surprisingly large--a relatively bit player punching well above his weight. A cranky, cigar-smoking, foul-tempered (or should that be fowl-tempered?) anthropomorphic duck … Continue reading Howard the Duck (aka Howard Duckson)
John Tiffany
Created by Stephen Desberg (script) & Dan Panosian (art) We’re definitely in ComixLand here—high-priced, globetrotting and always well-dressed manhunter JOHN TIFFANY is possibly the world’s greatest bounty hunter. The only four people he trusts, we’re breathlessly informed, are: Pastor Lovejoy, an unorthodox priest Wan Chao, an underworld geek who’s in the process of converting to Judaism … Continue reading John Tiffany
Nick Archer (Liar’s Kiss)
Created by Eric Skillman & Jhomar Soriano “I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing! I follow people around and take pictures for Christ’s sake! I’m no detective!" Private eye NICK ARCHER isn't much of a private eye, but he sure can be a dick in Liar's Kiss, a 2011 graphic novel by writer … Continue reading Nick Archer (Liar’s Kiss)
Quique Hache
Created by Sergio Gómez A series of Spanish language YA novels following the adventures (and misadventures) of fun-loving fifteen-year-old Chilean QUIQUE HACHE, who has a knack for solving crimes. In what I think is the second book in the series, Quique Hache, Detective (2005), Quique's just knocked off a correspondence course on becoming a private detective. … Continue reading Quique Hache
My Bookshelf: “The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery”
My Bookshelf The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery, Volumes One and Two Edited by Russ Kick Created and curated by activist, journalist, writer, editor, muckraker and comics buff Russ Kick, this ambitious anthology series by Seven Stories Press which kicked off in 2017 with The Graphic Canon of Crime and Mystery, Volume One: From Sherlock Holmes … Continue reading My Bookshelf: “The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery”