Here's Dan in his third comic book appearance, from Crime Smashers #3, Feb. 1951. Looks like another colorized reprint from Hollywood Detective. For this one, we're indebted to comicbookplus scanner Dave Hayward.
Dan Turner, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in Color!: "Blackmail Bump-Off" (1951)
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Rudoph Valentino is THE SHEIK (1921)
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Pulp Gallery: TERROR TALES
1937
1937
1938
1940
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Do-It-Yourself HALLOWEEN MASKS (again)
The Fox So Cunning and Free
Bridezilla
The Hornet
Mr. Nimoy
Smashed Hulk
P&O
Tricky Dick
Kit Walker
Art Scott
The 6 Million Dollar Mask
Yo!
Damn Dirty Ape
The Return of Art Scott
Barney
Frank
Yo, Rinty
The Man With the Gun of the Man Called Paladin
Chucky
The Merry Man
The original Flash
The Boss
The Tramp
Uncle Ben Cartwright
Wolf Dude
The Donald
Supes
Chewy
Vlad and friend
John
Fred
The Sarge
The Cap'n
The Other Cap'n
The Other Other Cap'n
The Fonz
The Boze
W.C.
Cousin Eerie
The King
The other King
The Walrus
The Beetle
Heartless
Uncle Creepy
The Return of Uncle Creepy
Uncle Fester
"Read my lips."
Frank Buck
Armin Shimerman
George
The Other George
Eric Estrada
Pruneface Boche
The Fink
The Dick
The Pop
Jaws I
Jaws II
The Scarlet Speedster
Darth's Daughter
Black Lagooner
Richard Starkey
Eddie Albert
Selina Kyle
Kevin Costner
The Ronald
The Mouse of Tomorrow
Mr. Greenjeans
"Fool!"
Fool
Sandwich
Robert Blake
Boris
Darth Jr.
Reed Richards, Sr.
The Monk
Huckleberry I
Huckleberry II
Hoss
The Barbarian
Indy
Lon
Not Lon
The Pride of Dogpatch
The Babe of Dogpatch
The Big Red Cheese
Mr. Peanut
Mr. Perv
Another fine mess
The Jolly Green Vegetarian
The Jolly Green Goober
Mickey Rat
Daddy
Wile E.
The Doctor
The Other Doctor
The Doctor's Pal
Godzy
Ilya
Kemosabe
David Niven
Simon Templar in disguise
Lawdog
Spawn of Metropolis
You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion
Bonzo's Bedbuddy
Chicken Colonel
E. Nygma
Your consicence
EC's Old Witch
Faithful Native American Companion
Yours Truly
Lord of the Jungle
Bat Man
Jerry (not Lee) Lewis
The Duke of Hazard
Wolfman on acid
Aquaguy
Jackie K/O
Fred Gwynne
Chris Lee
Starchie
The Divine Miss Boop
The Hulk
The Mighty
The Shiek of Araby
The Shiek of Massachusettes
Nikita the K
Wolfraham Lincolnl
Woody
The Wonder
Blue Kat
Blue Freeze
Blue Wieniehead
King of the Wild Frontier
King of Skull Island
The Greatest
Brother Bret
Vitametavegamin Girl
Squirrel and Moose
Strange Doctor
The Crypt Keeper
Sinbad
Buck
Son of E.T.
Hey Hey, I'm a Monkee
Richard Chamberlain
French lady
Crown Prince
Doug Levin
Still another fine mess
The Hood
The Master of Darkness
Fred
Red
The Vegetarian
Lynn Easton
Martin Landau
Let's be Frank
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SAM SPADE's Halloween: The Fairley-Bright Caper (1948)
Originally broadcast on Halloween Night, 1948. Pump out a couple of nickels worth of Wildroot, apply to hair, and get ready to listen!
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Richard Powers' TARZAN Paintings (1960s)
The Return of Tarzan
Tarzan and the Ant Men
Tarzan and the Forbidden City
Tarzan and the City of Gold
Tarzan the Magnificent
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Forgotten Books: THE VALLEY OF TWISTED TRAILS by W.C. Tuttle (1931)
In this case, they arrive in Chapter 4, and several more chapters - with more important and entertaining interaction among the other characters - pass before it becomes apparent who's here to save the day. And even after we know who the heroes are, they don't monopolize the action - they merely become the most important cogs in an ensemble cast.
The game here is cattle rustling on a grand scale, while the killing and mayhem are by-products of the scheme. The story is complex, with a huge cast of folks good, bad, and inbetween. As usual, Tuttle dishes out plenty of humor, and brings it all to a rousing and satisfying finish.
On later investigation, I learned that Sad and Swede had a long-running series appearing in Short Stories and West in the '20s and '30s. Like this one, many of those adventures made their way into hardcover. How many, I don't know, but I'll be seeking them out, and you'll likely be hearing about them here.
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Dan Turner, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in Color! "Make-Up for Murder" (1951)
I have about 25 issues of Dan's pulp mag, Hollywood Detective, ranging from 1942 to 1950, and nary a one of them has a comic story drawn by anyone but Adolphe Barreaux. Does that mean this one, from Crime Smashers #4 of April 1951 was a comic book original? Nope, but it makes me wonder. In later issues we'll see stories that look a lot less like pulp reprints than this one. Thanks to darwination for uploading this ish to comicbookplus.
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Movie Posters of 1921 (Part 3)
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Pulp Gallery: ARGOSY plays Football
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SKILLS TO KILL - a New Spy Thriller from BRIAN DRAKE
Ex-CIA agent Steve Dane and his lady love, ex-FSB (formerly KGB) agent Nina Talikova, enjoy each other’s company immensely, but aren’t really happy unless bullets are flying and things are blowing up around them.
That’s where author Brian Drake comes in—sending them hither and yon around the globe, and keeping them up to their necks in action.
Brian’s new book, Skills to Kill, the first published by Liberty Island, is actually four adventures for the price of one. It’s a four-part novel, tied together as a mission to catch a mysterious new arms dealer known only as “The Duchess.”
In each leg of their mission, Dane and Nina are aided by—or go up against—old friends from their many years in the spy biz.
The trail starts in Italy. What begins as a job to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Mafia boss evolves into a race to recover a stolen SADM (otherwise known as a suitcase nuke). Then it’s off to Paris, where the main fly in the ointment is Dane’s former protégé, IRA alumnus Sean McFadden, who does his level best to kill them. After a side-trip to Greece, it’s off to Mexico, where a particularly vicious cartel—employing more weapons purchased from the Duchess—are terrorizing a big chunk of the country. The trail leads next to New York, where Dane and Nina run a scam on Nina’s Russian FSB mentor and foil a plot to embarrass Dane's old pal the President, then bop over to Helsinki for the final battle with McFadden and the Duchess. Busy bees, these.
In between all the firefights, car chases and explosions, there’s plenty of entertaining sexual (and non-sexual) banter between Dane and Nina, a good deal of local color from each exotic locale, and a lot of attention to various sorts of exotic weapons. Adding to the festivities are song lyrics in the dialogue, thinly veiled references to that other super secret agent (you know, the British guy), and a nod to Raymond Chandler.
But despite all the focus on action, Skills to Kill’s strongest point is the relationship between Dane and Nina. They are genuinely likeable characters, and when they’re having fun (which is most of the time) you will too.
It's available HERE.
It's available HERE.
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The BLACKHAWK SQUADRON Arrives! (1941)
Military Comics #2, from Sept. 1941 saw the first appearance of the Blackhawk Squadron and their familiar Grumman Skyrocket planes. The art is credited to Chuck Cuidera and Bill Smith. This was one was kindly posted to comicbookplus by djingo. If you missed the Origin of Blackhawk from Military Comics #1, it's HERE.
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FILM FUNNIES Gum Cards (1935)
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Forgotten Books: THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION by Nicholas Meyer (1974)
Sure, it's well written. Probably better written than most of the fifty or more other pastiches I read after this one. Stylistically, it's great. And yeah, it's a clever idea, with many clever touches. But the story - about Watson tricking Holmes into visiting Sigmund Freud to be cured of his cocaine adiction - seemed rather tedious.
Though Meyer (via Watson) plays it cagey and avoids naming Freud until our two heroes are sitting in the doctor's office, it's really no surprise. Any reader who read the inside of the dust jacket or peeked at the back of the paperback knew what was coming. For me, having done both those things, plus read the book and seen the movie, it was just sort of sad.
Two-thirds of the way through the book, the story shifts gears, giving Holmes a case to solve. And the sadness is finally gone. But the new plot is only mildly engaging, and the book is saved by a wildly melodramic and totally cinematic finale that's about as non-Sherlockian as you can get. Was the big finish entertaining? You bet. It was the best part of the film version of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, too. But it was like something out of an old B-Western (if Roy Rogers didn't use that gimmick, he should have).
This all sounds more negative than I intended, because it's really a pretty good book. It just wasn't as good as my memory of it, and I probably wasn't in the right mood. For this I blame Robert Jordan, because I was still under the spell of one his Conan books, and should have read another instead of shifting to Sherlock.
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Dan Turner, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in Color! "Bellyboard Bump-Off!" (1951)
Crime Smashers #5 was dated July 1951, and uploaded to comicbookplus by freddyfly. Let's all tip our fedoras to Fred. He offers a guess the art might be by Robert McCarty, the guy who did last Saturday's story.
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Westerns You May have Missed (1921)
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Pulp Gallery: OVER THE TOP (1928-30)
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Sherlock and Watson? Nope! It's SPURLOCK and WATKINS in "Murder in the Blue Room" (1936)
From December of 1936, and Detective Picture Stories #1, comes this tale of two famous detectives (one of whom is undoubtedly a great uncle of Duane Spurlock). It was uploaded to comicbookplus by stopper75, and story and art is credited to John A. Patterson. Another Spurlock and Watkins story (in black & white, alas) appeared in the next issue, and can be read HERE.
A third adventure (once again in color) will appear here too soon for some, not soon enough for others.
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Weird Paintings by Margaret Brundage
Nov. 1935
Dec. 1933
March 1936
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SEA RAIDER Gum Cards (1933)
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