Just another day in Chicago. The plane’s new, though.
Keen Detective Funnies vol. 2 #1
Centaur Publications (January, 1939)
Okay, here’s how this works. Comic Book Plus has a “virtual newsstand” that collects the comics of a given year, plus some books, fan compilations, newspaper strips that weren’t published as a comic, and so on. I’ll take a skim, see if it looks interesting, and then do a review. If I like it, I’ll look at more issues when I get to the next month of the newsstand. If not, I won’t. It’s that easy and that hard. I’ll only do the compilations if it was an official release, like some the upcoming Dick Tracy comics, because that’s how it would have been published at the time, at least in comic book form. This appears to be one of those official comics. These early comics are anthology in layout, so there are multiple comics per issue. This may take a while.
Thurston Hunt: “Doc’s Orders” by Arthur Pinajan
I’m assuming our hero is this Thurston guy, as he goes undercover to find a mob boss. It’s a good short story, with the usual “I know this guy isn’t the brother of the guy I know” moment to build up the drama for our hero. Off to a good start.
“The 7-11 Gang” by Tony Basso
A bystander follows bank robbers to their hideout, then alerts the police. Strange, usually in these stories he tries to be the hero whether he can or not. This guy was actually smart…though bringing him in to be part of the undercover operation to confirm their identity and location seems a bit off for the police. Also, the gang has an airplane, but no reason given for why they’re called the 7-11 Gang. They hit a bank, not a convenience store. I also don’t know why the color (except for red) disappears for the rest of this story but returns at the start of the next one.
“Snatch-Racket” by Robert L. Wood
Two detectives go looking for a kidnapped child, and get a lucky break when they forget to fill their tank before exploring around aimlessly. Who knew doing a stupid thing would save the day? After all, one of the guys gets shot in the back and the other in the hand. Still more competent than some other heroes I’ve read recently.
Bob Colby: “The Trapline Mystery” by Martin Filchock
Colby is at a fur-trapper’s lodge when he gets involved in a case where someone has been stealing a man’s trapped animals but there were no tracks. I won’t spoil the ending because it’s a good mystery for the page count allotted. It’s also interesting to see the style of the day with the dialog and the caption to see another story in “an early issue”. The trapper has a strong French accent but speaks broken English like an Indian Native American stereotype, so he’s two stereotypes at once. Colby also is a good guy for not ruining a man’s reputation after he dies. A good story.
“Camera Of Crime” or “Double Exposure Murder” by Ellis Edwards
A police officer and a police photographer examine a robbery of a camera company…I think…then one of them dies and it becomes a murder investigation. This might have been better if not for the presentation. The cop basically expositions everything to the photographer at the end, and the narration boxes suffer that early comics problem of being at the bottom of the page, doing their own poor exposition between panels. I wanted to like this one, but the delivery should have been better developed, and I’m not apologizing for that pun.
“The Swamp Rat” by Joe E Buresch
I’ve heard of working fast, but this dude certainly sets a new standard. I don’t mean the writer, I mean our hero, a fishermen who gets attacked by some crazy man in the swamp. He also meets a pretty girl and falls for her immediately. If you read the story you know what I mean about “working fast”, but the story itself wouldn’t have been any better with more pages. If anything it keeps the story from going too long.
“Ten Thousand Dollars Missing” by Paul J. Lauretta
…who totally needs to rethink how he does the shadow effect in his story logo, because I couldn’t read “Missing” at first. This is our last story, as thieves come up with a plan to steal a diamond, kill the jeweler, and come up with an alibi for the boss. Everybody is really clever in this story. The poor sap who gets pulled into this story and the secretary both come up with smart ways to foil their plans. I really liked this one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
All of these were good stories, which is why I was able to enjoy this comic, but this isn’t my genre. There are the occasional police drama stories I enjoy but overall I’m not really into it, so I probably will be stopping here with this series. I’m glad I gave it a chance at least because it was a good read.
BW Media Spotlight 