“Yesterday’s” Comic> Keen Detective Funnies v3 #1

Someone brought a gun to a swordfight.

Keen Detective Funnies volume 3 #1 (#17)

Centaur Publishing (January, 1940)

There are pages missing from the beginning of the comic. I hope there aren’t any missing from inside the comic. Yes, we are back to the not-funny funnies. So far this has been a good anthology. Let’s hope the trend continues this issue.

[Read along with me here]

The Masked Marvel, by Ben Thompson

The man who designed the Marvel’s plane has been suffering numerous crashes of a new experimental fighter plane for the Army. The Masked Marvel suspects sabotage and works to uncover how the villain is doing it. The last page isn’t as satisfactory a wrap-up as I would like. Our hero, taking point in this investigation (the Zs are just a cameo) was a nice change, though he’s now more well known than we’ve seen him, even having a calling card to project on the clouds. That last page doesn’t really ruin the story, which is a good thing because it wasn’t a bad one for the time and a good start to the issue.

Spark O’Leary: Radio Newshawk, by Chas. Pearson

The radio newsman looks into a series of ferry boat robberies, has a plan that gets the cops robbed of their boat, ruins two attempts to sneak up on them because his cold makes him sneeze, and only survives because a drunken driver takes his place driving off of a cliff. Maybe do the investigating and let the cops do the capturing next time, Spark? This is our hero, folks. Not a fan of this one.

Dan Denis: FBI, by Gilman

An insurance company manager comes to Dan for help uncovering some shenanigans at his company but is scared into silence. Now Dan and Tick has to uncover what’s really going on. I…think they did. I’m not really sure what happened in this story, or why the color keeps taking a powder in and out from this story onward. Something about fake exams, and that’s about all I understood.

Ed Colton & The Night Raider

We have a new player in the game. Another modern (for 1940) Western story, as Ed avenges a crashed mail plane pilot. I don’t know why the sudden mystery around the pilot’s identity, but the story itself was okay. Not great, but okay.

Dean Masters, DA, by…sorry, I can’t read the name

Dean learns that a pair of criminals putting differences aside is a trick so one can kill the other and tries to intervene…with events forcing him to shoot the guy instead. So basically, outside of Masters trying to give a crook a second chance, the story was pointless.

Captain Forsyth & Sergeant Maclean by L Field

Maclean is probably happy not to be in this story. I’m not trashing it completely. The end is a bit silly as Forsyth travels to Palestine to rescue hosta…oh, dear. It’s Op-Center: Mirror Image all over again. In this case it’s a ransom by criminals, though, which doesn’t go as planned for the bad guys even without Forsyth showing up. I still don’t know why “Spy Hunters” is in the name when I have yet to see either of them fight actual spies.

The Eye Sees by Frank Thomas

This one again. This time our disembodied eye, who apparently criminals all know about, sets a man free to prove he didn’t hit a man with his car since the man was already murdered before he got there. I get the feeling Thomas is projecting something. Anybody know his biography? This is just not an interesting story. Also, why does the giant eye without a face (shoutout to Billy Idol) have an eyebrow?

Dean Denton: Scientific Detective by Harry Francis Campbell

The continuing adventures of what would happen if Jeff Dunham became a science enthusiast and fought crime after his ventriloquist career. That’s the one part of this story that always confuses me outside of why he keeps going up against the same one villain every issue. That includes this one, in which the Conqueror is scheduled for the gas chamber, but still finds a way to escape. Now Dean has to prove the man in the cell isn’t his arch nemesis before the warden’s execution obsession kills an innocent man. Sorry, but I’m long since tired of this villain. Can Dean get another enemy, please? Even He-Man dealt with someone other than Skeletor once in a while.

overall

This is a step down from previous issues. The stories this month just weren’t that great except for the Masked Marvel’s. I hope they just had a bad month.