“Yesterday’s” Comic> Keen Detective Funnies #18

Good thing Fredrick Wertham missed this cover. He’d have a heart attack.

Keen Detective Funnies #18

Centaur Publishing (March, 1940)

I don’t get the numbering system, partly because these last two issues are missing the indicia page. Already the Golden Age did weird things with numbers thanks to stupid mailing rules and trying to game the system. Last time Comic Book Plus called it volume three but the cover said #17, and now this issue is #18. Also, last issue was kind of letdown, a trend I hope gets broken this issue.

[Read along with me here]

The Masked Marvel by Ben Thompson

It’s another one of those lost “advanced” civilizations that was so advanced everybody died. A scientists wants to study it, but because it’s a lost city of gold (which sounds like terrible building material but the Amazon forest is supposedly littered with the places) his greedy friend wants to plunder it. The Masked Marvel is barely necessary in this story. Having the scientist fight him off would have eaten up less panel time to get the Masked Marvel there and given more room for a proper ending.

Spark O’Leary: Radio Newshawk by Chas Peterson

Someone is sending coded messages through Spark’s radio broadcasts, so he works with the United States Espionage Department to find him. By doing most of the work. We have another story that could have been better with more page time, but the idea sounds good.

Dan Dennis: FBI by Gilman

A mobster wants to rob a new safe but he grabbed a guy who doesn’t have the plans. Dan happens to come upon the scene and rescues the guy, so the mobster swears revenge. How one of his flunkies knows who Dan is I couldn’t say. This is what happens when you have a one track mind and not a lot of sense. A few more pages could have benefited this comic but it’s better than the last one. Not sure why the scans on this story keep going between all red and black & white.

Specky Smith The Sleuth by Martin Filchock: “C-Man”

Here’s a new one to me. I thought it was going to be a comedic story, but it’s just the art style. Specky’s date may have gone wrong after they were interrupted by a bank robbery, but he soons finds the crooks, so the week isn’t a total loss. The same scan issues as before but that’s not the story’s fault. We finally have a good one.

Dudley Dance by Jacqueline Martin: “Eyes Of The Kumas”

More of those scan issues and another new one. Dudley Dance, “greatest crime chaser of all time” (aren’t they all) is on vacation near a murder. More follow and the conclusion…yeah, I don’t buy it. It’s not a very good case and the end risks coming out of the crime story it started out as without warning. Also, “mute” isn’t the same as “deaf”.

Captain Forsyth & Sergeant McLean: Spy Hunters by L. Field

Our “spy” hunters (who don’t even get a cool car that turns into a boat) look into an empty village and get caught by the people who emptied it. We have no motivation for the villains, nor do we know what they are. Bandits? Revolutionaries? Just a bunch of jerks? It’s a good basic plot but someone forgot to fill it out into a full story.

The Eye Sees by Frank Thomas

This one again. It’s already out of place in a book where the Masked Marvel is already stretching the overall tone of the book. Then you have a story where a guy is hired to force the US into the war (I’m going to get confused with the war not yet involving us on Fridays and in effect on Tuesdays for a while) because I don’t know why and the book doesn’t care. Instead we have the eye foiling the villains’ schemes like a cartoon character. Given that the villain acts like one as well, I guess it’s fitting, but it’s not very interesting. Also, the Eye is a peeping tom! If you read it, you know what I mean.

Dean Denton: Scientific Detective by Harry Francis Campbell: “The Case Of The Radium Robbery”

Time to check in with everyone’s favorite ventriloquist turned scientific genius crimefighter. Radium meant for a hospital in Africa is stolen by…well, you know who if you’ve been following this comic. He only matches wits with The Conqueror, who has an African tribe convinced he’s a wizard. Well, Dean can fight magic with magic and 1940s racial stereotypes with a 1940s racial stereotype because Abslom has learned magic tricks. It’s a bit silly when you say it but while reading it you do get a pretty decent story to end the book on.

overall

This is a comic that just barely hangs on. The good ideas need more space but when they do a good story it manages to run cover for the bad ideas. I might check out a few more issues.