Comic Crime

AS YOU probably already know, comic books didn't confine themselves only to graphic arts; a lot of them inserted very short text stories as well. Here are seven of them from those controversial crime comics of the Fifties, a few of which are of the perfect crime variety:

(1) "Be Careful, Killer!"

By Ric(hard White) Hasse (1916-94).

First appearance: Crime Smashers No. 5, July 1951.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 26).

(Note: Faded but readable text.)

   "'Uncle Linton paid for that library,' he said aloud to himself, 'and now it's furnishing Uncle Linton's only nephew with a perfect alibi for the time of Uncle Linton's murder'."

Resources:

- Ric Hasse produced a good deal of short pulp fiction outside of the comics. Here's the FictionMags list for him (ss = short story):

 "The Merry Wives of Murder," (ss) Big-Book Detective Magazine, April 1942

 "Cupid Has Nine Lives," (ss) Gay Love Stories, December 1942

 "You Can’t Hang a Corpse," (ss) Thrilling Detective, March 1943

 "No Rest for the Wicked," (ss) Mammoth Detective, October 1946

 "Nitro at Midnight," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, November 1946

 "I’ll Never Die Again," (ss) Ten Detective Aces, December 1946

 "Claim Your Own Dead," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, January 1947

 "Too Old to Die," (ss) Ten Detective Aces, February 1947

 "Whistle While You Slay," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, July 1947

 "Death Lights the Way," (ss) Thrilling Detective, October 1947

 "An Empire Crashes," (ss) Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine, October 1947

 "Frame for a Flatfoot," (ss) Ten Detective Aces, November 1947

 "Suicide Swag," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, February 1948

 "Too Dumb to Live," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, October 1948

 "Not by Blood Alone," (ss) Dime Detective Magazine, January 1950

 "Two Must Die!," (ss) New Detective Magazine, March 1950

 "Time to Throw Lead," (ss) Blazing Guns Western Story Magazine #3, February 1957.

(2) "Beast of Crime."

Unsigned.

First appearance: Crime-Fighting Detective No. 18, March 1952.

Short short short story (1 page).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 23).

(Note: Text faded but legible.)

   "Midnight doesn't eat much and one never knows when a cat will come in handy."

(3) "Pattern for Murder."

Unsigned.

First appearance: Crime-Fighting Detective No. 18, March 1952.

Short short short story (1 page).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 10).

(Note: Faded text but readable.)

   "His fingers began to pick nervously at the burnt-out butts in the tray."

(4) "Clue in the Cab."

Unsigned.

First appearance: Crime Detector No. 1, January 1954.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 22).

   "If it weren't for a case of insomnia and a dough-hungry hacker, I don't know what might have happened to the Big Town!"

(5) "Dead Give-A-Way."

Unsigned.

First appearance: Crime-Fighting Detective No. 15, June 1951.

Short short short story (1 page).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 18).

   "I had it planned so good."

(6) "The Hidden Witness."

Unsigned.

First appearance: Crime-Fighting Detective No. 16, September 1951.

Short short short story (1 page).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 24).

(Note: Text very faded but legible.)

   "At the gun's flat report, the white head within the study fell forward."

(7) "Time Will Tell."

Unsigned.

First appearance: Crime-Fighting Detective, March 1951.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to page 18).

(Note: Some text very blurry but readable.)

   "At one side of the room lay old Mark Baylor, a tall grandfather clock smashed across his back."

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"Maybe It's Just Some Drunk Being Funny, but If the Guy's Really Insane, Phone for a Cop, Unless You Think You Can Get a Gag Story."

"The Last Martian."

By Fredric Brown (1906-72; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).
First appearance: Galaxy, October 1950.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Filmed in 1959 for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series as "Human Interest Story" (WARNING! SPOILERS! IMDb HERE).

Short short story (7 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 145).

   "I'm a Martian. The last one. All the others are dead. I saw their bodies only two hours ago."

MEMORY is a tricky thing. It can make us think we know everything about something when in fact we're only remembering parts of it. Take Howard Wilcox, for instance, to all appearances just a regular guy with a steady job and a loving wife—but his memory insists he's from another planet. Fruity as a nutcake, right? Jaded newspaperman Bill Everett could be forgiven for thinking that, but, as it turns out, Everett has more than a casual interest in getting at the truth . . .

Principal characters:
~ Bill Everett, Slepper, Johnny Hale, Cargan, Barney Welch, and Yangan Dal (a.k.a. Howard Wilcox).

References:
- The Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV version is remarkably faithful to the original story. The title, "Human Interest Story," denotes a common brand of reportage:
  "In journalism, a human-interest story is a feature story that discusses people or pets in an emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest, sympathy or motivation in the reader or viewer. Human-interest stories are a type of soft news.
  "Human-interest stories may be 'the story behind the story' about an event, organization, or otherwise faceless historical happening, such as about the life of an individual soldier during wartime, an interview with a survivor of a natural disaster, a random act of kindness, or profile of someone known for a career achievement." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Space references: Mars (HERE), Deimos (HERE), and Phobos (HERE).
- "It took me three days — Martian days, about six Earth days":
  Our author overestimates here: The solar day on Mars is only slightly longer than an Earth day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds, whereas Earth's day is 23 hours 56 minutes 4.100 seconds. Of course, Brown was writing in 1949, long before the space probes of the 1960s spoiled the fun.

Resource:
- Our latest encounter with Fredric Brown, one of our favorite authors, was "The Power," the tale of a man who didn't deserve what he had but did deserve what he got (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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The Adventure of the Missing Saucepans

"Sherlock Holmes in Russia."

Reprinted in Russian Essays and Stories (1908) by Maurice Baring (1874-1945; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).

First appearance: The Daily Post, December 23, 1907.

Short story (10 pages as a PDF).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE), Archive.org (HERE), and Gaslight Weekly (HERE).

   "It frequently happens that problems which appeared to consist of mere trifles turn out to be matters of deep importance and difficult of solution."

THERE will always be days when you're better off just staying in bed . . .

Main characters:

~ Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Prince B-- and his wife, Prince Alexander and Princess Barbara, the butler, the young man, Mavra, the village policeman, and the station-master.

Reference:

- "I concluded that he had introduced the game of skat, of which German students are exceedingly fond, to you":

  "Skat, historically Scat, is a three-player trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family, devised around 1810 in Altenburg in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. It is the national game of Germany and, along with Doppelkopf, it is the most popular card game in Germany and Silesia and one of the most popular in the rest of Poland. A variant of 19th-century Skat was once popular in the U.S. John McLeod considers it one of the best and most interesting card games for three players, and Kelbet described it as 'the king of German card games.' The German Skat Association assesses that it is played by around 25 million Germans – more than play football." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resource:

- Maurice Baring took another playful swipe at the Sage of Baker Street (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"What Barbarians!"

"No Help Wanted."

By Alfred Bester (1913-87; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

First appearance: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1939.

Short short short story (1 page).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "I should have thought you too intelligent for that sort of drivel."

JUST because you read it in a book doesn't make you an expert in something; experience is and always will be the best teacher . . .

Principal characters:

~ The unnamed narrator ("I was stranded, penniless, with no possibility of communicating with my chief for at least another six months") and Dr. Barton ("Come and see me again when you've studied a lot more").

References:

- Astronomers mentioned (Wikipedia links): Lowell (HERE), Pickering (HERE), Antoniadi (HERE), Slipher (HERE), and Very (HERE).

- "the canals of Mars":

  It's amazing how a typographical error can lead to a cultural obsession. (Wikipedia HERE).

  If you're really interested (and we mean really interested) in how Percival Lowell presented his thoughts about Mars and its possible inhabitants to the early 20th century public, see these articles, all available on UNZ:

  (1) "Mars" in The Atlantic Monthly (HERE), (HERE), (HERE) and (HERE).

  (2) "Is Mars Inhabited?" in The Outlook (HERE).

  (3) "The Planet Mars" in McClure's (HERE).

  (4) and "Mars As the Abode of Life" in The Century (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

Resource:

- Our latest look at Alfred Bester's fiction was "Fondly Fahrenheit" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Artwork by Wally Wood.

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"Maybe a State Police Crowd Could Have Handled It Better, but I Don’t Know."

"Murder Money."

By Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937; Wikipedia HERE and the IMDb HERE).

First appearance: Argosy, March 9, 1935.

Short short story (9 pages).

Online at the Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

   "Sort of reverse English, huh?"

IF a middle-aged Huck Finn had ever decided to kick back in front of the fireplace and recount a tale of murder, it might have looked something like this . . .

Main characters:

~ George, Rance Dalton, Sheriff Elbert Donworthy, Andy Fuller, Mose Brown, Orty Jones, Terry Breen, Milt Morris, Pen Harmon, Phil Straus, Mrs. Eliza Gunnerson, Brick and Bessie, Doc Overton, and the unnamed tramp (and, yes, one of them is the killer).

Typo: “'Hands up!' she [he] ordered."

References:

- "The country was full of men out of work"; "The depression must be over":

  This being 1935, of course, the Not-So-Great Depression was still on everybody's mind:

  "In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, famine, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth as well as for personal advancement." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "until prohibition got wiped out":

  "The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and Prohibition was formally introduced nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "put the hounds on his tracks":

  "A hound is a type of hunting dog used by hunters to track or chase prey. What makes hounds unique is the way they hunt; some, known as scent hounds, follow trails with their powerful noses, while others, called sighthounds, rely on their sharp vision and speed to spot and chase prey across open land. Breeds like the Beagle, Bloodhound, and Greyhound are well-known examples." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resource:

- Earlier this year we spent some time with Ellis Parker Butler's Great Near-Detective, Oliver Spotts (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"The Hand on His Automatic Trembled a Little"

"Number Three Dog."

By William Byron Mowery (1899-1957; Pulpflakes HERE; Wikisource HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

Illustrated by Austin Briggs (1908-73; Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists HERE).

First appearance: Blue Book, July 1938.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 42).

   "With a snarl the man whipped out a blue automatic."

BILLIONS have been spent on research into criminal profiling, but today's sleuth shows how to do it on the cheap . . .

Principal characters:

~ McNain ("Four nights in a row, he mused, and not the slightest progress") and Smoky Belger ("How the hell did you know I was in that line?").

The Moment:

  An idea sprang into McNain's mind. "I've got it!" he exulted. "I've got it!"

References:

- "the red-jacketed dog"; "the electric hare":

  The background of today's story is dog racing (Wikipedia HERE), particularly as it's done in the United States (Wikipedia HERE). When McNain says "to go back North with me," there's an implication that they're in Florida, which had big time greyhound racing until a referendum banned it in 2020.

- "Pride goeth before destruction":

  The full quote: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18; Bible Gateway HERE).

Resources:

- The FictionMags thumbnail for William Byron Mowery: "Teacher, naturalist and novelist. Born in Adelphia, Ohio; on faculty at University of Illinois, then became full time writer, with more than 450 published stories, screenwriter."

- It has been almost nine years since we examined Mowery's "The Seventh Man" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"One of the Best Movie-Makers in the Business"

PEOPLE keep making the mistake of thinking that Alfred Hitchcock made mystery films (or, heaven forfend, detective movies); far from it. Hitchcock made suspense films, with all of the action pivoting around some THING that serves to kickstart the story. He called it the "maguffin" (variously spelled), and as far as he was concerned it didn't matter what the thing was (a dead body, a case of mistaken identity, a cryptic message, a suspicious-looking bottle of wine)—it really didn't matter. This attitude probably derived from his exposure to the concept of "pure cinema," the elusive goal of achieving perfect expression through the medium of film unencumbered by story-telling conventions. But the opposite actually happened. His movies were based on some pre-existing literature that served as the matrix for the maguffin to simmer inside of, albeit the original source seldom survived intact. 

  All of this serves as a rather long-winded introduction to a short posting about a film that caught the public's eye in 1935 and helped land Hitchcock solidly in Hollywood the next decade. Note how the critic hits upon the themes that appealed to general audiences at the time and which Hitchcock was happy to repeat for the next thirty-plus years.

A review of The 39 Steps by Pare Lorentz, McCall's Magazine, September 1935.

Resources:

- Wikipedia has a page devoted to The 39 Steps (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE), and there's a TCM page (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).

- Last year we came across a profile article of Hitchcock during his golden days in Hollywood (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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