A few weeks back I posted Spillane's first Mike Hammer wannabe - Mike Lancer - from a 1942 issue of Green Hornet comics (that's HERE). We now behold the first of two Mike Danger stories, written in 1946, but unpublished until 1954, after Mickey had hit the Big Time.
This first tale is from Crime Detector #3, uploaded to comicbookplus by a gent known as JVJ Archive. On comicbookplus the art is credited to Sam Burlockoff, based on an interview with the artist, while Thrillingdetective.com credits Mike Roy. Whether it was illustrated in '46 or '54 is unclear. At any rate, unable to get Mike Danger into print, Spillane sat down and wrote I, the Jury, changing the hero's name to Hammer, and the book was published in 1947. The second Mike Danger adventure, from Crime Detector #4, will appear here soon.
This first tale is from Crime Detector #3, uploaded to comicbookplus by a gent known as JVJ Archive. On comicbookplus the art is credited to Sam Burlockoff, based on an interview with the artist, while Thrillingdetective.com credits Mike Roy. Whether it was illustrated in '46 or '54 is unclear. At any rate, unable to get Mike Danger into print, Spillane sat down and wrote I, the Jury, changing the hero's name to Hammer, and the book was published in 1947. The second Mike Danger adventure, from Crime Detector #4, will appear here soon.
5 comments:
Great, GREAT stuff! Thanks so much for posting.
And add thanks from here, too. I wonder what Mickey Spillane thought in 1954 when he saw his creations brought to a different kind of life in pictures! Output in the early years of my writing career was dominated by scripts for comics, first for generously paying UK markets in the '60s and finally for Charlton Publications Inc. in the US where Spillane's long-time friend Joe Gill was the leading writer in the '70s. It was always a pleasure to see scripts faithfully drawn by comic-book greats like Steve Ditko and Tom Sutton.
"JVJ Archive" is a group of CB+ members who volunteered to do scans of comics from the vast collection of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., distinguished comics scholar, vintage illustration buffm and an old buddy from my long-ago comics apa days.
Comparing this wretched art with samples of Mike Roy's Nero Wolfe comic strip I seriously doubt that he had anything to do with this.
Art beat me to it. Jim was also my roommate for a spell and collaborator on Inanity. What halcyon days.
It's interesting that Spillane spent years writing for the comic books that were printed in the hundreds of thousands and then I, THE JURY appears with an initial print run of six thousand and he becomes a "household" name!
Jim Vadeboncoeur is one of the best! He has contributed so much to our hobby in great depth for nearly five decades! Proud to say that he acknowledges me in his early publication AL WILLIAMSON HIS WORK.
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