Detective Comics #4 (DC, 1937) CGC Apparent FN+ 6.5 Slight/Moderate (B-2) Cream to off-white pages. This pre-Batman issue is a tough one to find in any grade, so much so that Gerber’s Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books rates it an “8” (“rare”). The Speed Saunders cover is by Creig Flessel
~ Cleve Adams, “That Certain Feeling”, ‘Engelhardt & Dewey, Car 97, LA setting’, 2nd of 6 stories in BM
~ W.T. Ballard, “Pictures for Murder”, 22nd of 27 stories with ‘Bill Lennox, troubleshooter for Consolidated Films’, 34th of 43 stories in BM
~ William E. Brandon, “Danny, Once the Rat”, ‘police-stoolie & Nazi spies’, 3rd of 7 stories in BM
~ Dale Clark, “Killer in the Wind”, 2nd of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 4th of 32 stories in BM
~ John Lawrence, “Death in the Pluperfect”, 1st of 2 stories with ‘Ace McGuire, Broadway squad, 1st-person narrator’, 7th of 14 stories in BM
~ Robert Reeves, “Dog Eat Dog”, Cellini Smith and RR’s debut, 1st of 3 parts that will be published as the novel No Love Lost in 1941, reprinted in Dead and Done For: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Cellini Smith (Steeger, 2020), 1st of 12 appearances in BM
~ Frank Bisson, “The Betel”, ‘South Seas’, only story in BM
~ Ben Lucien Burman, “The Needle of Osiris”, 2nd and last story in BM
~ Tom Curry, “Buck”, 4th of 23 with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1st grade dick, with ‘Buck, safecracker’, 7th of 39 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “South Sea Steel”, 13th of 53 with Race ‘Williams in the South Seas’, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 21st of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Thisissosudden!”, 8th of 73 with Ed Jenkins, 15th of 99 stories in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “Walls Have Ears”, ‘Manhunters;47th & last piece by CS in series which began in Feb 1923 issue’ [Haggeman notes this is the last of 47 but lists 49 total by CS, 2 of which are not Manhunters], last of 49 pieces in Haggeman and in BM
~ John Stanton, “A Fortune at Stake”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ J. Paul Suter, “The Terror by Night”, pt. 2 of 2, 9th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, 13th of 19 appearances in BM
~ W.T. Ballard, “Snatching Is Dynamite”, ‘Lennox & ‘The Secret Five’ of Hollywood’, 9th of 27 BM stories with ‘Bill Lennox, troubleshooter for Consolidated Films’, 9th of 43 stories in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “Finger Man”, “Finger Man”, unnamed LA PI, first person narrator, first book appearance in the collection The Simple Art of Murder (Houghton Mifflin hardcover, 1950), first paperback, Trouble is My Business (Pocket, 10/51), various paperback editions, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (Vintage, 2007), 3rd of 11 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Immunity Murders”, 21th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, with his wife Vivian, 28th of 39 stories in BM
~ Horace McCoy, “Somebody Must Die”, last of 14 Frost stories with ‘Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger, last of 17 appearances in BM
~ Thomas Walsh, “Best Man”, ‘Carver, plain-clothesman, Homicide; reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946)’, 4th of 6 stories in BM