1962 Signet paperback original – cover art by Robert McGinniks

cover art by Robert McGinnis

first published in Australia by Horowitz, 1962, then in the US by Signet, a paperback original

cover art repurposed for 1967 Signet by James Dark

June 1937 DC issue ~ cover art by Creig Flessel

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

September 1940 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

September 1940 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

~ 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

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop