I also watched the Roger Moore Saint on TV when I was a kid. However I was already familiar with Simon Templar because I’d stumbled across some of the original books in our local library. I enjoyed the Saint stories, especially the earlier ones when he was rowdier and the police still suspected him. My brother and I conceived the idea of producing radio plays adapting the Saint books and we wrote Leslie Charteris in care of his publisher to ask permission. We were delighted to receive a personal reply from the author saying all the media rights were tied up by the TV people, but he thanked us for our interest and wished us well. Getting a letter from Charteris himself was a thrill—I still have it stashed away somewhere.
This comic book version of The Saint isn’t too bad, though they don’t use many of the character’s traits. He’s more of a typical private eye. It’s nice to see Pat Holm, but in P.I. fashion she’s been demoted to a secretary. In the books, especially the earlier ones, it was clear that Simon and Pat were Living in Sin. The best part is that (unlike the other comics and the middle-period novels) there is no Hoppy Uniatz. That buffoon sank every story he appeared in.
I’d buy Jack Kamen as the Saint artist. Kamen got a bum rap over at EC. He wasn’t a superstar stylist, but he drew very well and drew very pretty 40s-style women. The art on the Prop Bowers story also has a Kamen vibe to it…and the girl is even prettier than the typical Kamen babe. My biggest gripes are the curvy panel borders which make the overstuffed balloons even more obtrusive.
The stories themselves range from “meh” to “ridiculous.” “Meh” is for too many coincidences; “ridiculous” is for shooting people into space with a rocket gun. This bozo’s invention could put mankind into space and he uses it to shoot stiffs into orbit! The magician story is slightly better but I gagged on “Stage a quick heart attack!”
The Lucky Dale story is stupid from the opening scene. She doesn’t detect, she just happens onto things. Maybe that’s her gimmick, she’s so lucky she never has to do any real work. All is forgiven, though, because Lucky herself is the cutest girl in the book.
I broke tradition and read the text story. What a preposterous piece of malarkey! Strange, I can’t seem to find Rex Conrad’s name on the rolls of the Manhattan Project.
I hope Foo Shampoo was a one-shot. His single joke wore thin even in just two pages.
The Prop Bowers story is nothing special. I wanted the final caption to say, “Cheers, Bowers.” I always want the artist of an aviation strip to draw nice planes. Here he avoids drawing them as much as possible. But the big mystery is why he puts the heads of middle-ground figures into complete shadow. It’s not like he can’t draw heads. Very odd. That’s all right, though. Delia makes up for it.
The small stuff: Fact or Fancy…so what? They sure seem to have sold a lot of billfolds in old comic books. I’m willing to believe this one is gen-u-wine leather, but I’m sorry, that plastic recorder was NOT copied from Woody Herman’s own clarinet!
