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[Walter Loyd Lilly]

Is anyone familiar with a bizarre private eye strip, possibly/probably by Bob Powell, MIKE MALLET (or possibly a first name other than " Mike "). It might not hae been " Mike " ~ although I think that it  was ~ as the name is really obviously to close to its obvious inspiration, Mike Hammer.
  Actually, it''s covered in ALTER EGO #70, but I don't have it now, and I can't access the article on-line.
  It presented a Mike Hammer-like private eye ~ who engaged in sexual dalliance, was very violent, and even fought a gay thug/gunsel while speaking homophobic slurs! " Naughty words " were asteriked out.
  It was obviously an attempt at an " adult " comic strip, " ADULTS ONLY " - though it showed/spelled out less than a Vertigo title, really, by modern-day standards.

[positronic1]

Is anyone familiar with a bizarre private eye strip, possibly/probably by Bob Powell, MIKE MALLET (or possibly a first name other than " Mike "). It might not hae been " Mike " ~ although I think that it  was ~ as the name is really obviously to close to its obvious inspiration, Mike Hammer.
  Actually, it''s covered in ALTER EGO #70, but I don't have it now, and I can't access the article on-line.
  It presented a Mike Hammer-like private eye ~ who engaged in sexual dalliance, was very violent, and even fought a gay thug/gunsel while speaking homophobic slurs! " Naughty words " were asteriked out.
  It was obviously an attempt at an " adult " comic strip, " ADULTS ONLY " - though it showed/spelled out less than a Vertigo title, really, by modern-day standards.

The comic was called PANIC (from February, 1966). Not the more famous one published by E.C., obviously. From the title of the mag I assume that Mike Mallet must have been a straightfaced parody of Spillane's famous Mike Hammer. Here's the link to that (Mr. Monster's Comic Crypt) article from ALTER EGO #70 -- https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/alterego70preview/18

[The Australian Panther]

Thank you for the link, Positronic. Very interesting stuff. The article by Michael Gilbert, revivalist of Mr Monster, and guru of obscure Golden Age info is, as you would expect, well worth reading.
Incidentally the original golden Age Mr Monster story can be found on CB+, signed by Mr Gilbert himself. 
Can't remember where tho. 
Via the link there is also an excellent piece on Lillie Renee.
Cheers.   

[positronic1]

Thank you for the link, Positronic. Very interesting stuff. The article by Michael Gilbert, revivalist of Mr Monster, and guru of obscure Golden Age info is, as you would expect, well worth reading.
Incidentally the original golden Age Mr Monster story can be found on CB+, signed by Mr Gilbert himself. 
Can't remember where tho. 
Via the link there is also an excellent piece on Lillie Renee.
Cheers.   

Hey, you know what? That "Google Custom Search" at the top of the page really does work. I just typed "Mr. Monster" (and scrolled down past the Google advertising links) and it's right there! No muss, no fuss. Beautiful looking scan by Cimmerian32, btw.

Surprised by how few Canadian comics we have here, but if I understand correctly, there are copyright issues despite most of them being 1940s vintage.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=4438

[positronic1]

Via the link there is also an excellent piece on Lillie Renee.

I have enjoyed her work on Fiction House's PLANET and JUNGLE comics. Fiction House was either very progressive, or maybe cheap (don't know what their relative payscale was like compared to other publishers of the time), or maybe they just started hiring more women because they could be sure they wouldn't be drafted. Who knows? At any rate, they seem to have employed more of them at one time than just about any other publisher of the 1940s. Perhaps they were just a bit too late in the game, having missed out on snagging top talents like Tarpe Mills and Gladys Parker (but by the early '40s they were already working on their own strips for newspaper syndicates).

I should also add, Trina Robbins (w) and Anne Timmons (a) [they formerly worked together on GO-GIRL] have done a graphic biography about Lily entitled Lily Ren

[SuperScrounge]

Surprised by how few Canadian comics we have here, but if I understand correctly, there are copyright issues despite most of them being 1940s vintage.

Yes but the Library and Archives Canada does have a number of Bell Features scans available online http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/lac-bac/bell_features_collection-ef/BellFeaturesCollection-findingaid-2016-06-21.pdf

You can find the pre-Mr. Monster Doc Stearne stories in Wow Comics #28 & 29 & Commando Comics #21.

[positronic1]

Surprised by how few Canadian comics we have here, but if I understand correctly, there are copyright issues despite most of them being 1940s vintage.

Yes but the Library and Archives Canada does have a number of Bell Features scans available online http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/lac-bac/bell_features_collection-ef/BellFeaturesCollection-findingaid-2016-06-21.pdf

You can find the pre-Mr. Monster Doc Stearne stories in Wow Comics #28 & 29 & Commando Comics #21.fol

Arrgh. PDFs. Once you get past the arcane filing system (great if you're fluent in library-ese, I suppose) you're faced with these absolutely huge PDF files which are two-pages-at-a-time. Because they're so big, these don't seem to scroll very well, which makes searching for stuff difficult. I could just download entire issues I suppose, but those PDF files really make me appreciate the simplicity of CBR and CBZ files, and the even better ability to browse through anthology titles one page at a time here, saving just the pages of the features that interest me. I do this quite a bit, combing through anthology titles and sorting just the features of interest to me into their own file folders, which I can then compress later into CBR or CBZ files if I so desire -- although if disc space isn't an issue, it's just as convenient to leave the JPGs as is in file folders, and just read them using an ordinary photo viewer app. I know I could do something with the PDFs if I was willing to pay Adobe's toll to upgrade their reader to editing capabilities (including the ability to convert to standard JPGs), but the annual cost is ridiculous. But thanks for the effort. I wonder if these are available at the Internet Archives site (plenty of libraries seem to host things there), which might make things slightly easier. It would be nice if there were a master listing somewhere there of the individual features, but I guess you just have to wade through the intoductory text for each relevant title looking for familiar names. I was looking for Brok Windsor, but couldn't find it. Oh, well. Was there only the one single appearance of Doc Sterne as Mr. Monster in SUPER DUPER, or were there more? I guess I'm just spoiled by Comic Book Plus, where everything seems more sensible.

[The Australian Panther]

Positronic1, try this.

https://www.online-convert.com/ 

You can use it directly on-line or download it to your computer.

If you use Firefox, you can install it as an add-on in the browser. I have so far only used it in a limited way, but it seems to work well.

Cheers!     

[Walter Loyd Lilly]

...Rereading now Michael's article on the Mike strip (though not the strips themselves, ~ too small/not enough time to read), it's clear that Michael made an inaccurate guess if he thinks Powell , wsnted to sell it as a conventional, King Features Syndicate/United Features Syndicate, etc., -style strip - Obviously the strop would have been all too taboo for that.
  Perhaps Bob thought he could do a strip in a sleazy " Adults Only! "/" The KInd Men Like " sort of tabloid " read in barbershops " paper such as existed at the time. Was  there a signature inside the strips?

[positronic1]

...Rereading now Michael's article on the Mike strip (though not the strips themselves, ~ too small/not enough time to read), it's clear that Michael made an inaccurate guess if he thinks Powell , wsnted to sell it as a conventional, King Features Syndicate/United Features Syndicate, etc., -style strip - Obviously the strop would have been all too taboo for that.

Not necessarily -- it was a matter of degree. Chester Gould got a lot of flak for his "tough on crime" stance in DICK TRACY, but the strip remained enormously popular. There were a good number of detective strips aimed at an audience of adult readers that had more violence and (implied) sexual situations than would become acceptable in later years. Powell may have imagined that the time was ripe to push the boundaries of what was acceptable in a syndicated feature, even as films were pushing those same boundaries. Or maybe he imagined selling it as a feature to one of the "men's adventure"-type magazines that proliferated at the time, as successors to the pulps. Maybe he was imagining something like a more "hard-boiled" version of Will Eisner's The Spirit. It was the great dream of a lot of the old comics veterans to break out of the rut of code-approved comics into a higher-paying gig with more creative freedom, something aimed at the adult reader. Even Wallace Wood, later in his career, wound up working on various obscure, R- or X-rated features for various men's magazines -- he even drew some covers for HUSTLER!

[Walter Loyd Lilly]

...Rereading now Michael's article on the Mike strip (though not the strips themselves, ~ too small/not enough time to read), it's clear that Michael made an inaccurate guess if he thinks Powell , wsnted to sell it as a conventional, King Features Syndicate/United Features Syndicate, etc., -style strip - Obviously the strop would have been all too taboo for that.

Not necessarily -- it was a matter of degree. Chester Gould got a lot of flak for his "tough on crime" stance in DICK TRACY, but the strip remained enormously popular. There were a good number of detective strips aimed at an audience of adult readers that had more violence and (implied) sexual situations than would become acceptable in later years. Powell may have imagined that the time was ripe to push the boundaries of what was acceptable in a syndicated feature, even as films were pushing those same boundaries. Or maybe he imagined selling it as a feature to one of the "men's adventure"-type magazines that proliferated at the time, as successors to the pulps. Maybe he was imagining something like a more "hard-boiled" version of Will Eisner's The Spirit. It was the great dream of a lot of the old comics veterans to break out of the rut of code-approved comics into a higher-paying gig with more creative freedom, something aimed at the adult reader. Even Wallace Wood, later in his career, wound up working on various obscure, R- or X-rated features for various men's magazines -- he even drew some covers for HUSTLER!

...Well, " men's (' sweat ') adventure "/" sleazy tabloid-barbershop mag " ~ all the general same corner.
  Really, I think the explicit portrayal of a homosexual thug saying " He's cute!!! "/similar and Mike, fighting back, denouncing his non-hetnes, years pre-Stonewall, would've simply, itself, made it about as saleable to Register & Tribune or King Features as LADY GODIVA, THE NATION OF ISLAM VIXEN!!!