[DennyWilson]

So far I can only think of Three off the top of my head...

Charlie Chan
Ellery Queen
Sir Denis Nayland Smith

Any others?

[NobbyNobbs]

Did not Mike Hammer go the other way ?

[skybandit]

   Don't forgot ol' Sherlock.

[DennyWilson]

When was Sherlock's first comic book apperance?

[skybandit]

  Kid Eternity called him up in his titulat comic (#4) and Charleton actually had a comic book titled Sherlock Holmes.

[narfstar]

Sam Spade Feature Comics 48 1946 plus lots of Wildroot ads

[DennyWilson]

I wasn't sure about Sam Spade

[skybandit]

  I imagine the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew must have had comics at some point.  If nothing else, Gold Key versions of the TV shows.

[narfstar]

Hardy Boys go back as far as Dell 4 Color 760 1956

[phabox]

Sherlock Holmes was in some very early Classics Ilustrated issues.

-Nigel

[DennyWilson]

Sherlock Holmes was in some very early Classics Ilustrated issues.

-Nigel

I figured that

[darkmark]

Perry Mason appeared in some early comics (go look 'em up).  Mike Shayne had a short-lived series from Dell, and we all know of Charlie Chan.  Ms. Tree had a novel written of her by Max Allan Collins.  And of course, there's Honey West, who started as a novel character, went to TV for a season, and had a one-shot comic from Gold Key.

[skybandit]

   Did Gold Key do EVERY TV show on the air?  I remember some clueless relative got me a copy of "Burke's Law" once.  Now, THAT'S obscure!

[narfstar]

Burke's Law at least lasted 3 season and even had a relaunch in 1994. Dell/GK jumped on all kind of things maybe just to keep the other away. Several were single season like McKeever And The Colonel, It's About Time (a show I loved), I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, Calvin and the Colonel and others I think some failed to make an entire season even.
It would be really interesting (at least to me) if someone knew how shows and movies were chosen. Does anyone have an idea? I am really curious now.

[skybandit]

   Hey!  "It's About Time" lasted 2 seasons.  In the second one the astronauts returned to the present and brought some cave men with them, reversing the fish-out-of-water premise.

   Not sure how they're chosen, but I know Dell wasn't real happy with "Lost in Space" not giving them credit for "Space Family Robinson," which predated (and survived the cancellation of) LiS.  They squeezed whatever licensing money they could out of Irwin Allen, put "Lost in Space" on the cover, and printed their own original stuff anyway!

  Hmmm...How'd we get from detective novels to bad kiddie sci-fi?

[JonTheScanner]

   Hey!  "It's About Time" lasted 2 seasons.  In the second one the astronauts returned to the present and brought some cave men with them, reversing the fish-out-of-water premise.

It just seemed like it lasted two seasons.  It only ran one season '66-'67.  The switch to the present occurred after half a season.

[skybandit]

   How fallible of me!
   I shall commit seppuku immediately!
   Well, maybe later.

[DennyWilson]

   Hey!  "It's About Time" lasted 2 seasons.  In the second one the astronauts returned to the present and brought some cave men with them, reversing the fish-out-of-water premise.

It just seemed like it lasted two seasons.  It only ran one season '66-'67.  The switch to the present occurred after half a season.

Any the space capsule prop turned up in a couple of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND episodes,too. (same producer and production company)

[skybandit]

   Now, that may be the other way around.  Gilligan's Island was in it's third year when this show appeared.

   (Yes, I read the wiki before admitting my error!)

  But what does this have to do with detectives in comic books?

[Ed Love]

Other than Sherlock Holmes, how many series detective novels were out there? You had your dime novels and pulps, but few really had serious detective characters.  The majority of the Holmes clones and dime novel detectives were defunct by the birth of comics. And most comics were either reprinting comic strips (which is how Charlie Chan got into comics I believe) or going with all new material. Fawcett was one of the few companies that got licenses of characters and did all new material with them such as various westerns centering around actors, Don Winslow, and Nyoka. I think very few detectives had a house hold name appeal and were distinctive enough for the companies not to just create their own as opposed to paying for a license. Such as I think Jess Nevins said Timely's 3 X's were pretty much a riff of the "I Love a Mystery" radio show. Though I could see a company choosing to jump on the Thin Man franchise and do comics around the movies. Which is part of it as well, comics were a bit more pop culture in their influences. The writers and artists were looking more to comic strips and pulps and radio for their influences and not actual books. I wouldn't be surprised if someone didn't try to serialize The Moonstone or Murders in the Rue Morgue, but neither  was really a name to build a series around.

Street & Smith's Nick Carter did get printed in their line of comics along with their main pulp heroes and Better did use their Phantom Detective if you want to shave the definition of detective character.

One of the oddest but again it's not a "detective" character was the safe-cracker and rogue Raffles did appear in the GA in a Whizzer story

[paw broon]

In Britain, we had comic versions of Sexton Blake, in the 60's, I think, and he appeared in an enormously long lived series of detective novel libraries starting way before the comic version and also running concurrently with it.  Not sure if Bulldog Drummond qualifies as a detective but, again, following from the Sapper novels, he featured in a British strip.  (We'll cast a veil over the terrible Moonstone version)

[DennyWilson]

I just realized that we forgot THE SAINT!

[narfstar]

Major player even