[Quirky Quokka]

Regarding Railway Detectives, SuperScrounge said:

Yes. Railroads have their own police including detectives. https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=7807

Thanks for that link, SuperScrounge. It never ceases to amaze me what little gems we have on this site.


Panther said:

The most famous fictional railroad detective would be Whispering Smith.
Quote
Whispering Smith is a 1948 American Western film directed by Leslie Fenton and starring Alan Ladd as a railroad detective assigned to stop a gang of train robbers. The supporting cast includes Robert Preston, Brenda Marshall and Donald Crisp.

The picture is based on a novel by Frank H. Spearman and a previous 1926 film adaptation starring H.B. Warner.   

Co-incidentally, I happen to have a DVD copy at my elbow in a stack of DVD's next to the laptop.
The most interesting element of the film, is that Robert Preston of all people, plays the villain.
Quote
The role of Whispering Smith was partly based on Joe Lefors, and partly on Tim Keliher, both of them frontier lawmen who spent part of their careers as railroad detectives. The part of Murray Sinclair, Smith's friend who turns to crime, was supposedly inspired by Butch Cassidy.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lefors
The character of Whispering Smith later got his own TV series starring Audie Murphy.

I don't think I've come across Whispering Smith before. Though now I think of it, I have seen many westerns in which the outlaws robbed a train.

I did a quick search for railway detectives in Australia, though they seemed to be mainly investigators for railway accidents and safety. Though I'm sure they would work together with police.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/rail-investigations-australia

But for an Australian equivalent to the wild west, you can't go past the Kelly gang and their ill-fated attempt to derail a train carrying police from Melbourne to Glenrowan in 1880. Scroll down the following website and look under 'The Glenrowan Siege'.

https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/ned-kellys-last-stand

Rabbit holes are fun!

Cheers

QQ

[Robb_K]

Are railroad detectives a thing?

Yes. Railroads have their own police including detectives. https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=7807

Yes.  The US major railroads hired The Pinkerton Detective Agency to handle investigating railroad crimes and provide exclusive railroad policing in the mid 1850s.  The railroads started replacing Pinkerton with their own, internal police forces during the 1870s.

[Robb_K]

Panther said:

The most famous fictional railroad detective would be Whispering Smith.
Quote
Whispering Smith is a 1948 American Western film directed by Leslie Fenton and starring Alan Ladd as a railroad detective assigned to stop a gang of train robbers. The supporting cast includes Robert Preston, Brenda Marshall and Donald Crisp.

The picture is based on a novel by Frank H. Spearman and a previous 1926 film adaptation starring H.B. Warner.   

Co-incidentally, I happen to have a DVD copy at my elbow in a stack of DVD's next to the laptop.
The most interesting element of the film, is that Robert Preston of all people, plays the villain.
Quote
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lefors
The character of Whispering Smith later got his own TV series starring Audie Murphy.

[/b]
I don't think I've come across Whispering Smith before. Though now I think of it, I have seen many westerns in which the outlaws robbed a train.
Cheers

QQ

I loved the 1948 film.  I find it interesting that Audie Murphy and Alan Ladd, 2 actors who both were short and played tough, feisty parts in Western and military combat films played Whispering Smith in the film and TV series.  Audie Murphy was the most decorated US soldier of World War II, and many people often conflated him with Alan Ladd, because both played similar parts in films, to the point that many people often thought that Ladd, too, was a WWII hero.  Actually, most of his time in The US military during that war was spent in producing soldier training films.

I assumed that Australia's railroads would also have had internal special railroad police forces during the 19th and early 20th Centuries, as they, likje The USA and Canada, had railroad lines travelling through non-state/provincial sparsely populated territories, much of which had no local police agencies, and only very sparse and temporary Federal policing cverage.

[SuperScrounge]

The character of Whispering Smith later got his own TV series starring Audie Murphy.
No Idea if he ever got a comic.

Couldn't find anything at the GCD.

Thanks for that link, SuperScrounge. It never ceases to amaze me what little gems we have on this site.

Yep! It's amazing what one can find here. No wonder why Mark wants help with curated pages to the site https://comicbookplus.com/forum/?topic=26988.0

By the way, Special Agent was a reading selection all the way back in Week 26. Not sure how many of us were around back then.

[Quirky Quokka]

Robb said:

I assumed that Australia's railroads would also have had internal special railroad police forces during the 19th and early 20th Centuries, as they, like The USA and Canada, had railroad lines travelling through non-state/provincial sparsely populated territories, much of which had no local police agencies, and only very sparse and temporary Federal policing coverage.

Yes, you're probably right. I did a quick search, but couldn't find anything specifically about railway police (it would taker a much deeper dive). But you're right that Australia had a lot of sparsely populated areas (still does). Although the first Australian train seems to be 1831, it was a 'gravitational' railway used to service a 'pit coal mine'. The first regular railway seems to be in the 1850s when Australia was still a collection of British colonies. Australia didn't become a federation until 1901. So certainly back in the 1800s, in the era of gold rushes and bushrangers, I'm sure they would have needed police or at least armed security guards to protect the trains.

SuperScrounge said:

By the way, Special Agent was a reading selection all the way back in Week 26. Not sure how many of us were around back then.

I just had a look. That was back in 2014 and the commenters were Mark, Napstar, SuperScrounge, Crashryan, Paw Broon, Bowers and Jarrodman. I recognise all of those except for the last one. So well done to all of you who have been keeping this group going over a long period. I'm a relative newbie, having joined in August 2022 with Reading Group #278 

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Undersea Agent #5 (1966)

I'll mainly comment on the first story, as that's the one by Gardner, but I can't resist throwing in something about a few of the ads too.

Cover - The mechanical/robotic monster immediately caught my eye. It made me want to open the book to see what this creature was and what it did.

Born is a Warrior

So they really called the hero Davy Jones? And yes, he did have a locker (p. 2). Of course, the Monkees TV show featuring real-life pop star Davy Jones made its debut in September 1966. By the time this comic book came out, pre-teen and teenage girls would be more interested in the pop star. Who can forget the Brady Bunch episode when Davy Jones goes to the prom with Marcia?

And while still on the subject of names, Panther mentioned the sidekick’s name ‘Skooby Doolittle’. Did he inspire the canine Scooby Doo? Scooby Doo didn’t debut until 1969, so who knows?

Anyway, back to this story.

I liked the story overall. Davy is a good mentor--skilled, humble and encouraging to his protege Skooby. I liked the way that Skooby was the one who ended up digging deep and saving the day, rather than just letting the hero save everyone. A self-sacrifice theme befitting the best superheroes.

Some good art in terms of action and perspective. A taste of the Batman TV series with all of those Pows and Sockos. I liked the way the mechanical monster was drawn, though he looked a bit too benign in some frames.

Couldn't help finding a typo at the top of p. 10 when Mike fires a charge. Mike?? I assume that's Davy. And speaking of typos, I had a quick flick through the other stories and the hero's name is sometimes spelt as Davey.

Anyway, a good story overall. I haven't come across this comic book title before, so I would have missed some of the background to the character in previous editions.


Selected Ads

I love old comic book ads. You can usually find some gems.

Chet Atkins - If only my parents had known I could learn to play guitar like Chet Atkins for just $2.98 US, they wouldn't have had to fork out money for me to have guitar lessons from 1969 to 1973. Sshhh ... don't tell my Mum!

Refrigeration and Heating - Build a complete refrigeration system at home? It reminded me of the 'Young Sheldon' episode where boy Sheldon takes the family refrigerator apart and tries to fix it from a book. What could go wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/790UBQA0wLM

Fun Supermarket - In the middle of the Cold War, who wouldn't want a mushroom cloud-shaped ring of smoke coming out of an ashtray? And if that wasn't to your taste, you could always stick a snowstorm tablet on the end of your Dad's cigarette and watch tiny snow fill the room; or electrocute your friends with the miniature electric chair effect. Hours of fun for the whole family.

Sell Grit - Ah, the good ol' days when an honest lad could sell newspapers and have prizes like hunting knives and tomahawks coming through the mail.

U.S. Government Surplus - Better still, send away for the U.S. Government Surplus catalogue and buy yourself that machette, hand grenade or cannon you've always wanted   

Cheers

QQ

[gregjh]

"Undersea Agent" was really good. Ahead of its time in some ways with a young sidekick who is flawed, idealistic and headstrong, rather than just a grinning miniature version of the proganoist. It also had a good message at the beginning with the "heroes are made, not born" message. It's old hat these days but I don't see much of that kind of thing in Golden Age books.

The setting was also interesting. It seemed to be a permanent undersea base in a retro futuristic, atompunk universe. Lots of potential in that.

I was less keen on part 2 when it quickly jumped into a rushed "here's a random alien species, now let's beat them up" trope, but overall very good. I will probably read more of this series.

[The Australian Panther]

Sometimes this thread goes quiet and we wonder if there is anyone out there.
Well the count for this one is 30 replies and 208 views.
We have had over 1000 and 2000 views in the last year or so and QQ's Brenda Starr fortnight got 3301 views.
And Mark's 'Introduction To Our Reading Group' has 10,148 views even though the last post was by NarfStar back in 2016. G'day Narfstar if you are out there.
I would like more people to participate but if the posts are being read, and viewers are being introduced to comics they might not otherwise be aware of and miscellaneous trivia, that's what we want to achieve. 
Cheers, and happy reading.

[SuperScrounge]

And while still on the subject of names, Panther mentioned the sidekick’s name ‘Skooby Doolittle’. Did he inspire the canine Scooby Doo? Scooby Doo didn’t debut until 1969, so who knows?

I think Scooby Doo was inspired by Frank Sinatra singing "Scooby doobie doo".

Skooby Doolittle may have been similarly inspired although scuba was probably the starting point for the name, then Sinatra, then Doolittle as the last name. Just a guess on my part though.

[Quirky Quokka]

Sometimes this thread goes quiet and we wonder if there is anyone out there.
Well the count for this one is 30 replies and 208 views.
We have had over 1000 and 2000 views in the last year or so and QQ's Brenda Starr fortnight got 3301 views.
And Mark's 'Introduction To Our Reading Group' has 10,148 views even though the last post was by NarfStar back in 2016. G'day Narfstar if you are out there.
I would like more people to participate but if the posts are being read, and viewers are being introduced to comics they might not otherwise be aware of and miscellaneous trivia, that's what we want to achieve. 
Cheers, and happy reading.

Hi Panther

Yes, I noticed that some of the older posts are still getting lots of views. I also looked at the link SuperScrounge sent about Mark's idea for having a Curated Collections area on the site. That's a great idea. In the meantime, our reading group provides a bit of a curated collection, or at least themed posts. People can flick through the headings and stop on a theme that interests them. If they then read those comics and/or read some of our comments, that's a win too.

Cheers

QQ

[mopee167]

If anyone is interested, there’s a bio of Ogden Whitney (the Skyman artist)here:

https://www.pulpartists.com/Whitney.html