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[Robb_K]

I've been busy. I've had some freelance work for the first time in a couple of years (literally) so I've been unable until now to deal with our second private eye:

Michael Shayne #2

Unlike several other commentators I like private eyes. I don't care for the mad dog variety. Mike Hammer turns my stomach. But from time to time I do enjoy a good medium-boiled shamus like Mike Shayne or Philip Marlowe.

"Bodies Are Where You Find Them" is an earnest attempt to do justice to a full-length novel in the space of 26 comic book pages. As has already been noted, this means the story runs at a breakneck pace. The scriptwriter tries to cram everything he can into each page. To do that he abuses captions like mad. Significant scenes are reduced to a caption bridging two more scenes. For example on our page 12 when Shayne leaves Bugler's office. The caption tells us

From a drugstore Shayne phones Tim Rourke and asks him to check the hotels to learn where Marlow is staying. Then...

while in the panel Shayne is visiting his next stop, the Stallings residence. Worse yet, the plot is moved along by putting dialogue in captions, like on our page 12. Chief Gentry and Tim Rourke discover a seemingly-drunk Shayne with a woman passed out on the bed. In panel 1 Gentry angrily leaves the room. The caption on panel 2 says

After Gentry leaves, Tim Rourke says, "I don't see how you can treat Phyllis like that."

freeing the panel for Mike to reveal he's faking and that the woman has been murdered. To be fair to the scripter, there was no good way to handle all the characters and plot complications without doubling the page count. This would have made a decent 64-page graphic novel.

It would have helped a tiny bit if the lettering weren't so large. More expository dialogue would have helped us keep the characters straight and perhaps flesh them out a bit. The large lettering makes many panels crowded even though the word count isn't that high.

Edd Ashe's artwork isn't too bad. I like Ashe though he was always a second-tier artist. His output was inconsistent. When he was on his game (check out the second issue of Dell's Follow the Sun for a sample) he was very good indeed. He was great at guys in suits and gangland goons. He ended his career pencilling lackluster racing stories for Charlton. I wonder what his story was. About the coloring (not Ashe's domain, probably): Deciding to go with fire-engine red for Shayne's hair rather than a red-orange wasn't the greatest idea. At least in this issue they got the color right. In the first issue the "big redhead" was a blonde.

"The Quick Buck" is like a condensed Crime Does Not Pay story minus Mr Crime. They had to put it in, along with the text story, because Dell offered subscriptions to the title! Why on earth they did that I don't know. Surely they didn't expect a long run with lots of subscribers.

Which raises the question of why Dell decided to adapt Michael Shayne novels in the first place. I believe Len Cole was editor at the time. Dell had been cut loose by Western Publishing, who took the juicy licensed titles with them. I have the feeling Dell was madly throwing everything at the wall hoping something would stick. They published quirky titles like Kona, Naza, Ghost Stories, Linda Lark, and Space Man. But why Michael Shayne? Though Edd Ashe's art was quite respectable, the violence, drinking, and mild innuendo certainly wouldn't have met Western's old "Dell Pledge to Parents." Michael Shayne novels were written for adults.

Not only that but adults of a "certain age." The first Shayne novel appeared in 1939. The Private Practice of Michael Shayne, adapted in the first Dell issue, was published in 1940 and Bodies Are Where You Find Them dates from 1941. In comics both novels updated smoothly to 1962. But for some reason for the third issue they chose Blood on the Black Market (1943), built around World War II rationing. How many kids in 1962 had any concept of ration books and a black market in tires and gasoline? Like the novel, the Dell adaptation, "Heads...You Lose" is set in the 1940s. An opening caption tells us the story takes place during the War, but that's the only acknowledgement that between the last issue and this Michael Shayne entered a time machine and went back twenty years. By the way, in Blood on the Black Market Shayne's wife Phyllis dies in childbirth, a decision by Davis "Brett Halliday" Dresser to open Shayne's options regarding loose women, an essential element in private eye stories. This scene also opens the Dell adaptation. By the fourth panel Phyllis is forgotten and Mike is back in action.

It was when I was browsing some Michael Shayne paperback art that the obvious answer hit me over the head. Dell published the Shayne paperbacks! In the early sixties the series was going strong, helped more than a little by Robert McGinnis' cover paintings. Someone at Dell must have figured the redhead could pick up a few more sales in comic form. You might say they licensed the character to themselves.   

Not a surprise, at all.  In 1962, when Western Publishing had problems negotiating with Dell over continuing to use Dell as the distributor for their comic book lines, and finally decided to leave that relationship, and publish and distribute their product on their own (under The Gold Key banner), taking the vast bulk of Dell's comic book titles away, Dell was desperate for new comic book series to publish and distribute.  In addition to courting as many new and currently unattached print entertainment copyright holders as they could, they also used as many pulp, other paperback, and magazine published copyrighted properties they already held to quickly build up their lines as best they could, to keep up revenue, hold onto employees, and avoid having to scale their operations down so low that without the great economies-to-scale they previously enjoyed, the economics of their comic book production division would no longer work. 

[The Australian Panther]

Well! I never know what's going to happen when I make these choices. I like it to some degree when I get surprised.
From the top -

So, were detective comics ever a big thing? I mean, It seemed like a perfect solution if the censors were busting your chops over 'true crime' comics...just do a couple of changes, and you're in the clear. That mini bio, for instance on the inside cover of MIKE SHAYNE could easily have come from a true crime comic.

Thanks for posting, A/P it's a genre I never even thought of before.

Absolutely no disrespect intended Morgus, but that did surprise me - I know that the prime interest here on CB+ is definitely Superheroes, but Comics about detectives are definitely a genre, and not a small one.
I think you probably meant to say, 'were comics about PI's ever a big thing?' and even there the answer is yes.
I will let somebody else speak for me on this subject.
Here is a book on the subject of PI's.

  Private Eyes in the Comics
by John A. Dinan 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2671334-private-eyes-in-the-comics
And here are two links from Kevin Burton Smith's excellent THRILLING DETECTIVE Site.
Recent and Upcoming Comic & Graphic Novel Releases
https://thrillingdetective.com/2018/07/25/comics-and-graphic-novels/

Comic Book Eyes/Alphabetical
https://thrillingdetective.com/2019/02/20/eyes-in-comic-books-strips-graphic-novels-alphabetical/

The Defense rests.
Just for the fun of it tho, I'll mention a couple.

Just wanted to bring this one to Robb's attention;-
From Charlton,
Mike Mauser Pun intended!
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/mauser.htm
Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti
'My name is Mauser ..... which is also the name of my pistol. In my profession, its the only reliable friend that I have'
https://thrillingdetective.com/2019/07/11/mike-mauser/
No resemblance to any mouse we know - said mouse was also a detective in many of his stories - no this character is based on Ratso Rizzo the Dustin Hoffman character in 'Midnight Cowboy'! 
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/mauser.htm

Also, of the big two, DC seems to have had the most Detectives. Here is a partial list. 
[ King Faraday,Slam Bradley DC, Roy Raymond,  Mark Compass, Rick Carter, Magician Detective, Christopher Chance, Jason Bard, Pow wow Smith. Angel and Ape, Detective Chimp.]
But enough!
Modification!
Was just over at Thrilling Detective and found this page. And don't forget, Batman debuted in DETECTIVE COMICS. Nuff said!
Detectives in DC Comics
https://thrillingdetective.com/2018/09/05/detectives-in-dcs-detective-comics/
that's all folks!

[The Australian Panther]

Part 2!
Sam Hill Private Eye 1
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30403
And no, I ddin't pay close attention to this before I posted it, just wanted a couple of examples of PI comics.
Robb said,

This book has a lousy front cover, littered with lots of text, and even big speech balloons with lots of dialogue, ruining the action scene that's supposed to catch the potential buyer's eye. 

2 points.
Sure looks like they didn't have a cover ready go, so they got an interior illustration - or one that was meant for an interior - and filled up space around it with dialogue. Very messy!
But also, covers with a lot of dialogue were not uncommon at that  time. I don't know why, but there were many almost as cluttered.
Harry Lucy is a good artist and does his best with what he's given here, and that's not much to work with visually. So I'm assuming that he had this script dumped on him and had to do the best he could with it.
The dialogue gives us a Sam Hill who is not just hard-boiled he's arrogant and unlikable. Not a good start.
The dialogue and behavior between the 'Eye' and the 'Dame' is ridiculous and corny and like something out of Mad Magazine. The story is constructed reasonably but the plot is strictly by the numbers. The only positive about it is Harry Lucy's art.  He put's a lot of energy into the panels.

And the author clearly wanted to place a scene in the story in which this tough detective belts his client with a hard blow from his fist

 
Ah, no. That's an open palm and she has tried to shoot him.
The Double Trouble Caper.
Just what is the chronology for that first panel supposed to be?
The scenario and the climax are totally predictable.

In any case, it seems he should try to find a different sort of clientele.

In a private eye story the client finds him, and that's why the 'eye' is perpetually broke. Beggars can't be choosers.
Yes, by today's standards the attitude to women and the 'violence' is over the top, and surprising for a comic in this period, but not untypical for the pulps. The whole thing is miscalculated.   
The Mad Money Caper
Again. Cliche by the numbers story.
Don't know why he threw in the Bow and Arrow. Out of boredom. My feeling is, whoever scripted this had no feeling for this genre of story and went way over the top and exaggerated everything. The only thing that makes it bearable is Harry Lacy.
Read Crash's review. He's on the money!
Can't find it now, but memory says that someone asked something to the effect, 'Why is he talking to himself?'
That's a narrative in the first person, which was characteristic of the genre. Probably worked well on Radio too, but it was never used much in movies.
Cheers!     
       

[SuperScrounge]

Mike Mauser Pun intended!

He was also a supporting player in the E-Man series. One of my favorite bits from the First Comics revival of E-Man. Mauser is trying to get some information from a guy, and after giving him the third degree says something like, "This is a copy of Kramer Vs. Kramer on an infinite loop. I'll stick it in the vcr, press play and leave. I could be gone days." The guy talks.

[The Australian Panther]

Mike Shayne 2
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=37626

Big Jim Colosimo
Never heard of this guy. Not a bad filler.
Bodies Are Where You Find Them
The set-up panel, panel 2 is confusing, need to read it more than once and check the next panel to make sense of it.
Why say something that's already been said.
Scrounge said,

Bodies Are Where You Find Them... - Not bad, but trying to cram a novel into a 27 page comic certainly shows. I'm reminded of an Ian Flemming's (I think) reaction to one of his books being turned into a comic strip and when it turned out better than he thought it would he sent a message, something like, "My compliments to the sausage makers". The adapter did a good job making sausage here. Could have used a longer page count, but he still managed to make it work.

Curious that the story didn't spread out for the full count of pages, that made it even more jammed up than it should have been.
Ed Ashe's work is nothing to complain about but lacks energy. Can't help thinking, what would Harry Lacy have done with this script?
I generally ignore text pages.
The Quick Buck
Pretty Dull story, but well illustrated.
What Is Wrong Here?
Don't know why it was common to put these one-pagers in Detecive comics, they always used to annoy me, and take up space from the main story. Somebody elsewhere said, that publishing regulations meant that publishers were obliged to include text- pieces.
Anyway, that's it for this go-round. 
If I had put more thought into my choices, I might have chosen
Four Color 1106 (1942 Series) 77 Sunset Strip
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=35013
A very nice Alex Toth book.
Or, one that hasn't been mentioned yet,
Pete Riss's Mike Barnett Man Against Crime over at Fawcett.
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=1448
Robb tomorrow. 

[Captain Audio]

Just cracked my first Detective novel in quite some time.
Its a book left here years ago that I didn't think I'd care for since its set in modern times in Hollywood and most of the characters are despictable wastes of skin any way. Come to think on it older classic detective stories set in Hollywood share that same opinion of most of the denizens of the film industry.
The title is "Murder Offscreen" by Denise Osborne.
Once I got into the story I really found it to be a pretty good story and so far the killer and their motive is still an unknown. Bodies are piling up at this point reducing the pool of suspects.