#1930s detective story

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Crimson Clown's Threat - art by John A. Coughlin (1931)

[jepergola]

New story today: "Dramatic Irony in Action"

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Pulp - Spicy Detective Stories (Apr1935)

Culture

[shi-yin-drawings]

Detective Azaliah thinks Riley is hiding something, but she isn't too pleased about being a suspect.

Also included a no subs version and the rough sketch below!

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Crooks of the Waldorf by Horace Smith. London: John Long, 1930. Dust jacket illustrator unknown. The book recounts "the escapades of Joe Smith (no relation to the author), the house detective at the original Waldorf Astoria on 34th Street and Fifth Avenue (now the site of the Empire State Building.)"

Below is an excerpt from the book. It can be read online here, but can't be downloaded as anything other than a JPG.

Top photo: Stuff Nobody Cares About Bottom screenshot: University of Michigan

[chadsuke]

Comics Read in 2023:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol. 9 by Koyoharu Gotouge (2017)

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol. 10 by Koyoharu Gotouge (2018)

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol. 11 by Koyoharu Gotouge (2018)

My Dear Detective: Mitsuko's Case Files Vol. 1 by Natsumi Ito (2023)

My Dear Detective: Mitsuko's Case Files Vol. 2 by Natsumi Ito (2023)

My Dear Detective: Mitsuko's Case Files Vol. 3 by Natsumi Ito (2023)

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts Vol. 6 by Yu Tomofuji (2018)

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts Vol. 7 by Yu Tomofuji (2018)

Cheating Men Must Die Vol. 1 by The King (2022)

[ID: Covers of the aforementioned books. End ID.]

[gutsposting]

The Coven in the Woods, pt. 3

Standing in the center of a clearing that was supposedly created by the raging fire last night, Gordon was more reminded of a meteorite impact rather than a campfire gone awry. Trees bent backwards, all in a circle. Ash was still falling from the sky, a large pile of it had been scattered all about. Gordon looked at Patrick, who had closed his eyes, his head cocked straight upward. “What do you think happened?”

“They didn’t finish.” He opened his eyes again, and turned his head to his left. “I think that they were trying to make a doorway there.” He pointed at a peculiar set of trees that were half-burnt. “And they were… doing their thing. Then someone interrupted, and paid for it.”  

Gordon took another look at the soil. “Bare Feet…” The prints were clear, and small. “How many of them do you think there were?”

“A hundred? More? Who can say… It’s too bad we can’t see the bodies.”

“Well they had to have taken them down to the city. Let’s finish up whatever you planned on doing here.” Pat looked back at him. “What?” Gordon asked.

“I don’t know if I want to get… Him involved.”

Gordon sighed, and rolled his eyes. “Well, if you don’t want to then you don’t have to. Let's just get on with it.”

Pat furrowed his brow, and scratched his head. “Let’s just talk to him…” Patrick reached for a pouch he kept in his jacket pocket. Small and made of dark leather, like a coin purse. Pat pulled a pinch of sand out of it, and sprinkled it in the air. He watched intently as it floated in the wind. 

Gordon stared at him with his arms folded. “Any luck?” He asked sarcastically.

Pat looked back at him, frowning. “This way.” He thudded along with his heavy, irregular steps, and Gordon followed far behind. 

“Is this how it normally is for you?”

“Pretty much… I’ve gotten used to it. No one takes the job seriously… I don’t think he’s far.” Pat seemed especially nervous as he talked. Gordon had apparently been the first person to believe his stories when he paid the museum a visit. Most people would come in, ask some inane question about getting abducted by aliens and make the same old jokes about ‘probing.’ Gordon was the only person to come by, in all the time that it had been open, who was attentive when he spoke about his possessions and receptive to his ideas. All the same, this excursion would prove to be a great stretch of his friends’ imagination.

“What are we gonna do if he’s not here?”

Pat peered back at him over his shoulder to answer. “Oh, he’s here…” Gordon saw that he was sweating profusely.

The rain began as Pat pulled out another pinch of the dust, keeping it in the palm of his hand. It was a light, stinging sprinkle. The sunlight from the bright morning which greeted them in the clearing had almost completely disappeared behind the clouds and the treeline. “One o’clock… Already dark as night…” Godon remarked. 

“Here.” Pat stopped underneath a massive dead oak tree. Its thick branches stretched out, like a sickening star, in every imaginable direction. The withered, gray branches twisted together like a million hands intertwined for eternity. Pat lifted up his shirt, and pulled a short-handle folded shovel out of his pants. “We’ll take turns.” He said, crouching down and beginning to wildly tear at the soil.

“Okay, come on!” Gordon threw his  hands up in the air. “You Have to be kidding!”

Patrick didn’t speak, only staring at Gordon as he threw clump after clump of dirt over his shoulder. 

Gordon covered his face with his hand, and sat down on a stump. It felt like hours passed before the old man digging the hole collapsed, lying on his back and gasping for air. He had dug wisely, and had made it about three feet in depth. Gordon watched Pat get up, still completely out of breath, shakily trying to meekly raise another pile of dirt out of the hole.

“Fine.” Gordon said. “I’ll take a turn.” The weather had become much worse, puddles of muddy water were beginning to form at the bottom of the hole. Gordon could hardly breathe, but he imagined his arms as a set of pistons, his torso as a mighty engine, and he forced his body to shred the ground out of his way.

Then the smell hit him. Sweet like old beef left in the refrigerator too long, if it was hot and all around you. It hit his stomach like a freight train, and the perfect storm brought on by the mud and the incessant raindrops pelting his hat brought it all back to him, all at once.

“Jesus, Pat…” 

“I know… Let me take over.” Pat put his hand on Gordons’ shoulder. During the war, Pat was distant and aloof, the way that an officer should be. It was only on the way back home, standing on the deck of that old steamer, that he expressed how much he cared about his boys. He kept up with all one-hundred and three men who survived by regularly writing letters to each one of them.

Gordon sat back down on the stump. His mother taught him a trick when he was going to throw up, he would hum anything that came to mind. “John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave…” He sang. 

Patrick chuckled. “I’ve got him!” He hollered. Gordon got up, and looked down the hole. He checked his watch.

“Five hours.” Gordon said. “Do you know this guy? He’s been here too long to be-”

Pat raised the shovel over his head, and swung it down like an axe. He feverishly brought the weapon crashing down again and again, and before long he had cracked open a football-sized hole into the coffin. “Wake up!” He shouted, laughing hysterically. “I need to talk to you!”

Gordon felt the urge to drop down into the hole to stop him. It was certainly wrong to stand by and let someone defile a corpse, but Gordon couldn't move. Pat curled his fingers against the edge of the hole he had made in the rotten old wood, and yanked upwards with all of his might. He sent splinters flying all around him as he ripped nearly an entire quarter of the top panel right off the ill-made coffin. 

The body had decomposed significantly, but Gordon refused to look at it. He remembered a corpse of a Frenchman that he had seen back in the day. He had been completely buried underneath the mud somehow. All you could see was an arm, his wrist twisting up and backward. He watched a rat nibble at his fingers one night, and almost got himself killed when he tried to protect the mans’ hand from the pest.

Patrick began slapping the dead man in the cheek. “Come on… I wanna talk to you! I know you’re in there!” The rain stopped like a faucet being shut off. Gordon felt chills run up his spine.

“What did you do?” Gordon shouted. Patrick pulled himself out of the hole, ignoring Gordons’ question. 

A pale figure peeked its head out from behind a distant tree. “Come on! I want to get this over with.” Patrick cupped his hands and shouted at it. Gordon grabbed his arm.

“What the fuck is that?” He demanded.

“It’s okay…” Patrick said, quietly. The figure slowly walked towards them. It was something similar to the form of a bald, pale man. Featureless, like a skeleton with a thin layer of skin draped over it. It slunk towards them shyly, but refused to come close before speaking. 

“Too long, it’s been too long.” A low, quiet voice scratched out. 

“What happened last night?” Patrick spoke up.

The creature hid behind a tree. “Cheated.” The voice changed, it was now like an old womans’. “They owe me four for last night, four for last night and hundreds more, hundreds.” 

“Just tell me about last night.” Patrick insisted. The creature stood up from the bushes, and had changed into something more resembling a man, a prisoner perhaps. Bald, covered in tattoos, it was like the creature was growing into… Gordon didn’t want to think about what was happening, but he couldn’t close his eyes. He stared at the creature, at the twisted-up face. He wanted to vomit. 

“He’s mine… and they took him to the mine, but he’s mine, and they took him… mine”

“They run the whole town, don’t they?” The creature shrugged. 

“You will know where to go, you will feel it and will know. You will find what's' mine in the mine, he’s mine and I want them all back.” It made some kind of motion with its arms, like it was draping a blanket over its body, and a black robe appeared. It completely covered the creature, with no apparent way to see out of the hood. 

The voice had changed again, to that of a sad young woman. “Patrick…” it called out. “When will I see you again?” 

Pat looked like a deer in headlights. “We can talk later… After I finish this case?”

A mans’ voice, deep and authoritative. “You promise?”

“Yes, I do.”  

[vlunaart]

Detective Derek Bungler-- who is he?

He's a 1930's detective making every attempt to be tough but reliable. He stirs up controversy in the newspapers for consistently helping people of color and for refusing to affiliate himself with police enforcement. He works outside the law, that is to say, and he is popular with the ladies (and occasionally men).

But there's more to learn, served up on a platter called "Inside Scoop: Confessions Of A Drunk Detective" or IC: COAD for short!

[soutsuji]

I love it when I'm doing research and sources start referencing sources I've already read. Makes me feel like I'm winning some sort of game

[batboyblog]

Copy Right and Public Domain in 2025!

It's January 1st 2025 which means it's my favorite unsung holiday! Public Domain Day! This is the day once a year when, in the US, copyrights expire and things enter the public domain, meaning they belong to everyone! even you, Steve!

American copyright for books, movies, art work, and musical compositions (but not recordings, more on that later) runs for 95 years (way too long!) so today works published in 1929 join us in the public domain.

So whats free? so glad you asked.

Popeye the Sailor Man

Many people assume Popeye originated as a cartoon character but thats not true, he comes from a comic strip. The strip was called Thimble Theatre and Popeye was something of a late addition. Thimble Theatre was first published in 1919, so Popeye's girlfriend Olive Oyl has been in the public domain since before the big 20 year copyright freeze of 1998-2019. Popeye first appeared as a minor character 10 years into the strip's run but was so popular he soon took over and the strip would be renamed Popeye less than 5 years later. Now as always whats public is only what appears in 1929, later developments, remain copyrighted. Such as, while Popeye always had super strength its not till 1932 his superpowers were tied to eating spinach, and Olive Oyl originally had a different boyfriend named Ham Gravy, who she dumped for Popeye when he became the main character. It looks like Popeye is following tradition for famous now public domain characters and getting a quicky horror movie this year.

Tintin!

This is personally very exciting as someone who grew up with the Belgian boy detective. Like Popeye I expect a lot of people don't know that Tintin started off as a weekly comic strip. Indeed Tintin appeared as a part of a weekly youth supplement in the Catholic newspaper The Twentieth Century. Any ways, Tintin was first published in there in January 1929, and soon would start what would become the first Tintin story, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Now only part of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was published in 1929, the story line wrapped up in May 1930, so only those 1929 stories and what appears in them is free and clear and Tintin was published in black and white not color. Tintin's author Hergé had no idea what he was doing and was really learning on the job so In The Land of the Soviets is generally seen as his weakest outing and the only one he never opted to redraw in later years. Even so it's nice to see the character free in the world. No word on if Tintin will star in a horror movie.

Buck Rogers (but not really)

The original futuristic space man was published, again a comic strip, in 1929 which means he should enter the public domain today, but he won't. That's because he already is public domain! Before the Copyright Act of 1976 copyright was 28 years with the option to renew for another 28 years. The copyright on the original comic strips was not renewed so ran out at the end of 28 years, 1958. So Buck Rogers has been free and clear for close to 70 years now, whatever you hear about him today.

What else?

Famously last year Mickey Mouse entered the public domain, but all the entered public domain was one (maybe two) animated short, Steamboat Willie. Well this year a dozen Mickey Mouse animated shorts enter the public domain, including the first time Mickey has his iconic white gloves, and the first time Mickey speaks (the first thing Mickey Mouse ever says, voiced by Walt Disney himself, is "Hot dogs! Hot dogs!" in case you were wondering) This will give creators much more to work with if they want to use Mickey in their works which is exciting.

Speaking of Walt Disney, The Skeleton Dance is entering public domain, you likely don't know the title but I suspect you've seen at least part of it at some point

so look for this showing up on TVs in the backgrounds of films and TV shows in the next year or so

Books

The iconic novels of World War I, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front enter public domain. In fact All Quiet on the Western Front entered public domain last year, but only in the original German, the 1929 translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen is whats entered the public domain now. John Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, and Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery (always get an Agatha Christie novel on this list for the rest of our lives). Dashiell Hammett published both Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon, later made into one of the greatest films of all time, in 1929. Future children's book author E. B. White (who's go on to write Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little) and future New Yorker cartoonist and humorist James Thurber teamed up to write the delightfully titled Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do a book of spoof essays making fun of popular books on Freudian sexual theories at the time. The Roman Hat Mystery the first of the long running Ellery Queen mysteries was published, Queen would keep publishing mysteries into the 1970s (and Ellery Queen was a pen name for two people). Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica and Oliver La Farge's Laughing Boy also came out in 1929 and are in the public domain now. There's much else but those are the highlights sorry if I missed your favorite 1929 novel.

Movies

Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille's first movies with sound, Blackmail and Dynamite respectively, came out in 1929. Marx Brothers' first feature film The Cocoanuts joins the public domain. Other comedy land marks are Harold Lloyd's first sound film, Welcome Danger and Buster Keaton's last silent film, Spite Marriage (which Keaton also directed). John Ford's first sound film, The Black Watch, which also is 21 year old John Wayne's first appearance in a film, as an uncredited extra, he worked in the art department. Hallelujah the first studio film to have an all black cast came out that year. Also worth noting is The Hollywood Revue of 1929 a singing and dancing review, one of the earliest and the movie that popularized the song Singin’ in the Rain, maybe the first time a movie made a song a hit.

Musical compositions

musical compositions, ie the lyrics and musical notations you might see on sheet music are governed by the 1976 Copyright Act, and music written in 1929 is public domain. Music recordings are governed by a whole different law (we'll get there). Songs written in 1929 include Singin’ in the Rain by Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Black and Blue by the legendary Fats Waller, What Is This Thing Called Love? by Cole Porter, Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Alfred Dubin, You Were Meant for Me by Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown, and also Happy Days Are Here Again by Jack Yellen which would become FDR's campaign theme song in 1932.

Art!

a number of pieces by Salvador Dalí including:

Illumined Pleasures

The Accommodations of Desire

The Great Masturbator

are entering the public domain as is René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images.

Art is hard because while movies and books are clearly "published" and put on sale, what counts as "published" for a piece of art? the law is not totally sure.

Musical Recordings

as I promised, we got here. Till 2017 there were no federal laws governing the copyright of music recordings before the 1970s, it was governed by a confusing patchwork of state laws and it was not totally clear what was or was not free and clear even from the very earliest recordings ever. Now the term of a music recording's copyright is set at 100 years (way too long) so music recorded in 1924 is now public domain such as. Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen by Marian Anderson, Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don’t Love Nobody But Me) by Louis Armstrong, California Here I Come by Al Jolson, Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, Shreveport Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton, Mama’s Gone, Good Bye by Ray Miller, and It Had To Be You by Marion Harris. Now many recordings a lot less famous can finally be preserved and digitized to save them for the next 100 years. Many abandoned works are literally rotting away since without the copyright holder's permission digitizing a work isn't legal.

[portfollies]

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Spicy Detective Stories - Cover art by H. J. Ward (1934-1942)

[morporkian-cryptid]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Arsène Lupin Copyright Shenanigans

Have I ever told y’all about the absolute madness that is the legal issues around the Lupin franchise ? Probably. Can I find the post in question ? No. Am I going to tell you again ? You fucking bet !

The year is 1905, and detective stories are all the rage. Maurice Leblanc, a young writer, is commissioned by the magazine Je Sais Tout to write a short story on the same model as Sherlock Holmes. Maurice Leblanc says « Screw this detective shit », and creates the character of Arsène Lopin, gentleman thief.

No, this is not a typo.

Arsène Lopin, a municipal advisor in Paris, hears about it and contacts Leblanc. « You are not fucking writing a story about a thief who shares my name. » To which Leblanc replied, « Lopin ? No no, you misunderstand, this is Arsène Lupin, completely different person. »

And he gets away with it.

Leblanc writes a bunch more stories about Arsène Lupin, they get popular, and he decides he wants to write a crossover with the famous British detective, Sherlock Holmes. A crossover in which, of course, Lupin will win and Holmes will be humiliated.

Arthur Conan Doyle hears about it, and is not thrilled. He contacts Maurice Leblanc with a message along the lines of « You are not fucking writing a story where my Amazing-Original-Character-Do-Not-Steal gets bested by a thief. » To which Leblanc replies, « Sherlock Holmes? No no, you misunderstand, this is Herlock Sholmes, completely different person. »

And he gets away with it.

The years pass, more Lupin stories are written, they’re translated and exported outside of France, and wouldn’t you know it, Japan takes a strong liking to the « gentleman thief » archetype in general and to Arsène Lupin in particular.

The years is 1967, and mangaka Kazuhiko Kato, best known by his pen name Monkey Punch, is commissioned by the magazine Weekly Manga Action to create a manga for their first issue. He reads 15 of Leblanc’s stories, and creates Lupin the Third, a character who is the grandson of the famous gentleman thief. He does not bother asking the Leblanc Estate for permission, as Japan doesn’t give much of a crap about French copyright laws.

(For the record, Weekly Manga Action was the first manga magazine for an adult audience (outside of erotica), and Lupin III was published in its first issue, effectively making it one if not the very first adult manga in the history of manga.)

The Lupin III manga gets popular, is adapted into an anime, the anime gets popular, it gets translated into other languages and exported to Europe…

And then the Leblanc estate rears its head. «You are not making an anime about our character without paying us fucking royalties, » they say to Monkey Punch. To which Monkey Punch, channeling the spirit of the deceased Maurice Leblanc into his very soul, replies : « Lupin ? No no, you misunderstand, this is Rupan, completely different person. »

And he fucking gets away with it.

(Arsène Lupin became public domain in France in 2012. Before that, Lupin the Third took many different names in European releases, among which Rupan, Wolf, and in France, Edgar de la Cambriole (Edgar of Burglary).)

Additional tomfuckery :

The year is 1982, and science-fiction animated series are getting extremely popular. TMS decides to try and get a slice of the cake, and begins the development of Lupin VIII, a sci-fi spinoff about Lupin III’s descendant. The anime is being produced in France, and the Leblanc Estate once again rears its head. « Sure, you can make that anime, » they say, « but pay us fucking royalties. » TMS, as previously established, does not want to pay the Leblanc Estate diddly squat, and so they scrap half of the project, recycle the other half, and go « Lupin VIII ? No no, you misunderstand, this is Inspector Gadget, completely different person. »

The year is 1930, and famous Japanese writer Tarō Hirai writes The Golden Mask, a novel in which his detective character Kogoro Akechi goes up against none other than Arsène Lupin. Hirai’s pen name was Edgar Allan Poe- wait, wait, no, sorry, it’s Edogawa Ranpo, completely different person.

(Later, Gosho Aoyama names his character, Detective Conan Edogawa, after Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo (and the anime is distributed by TMS).)

(More than fifty years later, the Lupin III anime makes a tribute to Ranpo’s Gold Mask with the double episode The Imperial City Dreams of Thieves.)

The year is 2021, and Capcom is releasing the video game The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, in which famous detective Sherlock Holmes plays a central role. Unfortunately for them, a few Sherlock Holmes stories are still under copyright, and the Conan Doyle Estate is about as stubborn and greedy as their French cousins. « Pay us fucking royalties, » they say.

In the English release of the game, Sherlock Holmes is renamed to, you guessed it...

...fucking Herlock Sholmes.

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Pulp - Clues Detective Stories (Nov1938)

Art by Emery Clarke

Street And Smith

[thiirium]

dbh but it’s a futuristic detective story set in the 1930s

[captainfantasticalright]

What is Edwin Payne reading? : a closer look.

From the flashback scene in the show, we get this very short shot of Edwin walking down the halls. Now, what he is reading tells you all about the Dead Boy Detectives’ love for detective and adventure stories. He is carrying a penny novel! (also known as dime novel in the US- and the names are due to their cheap prices of, you guessed it! One penny or one dime each) Precisely no. 87 of the “Aldine Tip-Top Tales”.

But, what were the Aldine Tip-Top Tales you might ask yourself. Well, originally the name was:

Tip Top Detective Tales and it was one of the Aldine Publishing Company's many library series produced to capture the fancy of the youth of Great Britain. This particular one ran from 1910 through 1912 when it morphed into just Tip Top Tales, produced to include stories of adventure, as well as those of criminal content. With one exception, all of the novels included in the series were published anonymously. (The exception: Glittering Gold! by Emile Gaboriau -Tip Top Detective Tales #4).

The Aldine Publishing Company was founded by Charles Perry Brown (1834-1916).

Some other titles included:

But, we see Edwin reading something else:

Which happens to be The Strand Magazine! And this very one for this shot.

The Strand Magazine was a British monthly magazine published from january 1891 to march 1950 (711 issues) in its original version (a new version of the magazine has been edited from 1998). George Newnes Ltd. was the publisher of the magazine and it was edited by Herbert Greenhough Smith from 1891 to 1930, then by Douglas Edward Macdonald Hastings.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a huge contributor with novels, short stories, poems and articles.

The Strand Magazine was also published in the United States from february 1891 through february 1916 but with sometimes different content.

Between 1891 and 1930, The Strand Magazine published no less than

• 121 short stories

• 70 articles

• 9 novels

• 2 interviews and 1 poem written by Arthur Conan Doyle.

And just in case you did not know who Arthur Conan Doyle was, well, let me just leave some of his works here as well, originally published in the Strand:

And these are just two of the infinite variety of novels Edwin Payne owns. :)