Friday, February 17, 2023

WEIRD ADVENTURES #1 (MAY-JUNE 1951)

 Not a horror comic at the title might have you think, buta mystery/detective comic.

We start off with "Sign of the Southern Cross."  Waldo Barnes is traveling from Sydney to San Francisco with his pet kangaroo, Gertrude.  (You may remember that paperback pubisher Pocket Books, when it first started out, had as its mascot Gertrude, a kangaroo.  A relation?  Who knows?)  Waldo is set to inherit $500,000 from an uncle's will.  Since no one in America has seen Waldo for 25 years, he made sure to bring along positive identification.  Unknown to Waldo, his cousin Hector is also on board.  Hector would have inherited the money if Waldo wasn't around.  Hector mistakes washed-up actor Gilbert Lansing for Waldo (the resemblance is striking).  Also on board is a pretty jewel thief who has just lifted some valuable pearls.  Finally, there's another pasenger -- Secret Service Agent Lee Todd.   When Waldo's murdered body is thrown overboard, Todd realizes the final solution to the case lies with Gertrude the kangaroo!

Next, Laura Webb is "The...She-Wolf Killer," using her seductive charms for money and murder.  A brief Crime-Does-Not-Pay tale, invoking some Good Girl art.

The "Secret of Edenford Castle" is known only to two people -- the Earl of Edenford and his Castle Steward; and the Steward is "a bad'un -- mean as his Lordship!"  Something dark and foreboding happened ten years before that brought a change to castle life -- an undiscovered murder!  Now the Earl's long-lost son from a secret marraige has come forward to clear up the mystery.

In "Missing Diamonds," an "international spy ring has murdered Dr. Ellsworth Harmon, and stole secret diamond dies, vital to our national defense..."  What can foil a crackerjack international spy ring, you ask?  Try a case of poison ivy.

Enjoy these not very weird mysteries.


https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85028&comicpage=&b=i


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