SECRET AGENT X-9 (1936)

Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip distributed by King Features and created by Dashiell Hammett and originally drawn by Alex Raymond.  It ran from January 22, 1934 to February 10, 1996.  Hammett wrote the first four story arcs (through April 20, 1935), and was replaced by Don W. Moore (April 22 - September 21, 1935), Leslie Charteris (September 23, 1935 - March 28, 1936), "Robert Storm" (a "house" name hiding the identity of the real author; March 30, 1936 - sometime in 1945), Mel Graff (1945 - March 19, 1960), Bob Lubbers (March 21, 1960 - January 28, 1967), Archie Goodwin (January 30, 1967 - February 2, 1980), and George Evans (February 4, 1980 - February 10, 1996).

Alex Raymond drew the strip through November 16, 1935, followed by Charles Flanders (November 18, 1935 - April 9, 1938), Nicholas Afonsky (April 11 - November 5, 1938), Austin Briggs (November 7, 1938 - June 1, 1940; Mell Graff (June 3, 1940 - March 19, 1960), Bob Lubbers (March 21, 1960 - January 28, 1967), Al Williamson (January 30, 1967 - February 2, 1980), and George Evans, (February 4, 1980 - February 10, 1996).

Secret Agent X-9 was one of many Big Little Books published by Whitman Publishing, beginning in 1932.  They were juveniles, often featuring popular radio shows, films, movie actors, comic strips and pulp novel characters.  The  cheaply printed, hardbound volumes measured about 3.5 by 4.5 inches and could carry up to 400 pages or more, with text on the text on the left and full page illustrations on the right.  Authorship of Secret Agent X-9 was credited to Charles Flanders, the artist for the strip at the time of publication.  Whether Flanders wrote the text for the book is unknown.

In the beginning X-9 was an unknown agent who worked for an anonymous agency.  Hammett gave him the name Dexter -- "it's not my name, but it'll do" -- and he was occasionally referred as Dexter during the early year of the strip.  In the Forties (long after this book appeared), he was given the name Phil Corrigan by writer/artist Mel Graff.  During the run of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, the strip was retitled Secret Agent Corrigan.  the anonymous agency employing X-9 was eventually revealed to be the FBI -- that is, until the 70s, when the FBI's reputation fell rather sharply and X-9's agency once again became anonymous.

This time around X-9 is after a gang of counterfeiters headed by the mysterious "Fang," who appears to have inside information about the operations of the secret service.  For this case, X-9 is teamed with Sally Ray, a young woman of whom we know little.

A bit about the link.  Somebody screwed up the page order of the book.  Page 1 of the comic books Plus link is actually page 168 of the book.  If you start at page 134 (the actual front cover of the book) and go page by page from there as the pages are actually in order.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=72621