Number 1356: Sam Hill's Double Trouble

Sam Hill, Private Eye was a short-lived series from Archie Comics. Sam, a bow-tie wearing keyhole-peeper, was a smartass, wise-cracking, two-fisted private eye in the tradition of the time. Sam had the advantage of being drawn by Harry Lucey, who was one of Archie’s top artists. He showed with this series he could draw more than teenage hijinks. He could draw just as sexy and as action-packed as the genre required.

This story, “The Double Trouble Caper,” is from Sam Hill #1 (1950).

In 2011 I showed another story starring Sam Hill. Click the cover pic to see it.

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Number 1323: Love is a crime

Can a girl from a slum with no prospects for the future find a better life? Can a girl without a father, who knows nothing of men, find happiness with a man who brings her along on a jewelry store robbery? Can a girl meet a hunky parole officer and find true love? Can I stop asking stupid questions?

This is day three of Pappy’s Crime Wave week. For more information visit the past two postings.

Poor Dotty. She is stuck in town in summer. As she so vividly narrates, “. . . the damp tongue of August licked the slum in which I lived!” So she takes up with Nicky, the local bad boy, and he leads her into trouble. Sometimes love comics like this, from Darling Love #1 (1949), could also be crime comics. Simon and Kirby were especially good at stories like this. “I Was Branded Bad” isn’t S&K. but it’s not bad, either. It just looks a bit generic to me. The artist is unidentified, but the publisher is actually Archie Comics, with a bit of distance between itself and the teenage books.

Because it’s a love comic, you know things will turn out well for Dotty, and she will find true love. There’s something for you to love, also. On the last page there’s a recipe for fudge!

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Number 1140: The last of the Merry Martian

The saga of Cosmo and his intrepid band of fellow Martians ended with this issue, Cosmo the Merry Martian #6, from 1960. We've followed the gaggle of ET's from Mars to Earth's moon, to Earth, to Venus, to Saturn, then back to Mars...from whence they set upon a journey back to Earth only to...

...what? No one knows. I remember looking for the non-existent Cosmo the Merry Martian #7 for several months after I bought and read #6, before realizing that I was to know nothing more of these Martians. A pity! I think it is a fun, well drawn and colorful comic book from Archie Comics, but like some other non-Archie titles from that publisher it had a short run. I've said before I don't know if it didn't sell, or maybe was just canceled to make room for another title featuring the Archie gang.

Bob White, artist, is deceased, and no more has been heard of Cosmo since this issue. As an old philosopher once said, "That's all they is, they ain't no more."






























If you're just starting with this series, you can go back to Pappy's #1104, for links to all previous Cosmo issues.

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