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RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled Comics: Secret Agent X-9



On Sun, 12 Jan 1997, William Denton <buff@vex.net> wrote:

>On Sun, 12 Jan 1997, Flavio wrote:
>
>: -SECRET AGENT X9 (http://mmnewsstand.com/AgentX/)- spy comic strip
>: written by Hammett (I'm not sure he wrote all the stories).
>
>This is a different Secret Agent X9, I think.  It looks good, though.
>I think Hammett's stuff was printed in a book, but does anyone know if
>it's available?  Or what the storylines were like?


*That* Agent X-9 isn't Hammett's Secret Agent X-9.
Flavio's right, however, Hammett didn't write all the Secret Agent X-9
stories, he  worked on the strip from Jan 1934 to April 1935 before his
disregard for deadlines led to a closing of the contract.  While Hammett
was on contract, he wrote the scripts which were rather Continental
Op-esque in nature.  Comic Art Historian Bill Blackbeard considers the
strips to evoke characterisations from The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon
and The Thin Man.  The SA X-9 strips were drawn by Alex Raymond, who went
on to draw Flash Gordon.  The strip marks the start of Raymond's career and
the end of Hammett's.  Some scripts were apparently 'mucked about with' by
King Features subs and the earlier stuff is generally regarded as the
better material.

There are two volumes of collected Secret Agent X-9 strips from 1934 which
are quite collectible---ie pricey and rare.
More recent, and more affordable, is a single volume reprint _Dashiell
Hammett's Secret Agent X-9_ with an introduction by William F. Nolan
(International Polygonics Ltd: NY, 1983).  This reprints the four complete
strips Hammett wrote: 

'You're The Top!'; 
'Mystery of the Silent Guns''; 
'The Martyn Case' 
'The Torch Car Case'.

According to Julian Symons, the Feds were interested in the X-9 strip
because it had not been 'cleared', so this brought Hammett to the attention
of the FBI.  

OK, the first syndicated detective strip was Chester Gould's Dick Tracy,
which dealt with the very real issue of gangsterism in a reassuring way ---
a lantern-jawed agent of justice sorted out the corrupt mobsters in a way
that the real repressive state apparatuses were signally failing to do. 
The strip ran in the Chicago-based Tribune-News Syndicate, and started in
1931. The strip proved to be very popular --- so popular that Randolph
Hearst wanted one for his newspapers.  Hammett, at the top of his tree in
1933, was approached, and agreed to write for Hurst's King Features.  The
strip began in January 1934.  Hammett 'left' in 1935, and Raymond handled
some scripting until Leslie Charteris (as in The Saint) was hired. 
Charteris did only one complete story, 'The Fixer' (which is included in
the 1983 collection) and this was also Raymond's last X-9 strip.  

At one time the strip criticised a pink-tinged writer --- shades of the
Frankenstein monster turning on its creator ;-)
(I don't have a reference to this to hand --- maybe it's in Layman)

In 1967 the strip was renamed Secret Agent Corrigan, and was written and
drawn by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.  
In 1980 George Evans took over both roles.  The strip may still be running
today.

FWIW, this was the last Hammett material to be published during his
lifetime.



On crime comics, see: 

Mike Benton, _The Illustrated History of Crime Comics_ (Taylor: Dallas,
1993).


Eddie Duggan

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