Dan Dunn is a fictional detective created by Norman W. Marsh. He first appeared in ''Detective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48'', a proto-comic book from 1933, produced by Humor Publishing. He subsequently appeared in newspaper

comic strips A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

from 1933 to 1943.

Publication history

Comic book

Writer-artist Norman W. Marsh's

hardboiled detective Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence ...

Dan Dunn first appeared in Humor Publishing's proto-comic book ''Detective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48'', copyrighted on May 12, 1933. Comics historian

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

notes that this periodical and the only two others from this publisher were pioneering in that they contained "non-reprinted comics in 1933", though these periodicals were not "in modern comic book format. Theirs were done as tabloids"Dan Dunn
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

. from the original on April 14, 2012. with ''Detective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48'' measuring either 9½ × 12 inches or 10 × 13 inches (sources differ), with black-and-white newsprint pages and a three-color cardboard cover.''Detective Dan: Secret Operative No. 48''
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...

. It sold for 10 cents. The character appeared primarily in the newspaper comic strip ''Dan Dunn'', syndicated by Publishers Syndicate beginning Monday, September 25, 1933, with a Sunday page added soon afterward. The strip, which ran through Sunday, October 3, 1943, eventually would appear in approximately 135 papers. ''Dan Dunn'' strips were reprinted in comic books, through publisher

Eastern Color The Eastern Color Printing Company was a company that published comic books, beginning in 1933. At first, it was only newspaper comic strip reprints, but later on, original material was published. Eastern Color Printing was incorporated in 19 ...

's ''

Famous Funnies ''Famous Funnies'' is an American comic strip anthology series published from 1934 to 1955. Published by Eastern Color Printing, ''Famous Funnies'' is considered by popular culture historians as the first true American comic book, following semin ...

'',

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark"Wh ...

' ''

The Funnies ''The Funnies'' was the name of two American publications from Dell Publishing (Dell Comics), the first of these a seminal 1920s precursor of comic books, and the second a standard 1930s comic book. ''The Funnies'' (1929–1930) In 1929, George ...

'' and ''

Red Ryder Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

Comics'', and

Western Publishing Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was a Racine, Wisconsin, firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and ...

's ''Crackajack Funnies'' from 1935 to 1943.

Comic strip and other media

On September 25, 1933,

Publishers Syndicate Publishers Newspaper Syndicate was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated from 1925 to 1967, when it merged with the Hall Syndicate. Publishers syndicated such long-lived comic strips as '' Big Chief Wahoo/Steve Roper'', ''Mary Wort ...

began distributing ''Dan Dunn'' as a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

that eventually peaked at 135 newspapers. The Sunday color page began on October 1, 1933. Marsh both drew and wrote ''Dan Dunn'' from 1933 to 42, One critic describes the artwork as the weaker aspect, calling it "arid", with a chronic, wintry aspect", "cavernous spaces" and "huddled, stiff-jointed postures." Assistants included Jack Ryan c. 1937, Ed Moore c. 1937–38, and Dick Fletcher. The ''Dan Dunn'' Sunday page ran a topper strip, ''Dan Dunn's Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory'', from March 4 to July 22, 1934. Marsh left the strip in 1942 following a disagreement with Publishers Syndicate.

Allen Saunders Allen Saunders (April 24, 1899 – January 28, 1986) was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips '' Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'', ''Mary Worth'' and '' Kerry Drake''. He is credited with being the originator of t ...

, the syndicate's comics editor, took over as writer from 1942 to 43, with art first by Paul Pinson (June 1942 - January 1943) and then by Alfred Andriola (January to October, 1943). Saunders and Andriola subsequently replaced ''Dan Dunn'' with a new detective strip, ''

Kerry Drake ''Kerry Drake'' is the title of a comic strip created for Publishers Syndicate by Alfred Andriola as artist and Allen Saunders as uncredited writer. It debuted on Monday, October 4, 1943, replacing Norman Marsh's ''Dan Dunn'', and was syndica ...

'', in 1943. Starting in 1934, Dan Dunn appeared in seven Big Little Books: # ''Dan Dunn, Secret Operative 48: Crime Never Pays'' (1934) # ''Dan Dunn on the Trail of Counterfeiters'' (1936) # ''Dan Dunn and the Border Smugglers'' (1937) # ''Dan Dunn and the Crime Masters'' (1937) # ''Dan Dunn on the Trail of Wu Fang'' (1938) # ''Dan Dunn and the Dope Ring'' (1940) # ''Dan Dunn and the Underworld Gorilla'' (1941) In 1936, Dan Dunn became the title character of a

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

that lasted for two issues. In 1944, ''Dan Dunn, Secret Operative #48'' was produced as a 15-minute syndicated radio program which ran for a total of 78 episodes. It was produced by Kasper-Gordon, Inc.

Reprints

In 2017,

The Library of American Comics Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic United States, American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007. History Background Dean Mullaney ...

reprinted one year of the strip (1933) in their '' LoAC Essentials'' line of books.

Analysis

Markstein calls the square-jawed Detective Dunn an imitation of ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...

'', killing criminals with the same direct resort to violence during the

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

era. Dunn never approached Tracy's popularity. The strip's successor writer,

, believed the comic rivaled ''Dick Tracy'' in pioneering themes and techniques of the American detective comic.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

''Dick Tracy and American Culture'' by Garyn G. Roberts

''Dan Dunn'' radio episodes
1933 comics debuts 1940s American radio programs 1943 comics endings 1944 radio programme debuts Dunn, Dan American radio dramas Comics adapted into radio series Dunn, Dan Crime comics Detective comics Dunn, Dan Characters in pulp fiction Dunn, Dan