Dan Dunn
Encyclopedia
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, making him the forerunner of many comic book heroes. Created by Norman Marsh, he first appeared in Detective Dan, Secret Operative No. 48, a 1933 Humor Publications magazine, which was canceled after one issue.
Comic strip
Later in 1933, Dan Dunn made his newspaper debut in the Dan Dunn comic stripComic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
for Publishers Syndicate. He eventually appeared in Big Little Books, which are probably the most readily available source of the character's adventures for modern readers. In 1936, Dan Dunn became the title character of a pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
that lasted for two issues. As noted by comics historian Don Markstein
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia was a web encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation. Don D...
, the square-jawed Detective Dunn was a knock-off of Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
, blowing away evil criminals with the same no-nonsense resort to violence that fans liked seeing during an era of urban crime gangs. In newspapers, however, Dunn never approached Tracy's popularity.
Marsh both drew and wrote Dan Dunn, and the artwork was its weaker side. Phelps goes so far as to describe it as "arid," "presented a chronic, wintry aspect," with "cavernous spaces" and "huddled, stiff-jointed postures." However, other early crime strips (including the initial Dick Tracy, as Phelps concedes) also look primitive today compared to the photorealist standards of later adventure comics.
Marsh storms out
Its plot writing and action scenes were what attracted readers, and according to Allen SaundersAllen Saunders
Allen Saunders was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth and Kerry Drake...
, it rivaled Dick Tracy in pioneering themes and techniques of the American detective comic—until 1942 when Marsh had an argument with Publishers Syndicate and "stormed out." The syndicate then had Saunders (as writer and the syndicate's comics editor) and artist Alfred Andriola
Alfred Andriola
Alfred James Andriola was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Kerry Drake, for which he won a Reuben Award in 1970. His work sometimes appeared under the pseudonym Alfred James....
take over the abandoned newspaper strip and subsequently replace it with a new detective strip Kerry Drake
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...
in 1943.
Radio
