Junior Detectives in the story papers and comics

[Raven]

With The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew popular in children's fiction in the past and Eoin Colfer's Half Moon Investigations book and spin-off CBBC series popular now, I was wondering if any of our resident experts and enthusiasts may know of any interesting or notable variations on the boy - or, indeed, girl - detective theme in the British story papers or comics of the past.

DC's Dead Boy Detectives was an interesting spin on teen detective stories a few years ago (both were ghosts). Did we have any interesting, weird or just worthwhile takes on the genre in the UK?

[Brendan McGuire]

Does Eagle-Eye Junior Spy count?

[Raven]

Does Eagle-Eye Junior Spy count?

The gist of that one was that his granddad was head of M15 and a half, wasn't it, with Eagle Eye stepping in to help stop the likes of Grimly Feendish from conquering the world? So wasn't that more of a parody of the Sixties Man From UNCLE type spy series and films rather than a take on the kid detective for hire theme?

I was really thinking more of straight serials and stories than parody humour strips, and hoping our aficionados of ye olde titles may know of some interesting old slants on or attempts at the kid sleuth genre in serials from the old Thomson story papers, or from Eagle or the like.

Of course, there may not have been any.

[colcool007]

The only one that I can think of at the moment is the Buytonic Boy 003 1/2. Which, as you can tell from the name, was a spoof of The Bionic Man and James Bond. I can think of a few serials with youthful protagonists, but in the style of Junior Detectives, I will have to check my stash.

[Kashgar]

While I can't think of any specifically created junior detectives offhand there were of course a lot of stories and strips that featured characters that did detecting and therefore acted like detectives. The Hotspur strip 'Ginger Rodd at Creepy Creek' springs to mind in which a lad evacuated to the West Country uncovers a gang of Fifth Columnists and then there were serial characters like Tollgate schoolboy Sandy Dean who was quite often involved in storylines that involved a good deal of detecting. The Silent Three in School Friend were also very proficient at turning their hands to detective work as I remember.

[davidandrewsimpson]

Never mind "...The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew popular in children's fiction in the past...", their adventures are still being published, both as prose novels and graphic novels. A quick look at Amazon reveals large numbers of both series for sale.

David Simpson

[felneymike]

In my one issue of Tiger Tim's Weekly (from 1940) there's part of a serial about some children uncovering a spy.

There was also the Nelson Lee Library, which focused on Nelson Lee mainly, but also on the boys of the school he worked at who tried to help him with cases (and sometimes succeeded!). His assistant Nipper seems to have been rather younger than Tinker, Sexton Blake's assistant.
Also in 1930 the school Nelson Lee worked at (st Franks) burned down when a Zeppelin crashed into it, and for several issues he started a detective school with select students from st Franks in London. These "cub detectives" solved several cases before st Frank's was rebuilt and they moved back.

[Raven]

Never mind "...The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew popular in children's fiction in the past...", their adventures are still being published, both as prose novels and graphic novels. A quick look at Amazon reveals large numbers of both series for sale.

David Simpson

Yes, they're still out there, and there was a (fairly poor) Nancy Drew film just a few years ago - but I wasn't sure they were that big here in the UK now; I've never noticed any of their books in children's sections of bookshops here, in the Classics or Favourites or anywhere.

The last time I remember the Hardy Boys having a proper buzz in the UK was when the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Mysteries series was shown by the BBC in the late 70s. I don't think they've had UK publishers since 2006. Has Nancy Drew been published here since around 2001?

So I think their heyday was some time ago.

[Raven]

Also in 1930 the school Nelson Lee worked at (st Franks) burned down when a Zeppelin crashed into it, and for several issues he started a detective school with select students from st Franks in London. These "cub detectives" solved several cases before st Frank's was rebuilt and they moved back.

Thanks, felneymike - that's the kind of thing I was hoping might crop up from the distant past; the school for cub detectives there sounds like an interesting variation on the genre. I'll see if I can find any more info on that.

[Raven]

While I can't think of any specifically created junior detectives offhand there were of course a lot of stories and strips that featured characters that did detecting and therefore acted like detectives. The Hotspur strip 'Ginger Rodd at Creepy Creek' springs to mind in which a lad evacuated to the West Country uncovers a gang of Fifth Columnists and then there were serial characters like Tollgate schoolboy Sandy Dean who was quite often involved in storylines that involved a good deal of detecting. The Silent Three in School Friend were also very proficient at turning their hands to detective work as I remember.

Thanks, Kashgar. Yes, I think it's always been quite common for kids in adventure stories to end up solving crime and catching criminals, but I was thinking of comic or story paper examples of those specifically setting themselves up as detectives, with a special emphasis on detective skills, clues, critical thinking etc. - maybe detectives for hire like noir-style junior Philip Marlowes, or like the Hardy Boys, keen amateur detectives, trying to follow in the footsteps of their professional detective dad.

It's a theme that I imagine would always be intriguing to kids, so I'd be surprised if, say, D C Thomson hadn't tackled it at some point.

As a masked and hooded team "fighting against tyranny and injustice" The Silent Three always sounded to me a bit more like a secret society of mini-superheroes or crimefighters!

I don't think I'm familiar with Sandy Dean.

[Phoenix]

I think their heyday was some time ago.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels were seriously popular as long ago as the twenties and thirties, Raven. Along with the Bobbsey Twins and the Dana Girls, among others, the vast majority of the stories were written by Stratemeyer's team of writers but published as if written by Franklin W Dixon (Hardys), Carolyn Keene (Nancy and the Danas) and Laura Lee Hope (the Bobbseys). I can still remember my excitement at discovering them in Lancaster Junior Library. It would be in 1950 I think, and I just couldn't get enough of them. I have a handful of the most memorable Grosset and Dunlap versions on my shelves now, and I do still read them from time to time. The Sinister Signpost, The Twisted Claw, The Clue Of The Broken Locket, Password To Larkspur Lane.......nostalgia, eh? As Cliff Richard once sang, I just don't know what's a'going to replace it.

[Raven]

I think their heyday was some time ago.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels were seriously popular as long ago as the twenties and thirties, Raven. Along with the Bobbsey Twins and the Dana Girls, among others, the vast majority of the stories were written by Stratemeyer's team of writers but published as if written by Franklin W Dixon (Hardys), Carolyn Keene (Nancy and the Danas) and Laura Lee Hope (the Bobbseys).

Yes, I know - I remember when I first read that the series were all ghost written by a team of writers and that Dixon was a pseudonym; it's interesting because some people may think of as that more of a cynical modern approach - to create a "brand" in-house then farm it out to writers and publish under an umbrella pseudonym, so you can keep on churning them out like a sausage factory, but it was interesting to learn that such things were going on all that time ago.

Also interesting how the books were updated every now and again - rewritten to bring them up to date with the latest decade.

The Hardy Boys had another big boost in the Fifties when Disney created some TV serials of them for their Mickey Mouse Club daily show (with tie-in US comics); I'm not sure if they ever had a UK screening though.

Now Phoenix, if anyone knows of any obscure old teen detective series from the old story papers it would surely be YOU!

[Phoenix]

Now Phoenix, if anyone knows of any obscure old teen detective series from the old story papers it would surely be YOU!

Leave it with me, Raven, and I'll try to get back to you a bit more quickly than I did over my impressions of Martin Barker's book Action - The Story Of A Violent Comic. Guaranteed.

[colcool007]

Just been mulling this one over and I think that Red Star Robinson may qualify as a teen detective, despite the SF overtones in the series with Mr Thrice and their fantastic car that went anywhere.

There was also a story in the Victor where the children of Embassy staff in Berlin took it upon themselves to fight against the growing fervour of Nazism in Berlin and acted as Junior Detectives. I am sure that Kashgar or Phoenix will come to my rescue with the name of the series, as I just can't remember it at the moment.

One interesting variation is the Revenge theme where a adolescent takes it upon himself to revenge the death of their father against criminals that caused the death. The story I am thinking of had a lad pitting himself against a criminal gang and had been adopted by a local dropout who had already been fighting against the gang. I think it was in Bullet or Wizard V2 and one episode had the lad 'kidnapped' and was trying to use his brain and not brawn to escape imprisonment. To that end, he used honey (or was it treacle?) to smear on the window, put a piece of paper on the glass. So that when he hit it, there was little noise and it stopped the glass from going everywhere Don't try this at home kids, as neither Mum or Dad would be pleased to lose a window!. Arrrggghh. I have just read the story and I can't place the name. Senior moments abound tonight!

[Raven]

Now Phoenix, if anyone knows of any obscure old teen detective series from the old story papers it would surely be YOU!

Leave it with me, Raven, and I'll try to get back to you a bit more quickly than I did over my impressions of Martin Barker's book Action - The Story Of A Violent Comic. Guaranteed.

You never did get back to me on that, did you? I've been waiting about eight months now, sat by the computer all this time! Let me know if you did and I'll prepare myself to read them.