Dan Dunn is a fictional detective created by

Norman W. Marsh Norman Winfield Marsh Gives dates February 25, 1898 - February 10, 1980. (February 25, 1898 or 1899 ources differ– February 10, 1980) was an American cartoonist and comic strip creator known for his character Dan Dunn, a hardboiled detective. ...

. 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 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 c ...

from 1933 to 1943.

Publication history

Comic book

Writer-artist

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 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. 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's '' Famous Funnies'',

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" ...

' '' The Funnies'' and '' Red Ryder 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 began distributing ''Dan Dunn'' as a

comic strip 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 ...

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, 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 Alfred James Andriola (May 24, 1912 – March 29, 1983) 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. Andriola w ...

(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 syndicat ...

'', in 1943. Starting in 1934, Dan Dunn appeared in seven

Big Little Books The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notably Saalfield, adopted ...

: # ''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 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 (character), 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 ''De ...

'', 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, Allen Saunders, 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