Kerry Drake
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''Kerry Drake'' is the title of a
comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of 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 terminology#Captio ...
created for
Publishers Syndicate Publishers Newspaper Syndicate (later Publishers 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 Wa ...
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 ...
as artist and
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 the ...
as uncredited writer. It debuted on Monday, October 4, 1943, replacing Norman Marsh's '' Dan Dunn'', and was syndicated continuously through June 26, 1983. According to Saunders, ''Dan Dunn'' 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 Andriola take over the abandoned newspaper strip and subsequently replace it in 1943 with a new detective strip, ''Kerry Drake''. Among Andriola's many assistants or ghosts over the years, specifically in drawing, were artists Hy Eisman, Jerry Robinson, Fran Matera and most notably
Sururi Gümen Sururi Gümen (July 20, 1920 – September 20, 2000) was a Turkish American illustrator. For many years he was an uncredited ghost artist behind Alfred Andriola's comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interr ...
, the last of whom worked on the strip for 30 years and shared credit with Andriola from 1976 to 1983. Eisman has said he ghosted the strip from 1957 to 1960.


Characters and story

When the strip began, Drake was a criminal investigator for the district attorney. Later, after the murder of his secretary and fiancée, Sandy Burns, by Trinket and Bulldozer, he left the DA's office and joined his city's police force. Kerry fought Dr. Prey, the Man with No Face, and many others. The stories had plenty of suspense, action and danger, but unlike Dan Dunn, who had followed early
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick 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 was distributed by the Chicago T ...
in often explosive shoot-out resolutions of crime, the emphasis was on how Drake traced clues with up-to-date crime analysis tools to solve complex cases that gradually unfolded and intrigued readers. White-haired Drake was attractive and intelligent, while his nefarious opponents were initially drawn with facial distortion (an evil-is-ugly convention for villains that was also found in the cartooning of Pete Hoffman and Chester Gould). Under Gumen, however, the artwork became more consistently photorealistic. Meanwhile, Drake advanced in his career and developed in his personal life as Saunders combined action and drama. In 1957, Drake married Mindy, a police widow, and when they had quadruplets, he had to balance the conflicting demands of work and family. His younger brother, private eye David, better known as Lefty, then took over more of the adventuring and case resolution.


Awards and reprints

In 1970, Andriola received a
Reuben Award The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...
for "Kerry Drake by Alfred Andriola," without acknowledging that it was written by Saunders and ghost-drawn by Gumen. Saunders quit shortly after that, at which point Andriola became the official writer, although even then, according to Markstein, he hired ghost authors. That Andriola had, for many years, been doing nothing, not even inking or lettering, on the strip - other than collecting the credit and the lion's share of the remunerative rewards - was fairly well known to comics industry professionals, resulting in the thinly-veiled comic story ''Success Story'' in the 1964 debut issue of
Warren Publishing Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren (publisher), James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades. Magazines published by Warren include ''After Hours (magazin ...
's black&white horror-comic magazine
Creepy Creepiness is the state of being creepy, or causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease to someone and/or something. Certain traits or hobbies may make people seem creepy to others; interest in horror or the macabre might come across as 'c ...
. In the story, written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by
Al Williamson Alfonso Williamson (March 21, 1931 – June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, science fiction and fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in ...
, a successful strip creator, Baldo Smudge, has been farming out the various tasks involved in his strip to a ghost writer, ghost penciller, and ghost inker. When all three 'ghosts' meet due to unfortunate timing outside Smudge's house, they march in as a trio to demand fair credit and wages. Smudge kills all three and throws their bodies in a swamp - of course the corpses come back to exact revenge. When Andriola died in 1983, ''Drake'' ended with him, with the last strip running June 26, 1983. Many of the earlier episodes were republished in comic book form by
Harvey Comics Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alf ...
and later by
Blackthorne Publishing Blackthorne Publishing Inc. was an American comic book publisher that flourished from 1986 to 1989. They were notable for the ''Blackthorne 3-D Series'', their reprint titles of classic comic strips like Dick Tracy, and their licensed products. B ...
in its Reuben Award Winner Series.NCS Awards


Comic book version

After the strip no longer was produced for American newspapers, a
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
version was produced by the Swedish publisher
Semic Press Semic Press is a Swedish comic book publishing company that operated from 1963 to 1997. Known for original comics as well as translated American and European titles, Semic was for a long time the country's largest comic book publisher. For many ...
from 1986 through 1995. A total of 100 episodes were made by creators such as Brian Delaney, Claes Reimerthi, Joan Boix and Enrique Villagrán. They were published in '' Seriemagasinet'', a long-running anthology comic book that had already published most of Andriola's stories.


Cultural mentions

In
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...
's 1962 film ''
Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...
'', Clare Quilty (
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...
) is seen reading ''Kerry Drake'' in a hotel lobby.


References


Sources

* Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995. .


External links


Fred Waring Collection: ''Kerry Drake''
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727160801/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/waringcollections/cartoons/toonac.html , date=July 27, 2009 1943 comics debuts 1983 comics endings Adventure comic strips Drake, Kerry American comic strips Drake, Kerry Crime comics Detective comics Drama comics Drake, Kerry Drake, Kerry