TO PAGE: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11

rackajack Funnies (Whitman Publishing Co.)-- which begun in 1938 -- normally featured strip reprints and the occasional new feature. In the 23rd issue of that title EQ reappeared for the first time (May 1940), the scripts would include one or two adaptations of Ellery Queen radio stories which resulted in stories of widely varying quality.  As for Lee and Dannay having contributed material to some of the comic series Dannay once said the deal was set up by his literary agent and the script were neither by him or Lee, though they had the right to approve all scripts and art. As for this art there are similarities between both series to suggest that the same artist may have drawn both series.

One of those Bill Ely said his editor Oscar Lebeck or himself may have scripted some stories. The first stories were copyrighted to Ellery Queen, indicating that they had been borrowed. Eleven of the twenty stories appear to be newly written and nine were  adaptations of Queen prose or radio work, or sampled after the stories, hence the copyright. Later in the run the copyright disappeared, so possibly his adventures were written by Dell staffers from some point on. The tales were done in EQ style, to as great a degree as comics then allowed, complete with a "Challenge to the Reader" at the end -- imitating probably the radio show rather than the novels.As the covers clearly indicate Ellery was never the 'main event' in the Crackajack series which continued through December of 1941 Frank Thomas' "Owl" feature took that part. Issue 42 ended the series with the best adaptation: one from the radiostory "The Adventure of the Scarecrow and the Snowman".

The Crackajack and Gulf Stories are the only comic book stories to draw plot material from the prose and/or radio canons. Crackajack Funnies survived the EQ-series with one issue as it folded with #43 the January 1942 issue. Ellery as a figure would return seven years later...

here also where several comic book detectives who imitated the
Queen format. Most notable among them was Bentley of Scotland Yard who appeared in the early 40's in Pep Comics. In his cases (The Case of the Whistling Doom #13  03/1941, The Case of the Dancing Ghosts #9  11/1940) by Sam Cooper and Joe Blair, Bentley came across several demonic figures but the main event was a panel challenging the reader: "Inspector Bentley knows the killer of... Do you?
The Queen-stories also seemed popular with the comic book writers of the day and supplied, without credit nor payment,  plots to at least two of comicdom's most beloved crimefighters, both in 1943. Again due to the predating of comics it is difficult to say which one was first but this may have been Batman #18 (August-September 1943, reprinted in Detective Comics #443, October-November 1974).  The first story in this issue "The Secret of Hunter's Inn" (scripter unknown, art by Bob Kane/Jerry Robinson) is the second encounter of Batman and Robin with the criminal team 'Tweedledum and Tweedledee", twinbrothers patterned after the characters of the same name from Alice in Wonderland.The central gimmick of the story - an actual country inn that keeps disappearing- is lifted from 'The Lamp of God'.  

The second installment in this category appeared on July 18,1943
in the Spirit comic section #164 of The Baltimore Sun, a weekly Sunday newspaper, created by Will Eisner. The story in question in which the Spirit deduces how a woman can be accurately shot dead in total darkness is lifted

from Queen's 'The Adventure of the House of Darkness'. The story is signed by Eisner.... Given the number of crime-related comics published in that era, and the fact that comics were for decaded considered a 'disposable medium', these two stories may only be the tip of the iceberg. Paradoxically the plagiarized stories are better examples of how a Queen story could be succesfully translated to the graphic medium.

(continued...)