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Crackajack 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...

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