Rip Kirby - Murderous Matches

In Volume 6 of the "Rip Kirby" series Rip enters the' Swinging Sixties' and artist John Prentice has made the strip completely his own. The book has eight stories from mid-1959 through early 1962. John Prentice and his assistant Al Williams did a great job of laying out some fantastic art, great visual and super narrative story telling. 

Today's post involves an old Rip Kirby strip from John Prentince's era (RK047). It originally ran in paper from 8th June to 3rd October, 1959. The story involves detective Remington Kirby and his butler & right hand man former burglar Desmond, plus love interest Honey Dorian. Honey who appeared in more then 40% of the earlier stories makes her single appearance in this story. 

 Rip Kirby - Murderous Matches (RK047)

PLOT:

Having recently taking up astronomy as a hobby, Desmond is checking the accuracy of his telescope against distant objects when he realizes that he has unwittingly registered the combination of a safe in an apartment opposite Rip's flat. Returning later from an evening out with Honey, a distressed Rip is met by devastating news: Desmond has drowned whilst making a frantic escape across New York after being caught red-handed over a dead body by the safe...

Read here the 3-part series of the timeless and entertaining suspense Rip Kirby strips - Happy Sunday...

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   >> 1st Part (12 Pages)
   >> 2nd Part (13 Pages)
   >> 3rd Part (9 Pages)

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Rip Kirby - Liquid Murder (The Official Rip Kirby #3)

As Rip prepares to carry the formula of a momentous scientific discovery to the authorities in Washington, dark forces prepare to waylay his plans and claim the invaluable prize for themselves. Effecting a dramatic escape from a life sentence for murder from Alcatraz prison, arch-criminal The Mangler learns of Rip’s train journey to the capital and assembles his old goons in an audacious bid to hold the world to ransom...

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The former Marine Corps major, Rip Kirby is a scientific detective in the finest traditions of Sherlock Holmes. He possesses a superior intellect and a brilliant wit.

Kirby combines physical violence with worldly wisdom and thorough police procedure to solve difficult cases. He wears glasses, smokes a pipe, plays chess and appreciates both complex music and fine French brandies.

Liquid Murder (October, 1988)

Alex Raymond created 'Flash Gordon'' to compete with Buck Rogers. Not stopping there, he went on to create 'Jungle Jim' as a rival to Tarzan of the Apes. Raymond also created 'Secret Agent X-9' along with 'Dashiell Hammett' and 'Rip Kirby', a two-fisted but intellectual detective.  Rip Kirby is considered by many to be Raymond's finest effort. It was his last as he dies in an auto accident while still creating the strip. Raymond is considered one of the three greatest comic creators of all time.

Rip Kirby was translated into French, Spanish and many other European languages as well as the in the Asian subcontinent and we all enjoyed Rip Kirby comics all the time. 

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RK003: Liquid Murder

Original run in papers: 26/Jun/1946 - 04/Nov/ 1946

Story & Art: Alex Raymond

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The Official Rip Kirby #3

   (Size: 25.4 MB)

Rip Kirby - The Hicks Formula (The Official Rip Kirby #2)

Receiving a sudden invitation to lecture on chemistry at his old campus, a perplexed Rip Kirby heads for Northchester University to be reunited with his old mentor. On arrival, it transpires that the real reason for Rip's assignment is to urgently find a stolen formula of bacteriological warfare that already has claimed a victim as the ruthless perpetrator is testing its fatal effect on dogs and students alike...

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The former Marine Corps major, Rip Kirby is a scientific detective in the finest traditions of Sherlock Holmes. He possesses a superior intellect and a brilliant wit.

Kirby combines physical violence with worldly wisdom and thorough police procedure to solve difficult cases. He wears glasses, smokes a pipe, plays chess and appreciates both complex music and fine French brandies.

The Hicks Formula (The Official Rip Kirby #2)

Alex Raymond created 'Flash Gordon'' to compete with Buck Rogers. Not stopping there, he went on to create 'Jungle Jim' as a rival to Tarzan of the Apes. Raymond also created 'Secret Agent X-9' along with 'Dashiell Hammett' and 'Rip Kirby', a two-fisted but intellectual detective.  Rip Kirby is considered by many to be Raymond's finest effort. It was his last as he dies in an auto accident while still creating the strip. Raymond is considered one of the three greatest comic creators of all time.

Rip Kirby was translated into French, Spanish and many other European languages as well as the in the Asian subcontinent and we all enjoyed Rip Kirby comics all the time. 

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RK002: The Hicks Formula

Original run in papers: 23rd Apr - 25th Jun, 1946

Story & Art: Alex Raymond

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The Official Rip Kirby #2

   (Size: 21.9 MB)

Rip Kirby - Whom Gods Destroy (Sep - Nov, 1953)

Rip Kirby was a classy gentleman - he was like James Bond without the philandering - Sherlock Holmes without the opium. In an introduction by Tom Roberts, Raymond says Rip is "a conglomeration of all the likable qualities I have seen in men I know." Rip’s flaws? A ruggedly handsome broken nose and spectacles. Even Rip’s fictional Irish identity was stripped, as Raymond changed his surname from O’Rourke to Kirby. 

Our today's post involves an old Rip Kirby strip from Alex Raymond's era - RK025. It originally ran in paper from 7th September to 21st November, 1953. It has been appeared in the 3rd volume of IDW's reproduction.

This is Rip’s first adventure saving someone from death row. It’s a simple mystery where he discovers the truth behind the murder with some non-credited, nods to both Sherlock Holmes and Dupin. It is one of the Raymond's best foreshadowing on the strip - some exquisite panels for the suspense parts of the story makes readers spell bound.

Rip Kirby - Whom the Gods Destroy (Sep - Nov, 1953)

PLOT:

Working at home, Rip is interrupted by a visit from the fiancée of Royce Hunter, recently sentenced to death for the murder of her brother, and asked if he wants to review the case in an effort to establish the truth. Accepting the case despite the difficulty of overturning the verdict and with very little time before the sentence is carried out, Rip picks up an unusual clue at the scene of the death which proves to be a catalyst for a string of baffling events...

The story may be short, but it is so concentrated on the mystery, that we hardly miss Honey Dorian here. At the same time Desmond also gets more to do than in much longer stories. 

Read here the 1st part of that vintage suspense Rip Kirby strips - Happy Sunday...

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   >> 1st Part (11 Pages)
   >> 2nd Part (11 Pages)

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Rip Kirby - The Affairs of Crusher Twickham

Rip Kirby is an important form of the mid-century detective genre. Cartoonist 'Alexander Gillespie Raymond' inspired the realist comic style seen first in his "Flash Gordon" strip and later in Alex Kotsky’s "Apartment 3-G". 

Rip Kirby is a cool detective who plays piano, crazy smart, gets involved with some of the most beautiful women ever to grace the comics pages and has adventures that take him all over the world. In an introduction by Tom Roberts, Raymond says: "Rip is a conglomeration of all the likable qualities I have seen in men I know."  Rip has a personal butler, 'Desmond' - a reformed criminal of some sort, is feisty and loyal and very clever himself and assists with investigating when needed. Girlfriend Honey Dorian is trouble-prone and too understanding of Kirby’s involvements with other women, and one of the more likeable beauties to grace the strip.

Raymond's realistic style and skillful use of "feathering" (a shading technique in which a soft series of parallel lines helps to suggest the contour of an object) has continued to be an inspiration for generations of cartoonists. The clean lines, emphasis on shadows, and sophisticated style well suits the private-detective image.

Alex Raymond received a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1949 for his work on Rip Kirby.

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'The Affairs of Crusher Twickham' is a decent, mystery adventure for Rip and Desmond - Honey Dorian is not much around here. In this story Desmond’s old friend tries to become a gentleman to woo a lady, but it turns out the lady works in a club and her boss sees dollar signs. The story mostly follows Desmond, and Rip is not that much of principal focus in the storyline.

Rip smokes a pipe to show he's intellectual

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Story: The Affairs of Crusher Twickham

Original run in papers: Nov 1953 - Apr 1954

Story & Art: Alex Raymond

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The Affairs of Crusher Twickham

   (Size: 70 MB)

Rip Kirby - The Chip Faraday Murder (The Official Rip Kirby #1)

"A beautiful woman dies on Rip's doorstep, thrusting him into a killer's web..." 
Returning from military service in the Pacific, scientist and amateur detective Rip Kirby wakes up to the sound of a pistol shot outside his flat before seconds later finding himself clutching a dead girl's body on his doorstep. With the sound of clacking heels and the fact that the girl worked at a reputable model agency as sole clues, a puzzled Rip persuades his friend Honey Dorian to work undercover as the model's replacement - with dramatic consequences...

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The former Marine Corps major, Rip Kirby is a scientific detective in the finest traditions of Sherlock Holmes. He possesses a superior intellect and a brilliant wit.

Kirby combines physical violence with worldly wisdom and thorough police procedure to solve difficult cases. He wears glasses, smokes a pipe, plays chess and appreciates both complex music and fine French brandies.

Rip Kirby - The Premiere Story (March, 1946)

Alex Raymond created 'Flash Gordon'' to compete with Buck Rogers. Not stopping there, he went on to create 'Jungle Jim' as a rival to Tarzan of the Apes. Raymond also created 'Secret Agent X-9' along with 'Dashiell Hammett' and 'Rip Kirby', a two-fisted but intellectual detective.  Rip Kirby is considered by many to be Raymond's finest effort. It was his last as he dies in an auto accident while still creating the strip. Raymond is considered one of the three greatest comic creators of all time.

Rip Kirby was translated into French, Spanish and many other European languages as well as the in the Asian subcontinent and we all enjoyed Rip Kirby comics all the time. 

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RK001: The Chip Faraday Murder

Original run in papers: 4 Mar 1946 - 22 Apr 1946

Story & Art: Alex Raymond

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Want to travel back to the New York of the 60s and 70s ? Here is your chance... read the gorgeous visuals, engaging characters in this vintage, timeless - the very first (Premiere)  Rip Kirby comics - first published on March 4th, 1946. 

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The Official Rip Kirby #1

   (Size: 31.2 MB)

Rip Kirby- Death on Four Wheels

Alex Raymond made a famous mark for himself when he created Flash Gordon in 1934.  His groundbreaking use of color and attention to detail are widely recognized as setting new standards in the comic art form.  He joined the Marines in February 1944 and eventually went out on the 1945 cruise of the escort carrier USS Gilbert Islands. 

Raymond in his USMC uniform showing the battle stars earned by the Gilbert Islands for action in the Pacific Theater.  

Raymond's fellow cartoonist, Stan Drake had a new sports car, a 1956 Corvette convertible. One day, Raymond paid Drake a visit as he was working on a Juliet Jones strip.  Raymond wanted to drive the Corvette, which boasted 450 horsepower and a four-second acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour, to compare it to one of his cars, a gullwing Mercedes. Drake readily agreed to allow Raymond to take a spin in his car.

September 6th, 1956 - a typical fall day in Connecticut - a steady rain was falling, and the top was up on the Corvette. At first, Drake took the wheel, traveling around Westport while Raymond admired the automobile. Finally, when they were on a road over by the highway, Raymond wanted to take the wheel.

Raymond in his green Bandini race car, 1954 (photo courtesy of Tom Roberts)

The two switched places, and Raymond began driving down South Morningside Drive to Clapboard Road. Once on Clapboard Road, Raymond began driving as if he were on Thompson Speedway, his favorite race course in northern Connecticut. As he sped down the steeply graded Clapboard, he failed to see a stop sign that was hidden by overgrown weeds. Racing through the intersection, Raymond and Drake were suddenly in a free fall: Clapboard dropped off precipitously after the stop sign, and the velocity of the car launched it into midair. By not stopping, they shot out about sixty feet into the air, and then came the fatal accident...... 

Raymond was killed instantly upon impact. The Corvette’s wraparound windshield had shattered, one large shard of it entering Raymond’s mouth and exiting the rear of his head.

Drake’s injuries were grave - he suffered various internal injuries and a broken shoulder. Both his ears had been ripped off his head and had to be reattached. His rehabilitation was protracted, and during this period he had to stop cartooning.

About five years after the accident, Drake drove by the spot where they crashed, and he stopped to take a look. He noted that the tree the Corvette hit had grown taller, and that fragments of the car’s plastic body remained embedded in it. 

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In this vintage story Rip Kirby was off to the races - allowing  Raymond to draw a lot of cars. The female lead of the storyline, Jet Allyson is a rich girl, who loves nothing but car racing! Then comes the murder, things get better and better - a fair amount of tension over the identity of the murderer. The racing art’s phenomenal, and eventually Rip wins the big race.

Read here the vintage Rip Kirby adventure, "Death on Four Wheels" in B&W - it originally continued from  May-Sep, 1953.

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Death on Four Wheels

   (Size: 53.7 MB)

Rip Kirby - Danger in Key Diablo

Raymond's skill and talent reached to its peak with Rip Kirby. After returning from WWII Raymond did not resume Flash Gordon because of King Feature's contract with Austin Briggs. To keep Raymond with them, they let him produce a new feature. Thus it's debatable if King Features editor Ward Greene created the character, that was later more fully developed by writer Fred Dickenson. 

But whether Alex Raymond created the character or not, it was his success and name recognition that really mattered with his audience. It gave Raymond part ownership in the strip. Raymond was also like his character, with many of the qualities of the famous detective. More sophisticated and urbane than the average artist, he was a striking figure, handsome, athletic, hugely talented and admired among his peers. Raymond's art influenced many of the talented comic artists of today.

Raymond constantly looked for different ways to carry the story visually to readers with experimentation in his style. He used models, took reference photographs, and swiped from magazines in his efforts to absorb different approaches. He worked close to deadlines, leaving only three weeks of strips at the time of his death from an auto accident. Abandoning the old soap opera approach of a simpler outline style, Raymond brought numerous slick advertising techniques to the daily.

Always in firm control of his art and career, King Features offered Raymond $35,000 a year to produce a Sunday Rip Kirby page. Raymond declined citing the extra work the page would impose on his already limited free time.

To mention a few of his achievements, Raymond won the coveted Ruben Award in 1949 for Rip Kirby, was a member of the Society of Illustrators, and served as president of the National Cartoonists Society for 1950 and 1951. Even when producing both magazine and book illustration, and his combat paintings displayed in the National Gallery of Washington, DC, Raymond still always championed the comic strip as his preferred art form. 

He once said, "I decided honestly that comic art work is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration -- since it is entirely creative. A comic artist is playwright, director, editor and artist at once..."



Read here one of the vintage Rip Kirby adventures, "Danger in Key Diablo" in B&W - it originally continued from Feb,1953  to May, 1953.

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Danger in Key Diablo 

   (Size: 43 MB)

Merry Christmas - The Cold Deck Switch (Rip Kirby)

*** Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays ***

Cake Shopping on Christmas Eve - Hogg Market,  Calcutta
[Source: Wikimedia]

Christmas has always been special since my childhood days, though at that time we did not have much jazzy lights, or sparkling decorations - no Santa or Christmas trees - no new gifts, dresses or toys... all we wished for: 'cake', 'cake' and nothing but the 'Christmas cake' !!   Our annual exams used to be over in the first week, or definitely by the 2nd week of December. So rest few weeks all we cared about: kite flying, reading lots of story books, picnic planning, playing cricket with 'Cambis ball', and last but not the least, having a cake on Christmas morning, 'বড়ো দিন ', the Dec 25th!!! Looking back now I hardly believe how simple and amazing were those days, and how little were our expectations !

On the eve of Christmas my dad or sometime my elder brother(s) would buy a large, fruit cake from "Hogg Market" (New Market), together with a bunch of big, puffy Oranges and Singaporean Bananas. Throughout that night we kept on taking a peek of that 'dream cake', inhaling its sweet aroma as much as, and as close as possible. On next morning after brushing the teeth we all hurriedly sit together, and eagerly waited for the cake to be served. One of my elder sisters would cut and distribute that mysterious cake among us. 

Something must be special inside that Christmas cake, which I still could not figure out --- was it the smell?  or taste, texture or its color.... but definitely there were always lot of complains & suggestions on her cutting mechanism, and of course the sharing size of the cake!!  Within next few minutes I would finish eating my allotted cake portion, leaving only a couple of oranges and banana in the plate.... I hate orange/banana in morning hours !!! 

Moving into the 21st century, we realize those good years are well gone by. Things began to change in the late ’90s, and the joy, excitement, glamour started fading. Today’s youth does not care about the Christmas Cake, or having family Christmas breakfast together - rather  heads to discos to dance to Bollywood numbers. Though the times may have changed and we have fast-forwarded into a new world — but still, the spirit remains the same...

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 * *  * Merry Christmas to every one * * *         

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Rip Kirby is a beautiful portrait of the beginning of America’s transformation into the world’s dominant force. After World War-II, literally millions of men returned home to find themselves in a country that was both triumphant and unsettled. They needed new ways of looking at themselves, new stories and new heroes to fill them.  

Rip was more the cerebral type - sorta cool, albeit in a geeky sort of way. He's a renowned scientist and freelance criminologist. He possesses a superior intellect and a brilliant wit, and enjoys classical music, chess and fine brandy. Rip Kirby delivered a two-fisted intellectualism, a guy who might be baffled at first, but who would eventually get all the answers. Reading his stories a half-century later, we can still see how much he influenced us, and all the ways we have tried to live up to his example, and too often, all the ways we have failed.

Rip was a genuine intellectual, he lived in a swank apartment with a butler, and took in plays and exclusive clubs with his much younger blonde girl friend. He wore a tie and glasses and smoked a pipe. Since Rip was an ex-Marine, he could take a punch or a bullet as well as deliver them. There were spies, gangsters, scientists, femme fatales, and Kirby handled them all like a homegrown James Bond.

Rip Kirby was certainly one of the most successful and longest-running private eye in the comics world. The strip ran for an amazing run of over fifty years, from 1946 to 1999. Written and drawn by Alex Raymond until his death, Rip Kirby is often surprisingly sophisticated in its plots, and it’s cool to see where many of the tropes of later crime shows came from. ("CSI" owes a huge pile of gratitude to Rip and his methods of "scientific detecting").

Read here one of the vintage Rip Kirby adventures, "The Cold Deck Switch" in B&W - it originally continued from September 1952  to  January 1953.

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The Cold Deck Switch

   (Size: 55 MB)

Rip Kirby - Pagan's Plight

A really good strip is a combination of drawing, plot, and characterization. In Raymond's own word, "A strip is good or bad in ratio to the worth of those three elements". The story and characterization he used to plot out usually, a month in advance. Then every week he used to go into New York and have a story conference with Ward Greene, the managing editor of King Features. At these meetengs, which usually took place at 10 AM on Tuesdays, Raymond, Greene, and comics editor Sylvan Byck would plot storylines and write dialogue for the strip.

Raymond would take the script back to his studio in Stamford, Connecticut. There he began to visualize the notes in picture form. This is an important phase in the development of the comic strip, for no space can be wasted and each picture must carry its share of telling the week's story, dramatically and clearly.

Ward Greene, Sylvan Byck and Raymond in one of the weekly story conferences....

After the dialogues was penciled in balloons and the characters sketched in outline, Raymond's assistant, Ray Burns, would do the lettering in ink and the rough backgrounds in pencil. 

Raymond would often work with models to get the exact poses he wanted and do extensive research on the costumes and the settings before he started the final drawings.

Raymond shows Beulah Bestor exactly how he wants her head tilted as
reference for the scene in which Honey Dorian waves goodbye to
 Rip in Grand Central Station when she left with Stuart 
Beaumount for his Southern plantation.

Essentially an illustrator - Raymond worked much as cameramen do. He moved around his subject seeking to establish the eye-level of the picture as it would appear to the reader from whatever point of view Raymond chooses. This technique of changing the angles of his "pen shots" made it possible for Raymond to give the strip a visual pictorial-pacing that adds greatly to reading pleasure. The distinctive style he developed for Rip Kirby, was influenced by the illustrations in contemporary women's magazines such as "Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's".

Read here one of the vintage Rip Kirby adventures, "Pagan's Plight" in B&W - it originally continued from May,1952  to  September, 1952.

  Pagan's Plight 

   (size: 67 MB)

Rip Kirby - The Lambert Affair

Rip Kirby is smart and sophisticated, has a home in a cozy and spacious apartment in New York City. He seems to have money enough to do research and detective work. His adventures take him all around the world, often accompanied by his faithful manservant, (a reformed burglar) Desmond, to solve crimes that include murders, stolen artifacts, missing persons and other suspicious events. He has a girlfriend, his one and only true love, fashion model Honey Dorian.

Rip applies scientific methods to his crime-solving techniques, but is still involved in plenty of action --- Kirby is an All-American athlete and decorated war hero.

 

Here’s another Rip Kirby story where a gangster’s daughter is framed for murder, Rip tries to discover the truth. 

CREDITS
Writers: Ward Greene and Fred Dickenson
Artist: Alex Raymond
Publisher: King Features

Download here one of the vintage Rip Kirby stories, "The Lambert Affair (January 1952 - May 1952 - Size: 63.6 MB)", which most probably has never been published as a comic book.