{"id":284476,"date":"2025-06-09T22:26:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/secret-agent-man-library-of-american-comics\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T22:26:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:26:33","slug":"secret-agent-man-library-of-american-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=284476","title":{"rendered":"Secret Agent, Man \u2014 \u2013 Library of American Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

We received such nice response to our recent Rip Kirby<\/a><\/em> piece, we decided to follow up with a look at some of the ballyhooing that accompanied another tough guy in the LOAC stable \u2014 Secret Agent X-9, Phil Corrigan.<\/p>\n

X-9 <\/em> debuted in 1934 as King Features Syndicate\u2019s answer to hard-boiled Dick Tracy<\/em>. K.F.S. hired Dashiell Hammett, the premier source of hard-boildedness (if that\u2019s a word), to pen their nameless agent\u2019s adventures. The author of The Maltese Falcon<\/em> was widely read and a familiar name to newspaper readers; Hammett was teamed with a then-newcomer, artist Alex Raymond. We reprinted the earliest Secret Agent X-9<\/em> strips in 2011: <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

King Features gave its subscribing newspapers ways to give the new series a big push: there was a Secret Agent X-9 Club for kids to join and a text feature that offered a mystery to be solved, with some papers making cash prizes available to be divided amongst the winners. Here\u2019s a look at one advertisement for the club, as well as the first three-part mini-mystery (click images throughout for isolated views):<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"