Number 1890: “A mania for melodrama”

“The Man With the Mirror Eyes” stars private investigator, Detective Dareall. He gets a challenge from the villain, told to come to an address, and goes alone with only “two guns, for double protection.”

Another crazy story from the mid-'40s, resurrected by IW Comics reprints in Great Action Comics #1 (1958). It was originally published in a giant anthology, Gold Medal Comics, in 1945, and hero Dareall made his one-and-done appearance in comics. The name, Dareall, looks inspired by dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries, starring heroes with descriptive names like Fred Fearnot and Dick Dauntless. The Dareall story involves an extortion plot which describes to us readers “an old magician’s trick.”

The Grand Comics Database doesn’t credit any writer or artist, but artist Manny Stallman signed the splash panel. If the writer did anything more than this story I hope he or she got better.

Posted in: Pappy Comics