Number 1988: The Saint: song stumper and head thumper

“The Saint in the Musical Mystery” is from The Saint #5 (1949), drawn by the incredible Warren Kremer, who had two stories in the issue. Kremer, as has been mentioned before in this blog, is one of the most prolific comic book artists of all time, but is mostly anonymous to fans. If it helps any, he drew thousands of pages for comic books like Richie Rich, Casper, Wendy, Spooky and Hot Stuff the Little Devil. As a cartoonist, Kremer was fast and could draw basically anything. In his early career in comic books he did the standard comic book things, including stories of crime and horror (see the link below).

The story today shows the “behind the scenes” of a radio program. Television gets a mention in the last panel, a portent of doom for radio as it was known at the time this comic was published. Before television became ubiquitous, for millions of people nightly entertainment was gathering around the radio listening to news, comedy, mystery, quiz shows, musical variety...when television first came in it was adapted visually from what had been done for decades by people standing around microphones in a radio studio. Despite his image as a suave, well-dressed detective, the Saint could also use his fists. What would a comic book be without punches being thrown?

Additionally, “hussy” isn’t a word you hear much nowadays, much less see in a comic book, so I was amused to see “Why you jealous hussies!" spoken in anger by the Saint’s girlfriend. Hussy means a girl of loose morals, and has been replaced by cruder words. Hussy is now a quaint term. I have been known to use it, but only on very rare occasions. I live a boring life. I don’t run across many hussies.

Click on the thumbnail for a historical crime story by Warren Kremer.

Posted in: Pappy Comics