SHERLOCK HOLMES COMICS

IT WOULD BE ANACHRONISTIC to call these “Holmes Manga,” but as comic authority Paul Gravett said of manga, they’re “more than telling a story, as much as feeling a story.” And if the story is about the world’s first and greatest consulting detective, then all the better.  

Sherlockian Extraordinaire Edith Meiser has appeared here at SimanaitisSays. Her Canonically authentic radio tales were broadcast in the 1930s and 1940s and are among the Holmes tales presented these days on SiriusXM “Radio Classics.”

Indeed, the comic tidbits offered here are gleaned from illustrated renderings of one of these radio broadcasts, “The Haunted Bagpipes,” first broadcast on February 17, 1947. In this YouTube the radio program begins at 1:47, with a goodly amount of dialogue to reappear in the comics version in September/October 1954. 

If you happen to have both the Sherlock Holmes comics and the radio version, it’s good fun to follow along with the illustrations. 

The Holmes strip of 9-18-1954 sets the stage for the adventure of “The Haunted Bagpipes.” 

The Comic Genre. Compiler/editor Tom Mason describes the genre: “Strip fans already know how difficult a daily continuity strip can be: The first panel has to recap the previous day’s events, the middle panel has to move the story forward and the third panel is a cliffhanger to make the reader pick up tomorrow’s newspaper.”

Meiser and Giacoia. In his Introduction: The Comic Strip Holmes, Jim Korkis writes, “Previously, Edith Meiser adapted Conan Doyle’s stories for the 1930’s Sherlock Holmes radio program and played the leading female roles as well, but much of the success of the strip was due to the artwork of Frank Giacoia. Just as Sidney Paget’s artwork had inspired a generation of Holmes fans, Giacoia’s work captured the heart of many comic fans.”

On 9-28, Mrs. Hudson describes a visitor to 221b Baker Street.

The adversaries meet on 10-1. 

Site of the battle to the death: Edinburgh, 10-4,5. 

Again, comic dialogue closely follows the broadcast version’s, 10-13.  

And whom do they encounter in the crumbling building but the evil Professor Moriarity….

Talk about a cliffhanger!! ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023