Wednesday, January 15, 2025

BULLSEYE BANNON MYSTERIES - THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED KILLER

Time for the second Bullseye Bannon mystery: everyone get ready to cut up some comics for a chance at a small cash prize.





This time, Bullseye Bannon is for some reason reading the will of the late Dean Earl, who has carefully crafted the kind of situation that murder mysteries thrive on. By the terms of the will, son Titus Earl gets everything, unless he dies, and then someone else gets everything. Bullseye Bannon doesn't exactly help things by pointing all this out in plain language either - when Titus is blown away six panels later it's not even really a surprise. (Jumbo Comics 014, Fight Comics 004, Jungle Comics 004, Planet Comics 004, 1940)


Was this a good mystery? No it was not. Will-based murders are all about slow-burn revelations about motivations and finding hidden documents and so forth, so having everything laid out in strip one really robs the form of its impact. Plus, the title of the mystery clearly points out that Clarence is the killer. (Jumbo Comics 017, 1940)

No comments:

Post a Comment

BULLSEYE BANNON MYSTERIES - THE STRANGE CASE OF EZRA ARK

The third and final instalment of the innovative marketing stunt. This case really makes a meal of setting up the various suspects over thre...