Flash Evans, Camera News Hawk (Flash Evans #2)

Alas, with the second book in the Flash Evans series, we come to the end of this short-lived series by famed Nancy Drew ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt Benson (writing under the pseudonym Frank Bell).  It's rather a shame this series did not last beyond these first two books, as the stories are quite exciting, fast-paced, and filled with both mystery and adventure.  Benson definitely pulled out all of the stops in this series, constantly putting her title character in some of the most dangerous (and outrageous!) situations; yet, like any good, plucky series book hero, he always manages to come out of each scrape pretty much unscathed.  Both books are great reads, and even for those who are not necessarily fans of boys' series books (like me!), the stories are very enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend them.

 

Flash Evans, Camera News Hawk is set nine months after the events in the first book, and Jimmy, or "Flash" as he is called by his fellow photographers, is now seventeen-years old. As seems to be his habit of being in the right place at the right time, Flash is invited by his fellow photographer, Joe Wells, to watch Bailey Brooks, a famed aviator and parachute jumper, test out a brand new parachute of his own design.  Joe now works for a newsreel company, filming the scenes rather than simply taking still photographs.  He and Flash snag images of the successful test of the parachute, but Flash grows uneasy when he sees Brooks talking with a man named Albert Povy, who Joe says is an unsavory character that has been suspected of being a spy.  With a scar running down the side of his face, he has the typical appearance of a series book villain!

 

Similar to the first book, this one has an overarching mystery (involving a government agent and a potential theft of important papers), while at the same time putting poor Flash through the ropes with one harrowing adventure after another.  The first is a horrific train wreck (how does Flash always manages to survive these disasters with barely a scratch?!?!), in which his friend Joe Wells is injured, placing Flash in a position to take his place as a cameraman to help out his rather contentious partner, George Doyle. Doyle and Flash take an instant disliking for each other, but to help his friend, Flash agrees to do the camera work.  Their first assignment is to video the Indianapolis auto race (which may have been a vague reference to the famous "Indianapolis 500," which began as far back as 1911), and while they arrive late and other film crews have all the prime spots, Flash's luck aids them out, as their not-so-great spot turns out to be the very place a horrible racing accident occurs, which they capture it all (p. 44)!

 

From there, Flash and Doyle just happen to be at the right spot when a bridge gives out, with a speeding car going down with it (pp. 100-01).  They catch it all on film, of course; however, the driver of the car is caught in the raging waters, so Flash risks his life to dive in and save the man.  As it turns out, the man is a wanted criminal, and when Flash gets him to shore, the police are there to arrest him - and to thank Flash for catching him before he could escape!  After that, Flash finds himself on the wrong end of an oar, and he is left by a villainous cretin (and I won't spoil the story by telling you who that is!) in a river that is surrounded on both sided by an out of control forest fire (pp. 136-39)!  As can be expected, he manages to swim under the water to avoid the intense heat of the fires and swim far enough downstream to get up on shore and get away - only to wind up kidnapped by the villain and held locked in an isolated house.  The poor kid just can't catch a break!

 

All of the stories tie into the aviator and his new type of parachute, and the government agent and the attempt to rob him during the train wreck.  It is one of Flash's photographs from the night of the train wreck, as well as his keen sense of observation and a fortunate find while locked up in that house that lead to the identity of the villain being revealed and his machinations put to an end.  And along the way, Doyle and Flash manage to earn one another's respect and let go of all the animosity between them.  But Flash is nothing but loyal, and despite both Joe and Doyle trying to convince him to join them on the newsreel crew, he sticks with his job at The Brandale Ledger.  However, he admits Doyle in the last paragraph of the book that "[t]aking ordinary pictures will seem pretty tame after this.  One of these days I'll probably be back" (p. 211).  Obviously, this was an open door for Benson to later have her photographer protagonist return to newsreel filming in a later adventure, had the series continued.

 

The cover art is the same as that on the first book - but after reading this, it becomes clear that the top and bottom of the four scenes are taken from this book, while the two scenes on either side of Flash's headshot in the middle were taken from the first.  I would be curious to know if this same cover art would have been continued to be used on future books, if more had been written and published.  The interior art depicts the scene of the car pile-up from the Indianapolis raceway.  With so many thrilling moments in the story, I am sure it was hard for the publisher to decide which scene to depict on the frontis piece!

 

And with that, we reach the end of this short-lived, two-book series.  One has to wonder if Benson had any other ideas for stories in this series, and whether it was her idea, or the publishers, to end it so quickly.  In any event, poor Jimmy "Flash" Evans was put on the series book shelf, a mostly forgotten character that only die-hard collectors seek out and read!

 

RATING:  9 nail files and rusty razor blades out of 10 for keeping the danger high, the mystery exciting, and the hero resourceful - all the great trappings for a fantastic read! 

 

 

 

Flash Evans and the Darkroom Mystery (Flash Evans #1)

This two-book series was one I honestly thought I would never own.  For whatever reason (limited print run, short series, scarcity of volumes), any time these books show up for sale, they are always very high prices, especially if you want them in dust jacket!  Recently, though, I lucked upon an eBay auction where a seller was selling both books in this series, no dust jackets, for only $15.99!  While I was hoping to one day own them with dust jacket, at this price, I could not pass it up.  After all, I can always upgrade to a dust jacket later, or even use a reproduction or photocopy dust jacket.  The important thing was, I now owned Mildred Wirt Benson's two book series about the hotshot newspaper photographer, Flash Evans!

 

Flash Evans and the Darkroom Mystery introduces readers to Jimmy Evans,  a "tall, slender lad with a thick shock of dark, curly hair and frank gray eyes" (p. 3) who is all of sixteen years of age (p. 4).  Having graduated Brandale High School, Jimmy has been trying to obtain a job with any one of the local newspapers as a staff photographer.  As this book opens, he is facing rejection again from Tom Riley, city editor of The Brandale Ledger.  His best friend, Jerry Hayes, tries to convince Jimmy to find another kind of work, but Jimmy is determined to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was "city editor on the Brandale Post ... years ago before the paper folded" (p. 6).  Now that is father was dead, and it was just he and his mother, Jimmy wanted to make a go in the newspaper field.  Fortune shines on Jimmy, however, for that very afternoon, while lunching with his friend at the local drugstore counter, they witness an accident outside, and Jimmy is able to snap some great pictures at the scene.  Not only are Jimmy's pictures important to the police, as the men who caused the accident are wanted criminals - but the photos prove to be Jimmy's way to get himself a job - at The Brandale Ledger!

 

Written by Mildred Wirt Benson, the two Flash Evans books were published in 1940 by Cupples & Leon, who also published her Penny Parker series, as well as her Mildred Wirt Mystery Stories for Girls series of books.  Benson had just completed her Mystery Stories for Girls, as well as her Penny Nichols series, both of which concluded in 1939, and her Trailer Stories series had finished the year prior.  Her Penny Parker series was only in its second year, with books 3 and 4 being published in 1940, and she had books published in the Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, and Kay Tracey series that year, as well.  She had not yet begun her work at the newspaper when these books were written, but her husband at the time (Asa Wirt) had been working for the Associated Press for some time (meaning Benson was no stranger to newspapers, as as evident with her Penny Parker series).  This book (and presumably the second, also) is heavy with the inner workings of a newspaper office, and for this series, particularly with photography, the technical aspects of developing photographs, and the urgency and importance of the right photos for a rushed, important headline story!

 

As far as this first story goes, it does have an overarching mystery involving various incidents that happen in the darkroom at the newspaper - Jimmy, who gains the nickname "Flash" (p. 13), faces embarrassment at every turn. First, some photographs he is developing are damages by a wrong mix of chemicals; then, some photographs he takes of a fire disappear from the editor's desk.  Then, while he is developing an extremely important photo of some criminals he caught in the act trying to burn down a warehouse, Jimmy a/k/a Flash is knocked unconscious and his photos are stolen, getting him in trouble with both the police and his editor. His immediate reaction is to suspect his boss, Fred Orris, who has made it clear from the beginning that he disliked young Flash.  But, as the story progresses, he learns it is wrong to make assumptions about people, and it turns out that a very unlikely person was hiding a secret grudge against Flash, which resulted in all these actions.

 

Alongside this mystery, Benson fills in this book with a number of vignetttes - saving a man from a burning building (which is depicted in the frontis piece), fighting a competing photographer for photos from an out-of-state airline crash, saving a man from an insurance scam racket, flying out to a sinking ocean liner for daring photographs, and several other adventures that allows Flash to prove his worth over and over.  A couple of these scenes appear on the cover art (the burning apartment building and the sinking ocean liner).  Benson knows how to write fast-paced, exciting stories that keep the reader engaged, turning page after page to see what is going to happen next.  Benson's self-created stories are, for the most part, a far cry better than those she wrote based on outlines from others.

 

One can only assume Benson used the "Frank Bell" pseudonym for this series so that a boys' series was written by a "male" author (similar to how male authors used female pseudonyms when they wrote girls' series books). This, of course, is only one of several pseudonyms that Benson used when writing her own stories - including Joan Clark (the Penny Nichols series), Don Palmer (the Boy Scout Explorer series), and Dorothy West (the Dot and Dash series).

 

While I am not normally a fan of boys series, this book is a great opening story for a series, and it's a shame the Flash Evans series only lasted two books.  I am curious to see how the second book compares with this one.

 

RATING:   9 shattered photo plates out of 10 for a fun new character and an action packed new series about a newspaper photographer in the 1940s!

Short(est) Lived Comic Series #29 - Friday Foster (Dell Comics)

Two years go, I reviewed the collection of Friday Foster comic strips published in the Sunday newspapers (Friday Foster Comic Strips), at which time, I mentioned the fact that I was still searching for that hard-to-find issue of Dell Comics' version of the character, a stand-alone issue published with a cover date of October 1972, right in the middle of Lawrence's run of the comic strip.  Well, that search is over!  This past Christmas, a dear friend surprised me with a copy of this particular comic, in absolutely marvelous condition considering its age.  I've been holding off, waiting for the right time to read it, and that time is now!

 

Friday Foster is one of Dell's many one-issue comics.  Although the indicia at the bottom of the first page refers to this as "No. 1," there was never any other issues published after this one (which may be why it is so sought after and so hard to find at a reasonable price!).  While the characters and story are based on James D. Lawrence's comic strip, Lawrence was not actually involved in the comic.  The story was written by Joe Gill, and the art (both inside and on the cover) was provided by Jack Sparling.  Joe Gill is probably best recognized for his work at Charlton comic company, where he co-created Captain Atom, Peacemaker, and Judomaster, as well as others.  Jack Sparling was a rather busy artist back in the day, providing art for publishers such as Harvey, Charlton, Classics Illustrated, DC, Gold Key, Marvel, along with Dell Comics.  Gill does a superb job of staying true to the character of Friday Foster, while Sparling's art is a bit softer than Jordi Longaron's, but he still retains the look of all the cast.

 

The story finds Friday helping her boss, fashion photographer Shawn North, get photographs of an elusive American-born princess - Princess Jenny Shangri, newly wed wife of Prince Wimoweh of Teri-Aki.  She makes every effort to avoid the press, and Friday views her  as nothing more than a spoiled rich girl who has no understanding of what it is like for someone who grew up in Harlem (like Friday!).  She sabotages Shawn's attempts to get clear photographs, and ultimately has to confess her underhandedness to their employer at She magazine.  Well, as any good story goes, fate intervenes, and Friday finds herself having to pose as the princess's close friend in order to ferret out a member of the paparazzi who has been harassing the princess for some time - most recently causing a near-fatal car accident!  Friday is livid, but she takes the assignment, having no other choice.

 

Gill writes a well-scripted tale that could easily be translated to the small or big screen.  Friday spends time with Jenny (the princess), shopping for clothes, and while Jenny insists the dastardly Ferdy Trask is following them, Friday fails to see him (although the reader does spot him in various panels).  Friday begins to believe Jenny is making up the entire harassment scenario in order to gain publicity - but while she is trying to convince Shawn, the sneaky Ferdy Trask is doing his own digging into Friday's identity - and when he learns she works for Shawn North, he decides to turn the tables on her. Suddenly, Friday becomes the target of Mr. Trask's dirty deeds.  Not only is Friday threatened, but she comes home to find he has also threatened her little brother, Cleve!  Needless to say, Friday is not going to let Ferdy Trask get the better of her, so with Shawn and Jenny's help, she sets an ingenious trap to catch Trask at his own game.

 

One thing I like about these old Dell Comics is that you get 32-pages of story and art with no ads (except on the inside front and back covers, as well as the back cover itself).  That means Gill and Sparling have plenty of space to really flesh out the story, providing not only characterization, but also plenty of action and suspense.  Honestly, as I was reading the comic, I could see Pam Grier in my head acting out the entire story (for those who may not know, Grier played Friday Foster in the live action film of the same name back in 1975).  The bad guy gets his comeuppence, and Friday learns a thing or two herself about pre-judging people before she gets to know them.  The story has the same feel as those in the comic strip by Lawrence and Longaron, and I think they honored the source material very nicely.

 

It's so sad we only got one issue of this comic adaptation of the character - I think this would have made for a very dramatic comic book series.  Perhaps it was simply the wrong time period for a strong, black female character to lead a comic, or perhaps Dell was simply not a widespread enough company to attract enough readers to warrant more issues.  Whatever the reason, Friday Foster's one issue was a fantastic read and well worth the wait!

 

RATING:  10 games of bait and switch out of 10 for giving a little known character a chance to truly shine, while paying tribute to the character's creators with a superb story! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #4 - Is This Coffin Taken?

With this fourth Zebra Mystery Puzzler, published in October 1978, we not only get a different kind of mystery, but also get our fourth author - Jean Francis Webb (1910-1991).  While I could not find any direct information on Webb, I found a number of blogs and other sources that reveal much about his writing career.  It seems  Webb began hiswriting career early on, having tales of mystery published in those infamous pulp magazines of the '30s and '40s.  From what I can gather, he created one of the first female detectives, Grace "Redsie" Culver.  This character appeared in a number of issues of The Shadow Magazine, from 1934 - 1937, all written under the pen name of Roswell Brown.  Webb also wrote several gothic novels during their heyday of the '60s and '70s, as well as various other books, including this one for Zebra's "Mystery Puzzler" line and a novel in the Guiding Light series (based on the TV show).  This is the only book Webb wrote for this series.

 

Is This Coffin Taken? is set in the beautiful, lush paradise of Hawaii, where protagonist EileenTracy (erroneously identified as "Ellen" Tracy on the description set forth on the back cover) lives and works as a photographer. The book opens with Eileen driving her sister, Rosemary, and young nephew, Toby, back to her secluded up high atop the cliffs overlooking Honolulu.  Her sister and nephew are sound asleep in the back after a long day of traipsing along after Eileen as she pursued photographs of a spewing volcano for her publisher.  Eileen's thoughts as she is driving, however, are focused on the fact that her sister fled to Hawaii to escape her husband - an up-and-coming film director who she claims is threatening to kill her in order to get his hands on the inheritance the sisters received from their grandmother.  She has yet to give Eileen the details, but it is clear Rosemary is frightened for her own safety, as well as that of her son.

By the end of the first chapter, Webb sets up the mystery - Rosemary, who got out of Eileen's car and walked the short distance from the car to the house, entered the house, never came back out, yet disappeared!  Eileen searches relentlessly every room in the house, the outside yards, and finds nothing but a set of footprints in the front yard where her sister stepped into the yard rather than walk around on the concrete walk.  The police are called, but the lieutenant who comes to the scene (Dave Atwater) is not exactly helpful.  Calm and detached, he does not take the disappearance seriously, suggesting that perhaps Rosemary simply wandered off or left of her own accord.  Even after explaining her sister's fear of her husband, Eileen finds herself a potential suspect when Atwater asks her whether there was any rift between them concerning the inheritance.  From this interaction, the reader immediately realizes Eileen is going to have to take matters into her own hands if she wants to find her sister.

From the beginning, this is more of a missing person's case than it is a murder mystery.  Eileen spends the first half of the book scared for her sister, wondering what is happening to her; however, about half-way through, she becomes so irate at the lack of concern from the police and their "by-the-book" way of handling the case, that she decides to search for her sister on her own.  This, of course, takes her to a seedy boarding house where she confronts a witness; to the carnival that is going up  to raise funds for the local hospital; and to the restaurant that was the last place she and her sister were actually together.  And Webb does not hold back with the danger, either.  At one point, Eileen is tied up in her own shed-turned-darkroom behind her house and left with a bomb set to go off in ten minutes!  Talk about some suspenseful reading as Eileen tries to figure a way out of it!  And not one, but two potential witnesses turn up dead before the end of the story, showing readers just how much danger Eileen (and her sister!) are truly facing!

I have to give Webb kudos for working so hard to keep the identity of the kidnapper / murderer fairly well hidden until the big reveal in that final, sealed chapter.  Yes, I had some suspicions, but those suspicions fell on two different characters (and, yes, one of them did actually turn out to be the culprit).  Early on, though, I admit, I was debating whether Rosemary ran off or whether she really was kidnapped.  

 

It has to be noted that Eileen is described as having "copper" and "red" hair.  In the previous book, Terry Spring is described as having "long auburn" hair.  And in the first book, Maxine Reynolds is said to have "long red" hair.  So, I have to ask - why did these authors give all of these amateur sleuths red or reddish colored hair?  Was it perhaps a slight nod to a certain teen detective who was famous for her "titian" colored hair?  It is a rather large coincidence that three out of the first four books in this series have protagonists with the same hair color.

The internal illustrations are beautifully rendered, although, again, like with some of the previous books, the scenes depicted do not necessarily match the story.  I really have to wonder if the artists are not given exact details, but merely general descriptions of what to draw, and so that is why they don't mirror the narrative of the story.  For instance, when Eileen first spots the footprints in the flower bed that borders the lanai, they are described as "clear as a perfectly matched pair of spike-heeled slippers..." (p. 39). Yet, in the illustration, the footprints appear to be that of a normal shoe (male, more than female).  Later, when Eileen and her publisher are looking at a photograph she took at the restaurant the night of the disappearance, the description given in the book by no means matches the illustration of the photograph at all.  If only they identified the artists, so that they could be contacted to learn inside information such as this!

Of the first four Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, I would have to say, this is, by far, my favorite.  And sadly, this is the only one written by Webb and starring Eileen Tracy.  This is a shame, as the writing was so good, and the character so likable, I would have loved to have seen more mysteries with this sleuth!

***Interesting side note is that sources online indicate Webb was married to "Nancy" Webb (with her names in quotes on the website I found), and I have an old paperback titled Marcia Blake, Publicity Girl that is written by one Nancy Webb.  I have to wonder if it is one and the same...

RATING:  10 yellow paper chrysanthemums out of 10 for a wonderfully written missing person mystery that is so much more than a simple murder mystery, making is a fantastic read.

Friday Foster - the Sunday Strips

I first heard about the character of Friday Foster when I discovered a one-issue Dell Comic that starred this African-American photographer from the '70s.  I've never been able to purchase the comic (as the prices for this one issue are astronomical!), but I always keep my eye out.  Then, one day, I discovered that David had recorded a movie on TCM called Friday Foster, starring Pam Grier in the title role.  Watching the film, sure enough, this is the same character that was in that comic book I wanted.  The movie was definitely a product of its time (known as the "Black Exploitation" era), but nevertheless, it had a pretty good story to it and was a lot of fun.  Little did I realize that Friday Foster was actually a comic strip before it was ever a comic book and movie - but I learned this when I purchased a collected edition of the Sunday strips, published by Ablaze Publishing.  The hardcover collection had more than just the Sunday strips, however - it also featured a LOT of extra material, including bios of and interviews with the creators - one of whom has a direct Nancy Drew connection!

So, let's start off talking about the strips themselves.  Friday Foster premiered on my very first birthday - January 18, 1970!  (I probably shouldn't reveal that, since it totally gives away my age!)  Syndicated by the Chicago Tribune, the strip ran for only four years (January 18, 1970 to February 14, 1974), but despite its short run, it definitely broke the mold when it came to newspaper comic strips.  While she was not the first black female character in a syndicated strip (a little known character named Torchy Brown holds that honor), she is the first syndicated strip to appear in non-black publications.  Created by James D. Lawrence, she was originally named Jet Jones before becoming Friday Foster in the actual published strip.  In the "Notes for a Biography" section of this collection, author David Moreu reveals that Lawrence was already writing other syndicated strips when he realized there were no African American characters in the comic strips - and he decided to do something about that.  The strip became the subject of a lot of talk in big cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, and others; but, apparently, all of that talk could not keep the strip alive beyond those four years.

 

To Lawrence's credit, Friday Foster was not a stereotype. She was not depicted with an afro that was so common in the '70s, and she was not only smart and sophisticated, but she quickly falls into her career as a photographer during her first storyline.  Before you know it, she's working for Shawn North, a famous photographer with whom she develops a very strong friendship over the four years of the strip.  Yet, despite moving up in the world, Friday never forgets her roots, and she's very protective of her little brother, Cleve (who is always running one scam or another).  Rounding out her supporting cast is Mame Van Clive, the editor of "She" Magazine; Simon Aubry, the art director; the enigmatic man known only as Blackhawk, who is a creative cat burglar; and Mwenye Nguvu, the mysterious Lord of the Jungle (a/k/a Slade King, former American football star) who makes more than one appearance during the run of the strip.  Each story ran, on average, eight weeks - and what is truly amazing is that even though this book only collects the Sunday color strips published from 1970 to 1974, there are no gaps in the stories.  Lawrence wrote them in such a way that even without the daily strips, the readers gets the entire story in the Sunday strips alone!  I didn't feel like I missed out on anything by reading only the Sunday strips.

Now, let's talk about those stories.  The strip begins with Friday working at The Club Senegal, a "swingin' Harlem nightspot," where Friday enjoys taking pictures of the girls, as well as the guests, hoping that some day, one of her pictures will help her crash the big time.  And wouldn't you know it?  One her photos does just that, because unbeknownst to her, one of her photographs has a couple in the background who do not want their outing to be made public.  The art director and editor of "She" magazine recognize the couple right away and put Friday in contact with Shawn North, a famous photographer - who just so happens to be engaged to the woman in the photo (who, incidentally, went to that Harlem nightspot with another man!).  This leads to a number of near-misses, subtle threats, and a fist-fight on a yacht!  This first tale is the longest storyline (as it serves to set up the characters and the series, in general), and interestingly, two of the Sunday strips (just before the last one of this story) do not feature Friday at all (which is daring for a strip to be missing its lead character for two weeks in a row!).  

The last panel of that first story sets up the next story, which involves the world's most famous "missing person" - Mike Morgan, a British pop-rock singer that supposedly died.  Friday and Shawn get pulled into the drama of Morgan's attempt to undergo plastic surgery to change his looks so he can disappear yet again - but a young woman following him may put a kink in those plans.  Just as the first story ended with a one-panel set-up for the next storyline, so does this one - and all that follow.  Lawrence basically created a formula, with eight to ten week stories ending with a lead-in to the next.  It worked well, as it kept the stories moving at a fairly fast pace, not allowing any lull that would bore the readers and turn them off of the strip.  And the stories varied greatly in subject matter - from rescuing a scarlet macaw from a man who wants to make it his trophy to a young hippie who decides she wants Shawn to be her man ... from a dangerous mission in Spain to kill a scientist to a small ivory elephant trinket that holds a very important secret ... from a fading model trying to stay relevant to a pair of star-crossed lovers destined to be kept apart ... from a stolen necklace and insurance scam to a Broadway actress determined to keep her son away from his father ... a family fighting over an inheritance ... a special effects make-up artist trapped in his own designs ... a crooked detective ... a haunted house ... a cursed idol ... a jungle bride .... and ultimately, a jealous editor from a competing magazine who wants nothing more than to take Friday out of the picture!  But, as the saying goes:  All's well that ends well!  And Friday Foster definitely ends on a high note.

It's truly a shame the strip didn't continue.  Jordi Longaron provided some truly beautiful art for the series (even if fill-in artists were occasionally used when Longaron was unable to get his pages to the publisher in time due to mailing days - remember, this was well before there was the internet!), and even though his backgrounds are not as detailed as those of Leonard Starr's Mary Perkins, On Stage strip (very few artists can do backgrounds as detailed as you'll find in that strip!), his characters and settings are such that your focus always remains on the story itself.  He is certainly a master of expressions - whether Friday is sad and crying or giving an admirer one of her "come hither" looks, or she's shocked by the discovery of a hidden room, Longaron's panels ooze with emotion that the reader can easily feel themselves.

As for the creator - James D. Lawrence - this is where the Nancy Drew connection comes in.  When I first got this book and saw "Jim Lawrence" on the cover, I didn't make the connection.  But the second I read the foreword to this collection, it dawned on me where I recognized the name from - the Nancy Drew books!  I knew that he wrote a number of the Wanderer books in the early 1980s (Race Against Time, Clue in the Ancient Disguise, The Silver Cobweb, The Haunted Carousel, and others) - but I was not aware that he had written comic strips, such as Buck Rogers, James Bond, and, of course, Friday Foster.  Lawrence was also the author of several Christopher Cool series for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, as well as Tom Swift, Jr. and rewrites for The Hardy Boys (I have correspondence from the New York Public Library between Mr. Lawrence and the Syndicate regarding his contention about creator rights to the Christopher Cool series).  So, it was with welcomed surprise that I discovered he was the creator and writer of this Friday Foster strip.  I did find it odd, though, that the book indicates Lawrence stopped writing for the Syndicate in the '70s, when the Wanderer Nancy Drew paperbacks he wrote were published into the 1980s.  (Thanks to a dear friend, Geoffrey Lapin, I have since learned that although Lawrence left writing for Syndicate for a while, he did go back in the '80s and wrote more books for them under a pseudonym so Harriet Adams did not realize it was him!  Yellowback Library, Jan/Feb 1986 No. 31, pp. 5-10).

Nevertheless, there is another comparison between Lawrence's work and the Nancy Drew connection.  After Friday Foster ended, Lawrence's children indicated in an interview that he wanted to keep the character alive, so he wrote a series of books with a very similar character called Dark Angel - a series of four books published by Pyramid Books through the book packager, Book Creations, Inc.  The painted covers for these books were done by none other than Friday Foster artist Jordi Longaron!  As can been seen by the covers, the title character in this series bears a striking resemblance to Friday Foster.  The interesting tidbit about the publication of these books is the book packager, Book Creations, Inc.  The essay about Dark Angel reveals that Book Creations, Inc. was formed by Engel in 1973 and dubbed "the fiction factory" because he and his editorial team "would sketch out ideas for series of books, contract authors to write them up, and then sell the rights to the series to published such as Dell, Pyramid, Belmont Tower, and so on" (p. 268).  Gee, does that process sound familiar?  Perhaps Engel took a cue from Edward Stratemeyer!

But, I digress!  This post is about Friday Foster, a unique character for her time and definitely a strip that is well worth the read.  While the one-issue Dell Comic was written and drawn by entirely different creators, I am still searching for a reasonably priced copy of that comic.  I already have a DVD  of the Friday Foster film, starring Pam Grier (which, by the way, is a fun movie and definitely worth watching!).  And who knows?  Maybe one day, someone will run a series of books collecting all of the daily strips - that would be something I would LOVE to see!  (Hint! Hint! Christopher Marlon, you did an amazing job with the Sundays - get us the dailies!)  Then again, I'd be curious to see what the character would be like in today's comic world.

RATING:  10 weaponized cameras out of 10 for breaking the stereotypes and providing a strip headlined by a strong, black female who could easily hold her own in a white male dominated market!