Police Comics
These best stories of the comic books are preceded by their issue number.
They were edited by Ed Cronin.
Steele Kerrigan fought crime. His name recalls that of Will Ely's private eye, Larry Steele, who debuted in 1937 in Detective Comics. His name also invokes Steel Sterling, a Golden Age super-hero who debuted in 1940 - although Steele Kerrigan had no super-powers.
The Redemption of Steele Kerrigan (1941). Writer: ? Art: Al Bryant. (Title for this titleless story supplied by Grand Comics Database.) When Steele Kerrigan gets out of prison, he has to fight against the gangsters who put him there. This is a full origin tale for Kerrigan, showing his life history. It is also the origin of his faithful girl friend, Anne.
In this debut, Steele Kerrigan is marked out as being around 19. This is younger than most comic book heroes. He has already served two years in prison, for a crime which he did not really commit - he was a naïve youngster at 17 who was tricked by a gang to be innocently involved with their crime.
Steele is shown wearing a bow tie - a costume that will still be associated some years later with the juvenile Jimmy Olsen.
Kerrigan is an unusual comic book hero. He has no costume or secret identity. He is just an ordinary guy who fights crime. Steele's adventures are also normal: the criminals he meets are never costumed masterminds, but also wear regular clothes. Many of Steele's tales seem to echo movies of the period. This helps make the events in them seem "real". They stick to situations that readers of the time felt were fairly plausible. Steele can seem like the hero of a Warner Brothers melodrama, an honest working man who has to go up against tough criminals, and cope with bad breaks.
Bryant uses many "cinematic" overhead angles. His art reminds one of comic strips of the 1930's, and their ambitious attempts to incorporate cinematic techniques. Bryant is especially fond of overhead shots of architecture, often strikingly composed. In thi sfirst tale we see a bank and a jail. There are also shots of a sidewalk elevator shaft.
Bryant's county landscapes are rich in trees.
Bryant also emphasizes portraiture. His close-ups of his characters are strikingly detailed and realistic. They vividly convey emotion. One suspects that Al Bryant saw himself as a cartoonist in training for the comic strips. He was trying to show his best work in the Steele Kerrigan stories.
The Hijacker (1941). Writer: ? Art: Al Bryant. (Title for this titleless story supplied by Grand Comics Database.) Steele gets a job as a trucker. His youth is no longer emphasized. This story also starts a frequent pattern in the later tales: Steele gets a new job, which gets him in the middle of some criminal scheme he will battle.
Steele is shown on the splash in a trucker's uniform: a red jacket over a white dress shirt, along with a high peaked red cap. In the actual story, the jackets are never shown: Steele and his trucking partner Mike Scully are always in white dress shirts, without any jackets. Scully always has his cap on in the tale, while Steele never does. Steele does have his cap sitting on the counter in front of him, in one panel. Both men wear similarly shaped bow ties, but Steele's is red, and Scully's is blue or green. In the previous story, Steele wore a similar looking red bow tie white his blue sport coat and white dress shirt. It is unclear whether this shirt and tie are simply the same here, or whether Steele now has on a special white uniform dress shirt and tie. The dress shirt has unusual peaked shoulders here, and elaborate patch pockets - more like a trucker's uniform than an ordinary dress shirt.
In this second tale, Bryant shows the truck from every possible angle. His over heads shots recall the overhead shots of buildings in his other works, with the truck being nearly as big as a building, and as visually complicated.
The shot of the policeman with the visor over his eyes is striking.
The Motorcycle Cop Murder (1941). Writer: ? Art: Al Bryant. (Title for this titleless story supplied by Grand Comics Database.) Mail robbers shoot a policeman. This story begins the characterization of Anne as a feisty, courageous proletarian hero. Like Steele, she is also willing to fight against the bad guys, and for her beliefs. The story descibes her as a "scrapper".
The State Police wear double-breasted blue uniforms.
McGaw's Proposition (1941). Writer: ? Art: Al Bryant. (Title for this titleless story supplied by Grand Comics Database.) Steele sets up as a private detective. I was sure while reading the story that this was a permanent new career for Steele. But he immediately abandons it at the start of the next tale. Instead, this is another one-time job for Steele, getting him involved in a new adventure.
This story features Spike McGaw, the leader of the gang that originally exploited Steele, causing him to be sent to prison.
Dr. Burgess's Diamond Theft (1941). Writer: ? Art: Al Bryant. (Title for this titleless story supplied by Grand Comics Database.) Steele gets a job as a butler, and Anne as a private secretary at a gloomy mansion. This change of pace tale has Steele and Anne involved in a traditional whodunit type mystery, at a wealthy family's mansion. Such whodunits were popular fixtures in the movies of the period. They were still within the paradigm of what readers consider "normal" crimes: they do not take Steele into the realm of costumed villains comic book crime, something Steele's stories always avoided.
They Stole the Commissioner's Car (1942). Writer: ? Art: Al Bryant. (Title for this titleless story supplied by Grand Comics Database.) A car theft ring steals a car right in front of police headquarters.
Steele's blue suit is frequently drawn as black in this tale, making it seem dark and extremely dressy looking. He wears a white dress shirt, and regular red tie. The splash has a memorable portrait of a giant Steele, holding tiny figures of the criminal gang in his fist.