By Marianina Patsa

Rip Kirby is not just another stereotypical detective. The comic book hero born in 1946 from the pen of comic artist Alex Raymond (see Flash Gordon) although well-trained in the Marines, is not at all brutal. He is an elegant and gentle detective – generally speaking, he is the opposite of the many heavy, hard-nosed detectives of the time. He loves suits and good liquor, wears glasses that give him a nerdy air, and his intellectual character relies more on his quick mind and scientific knowledge than physical strength in order to solve crimes. In the stories, he is flanked by his loyal butler Desmont, who not only helps him solve mysterious cases, but also adds a comic touch. And sometimes he is accompanied by his beautiful girlfriend, model Judith Lynne “Honey” Dorian (her name and nickname are derived from the names of Raymond’s three daughters).

Raymond, who had already become famous with the Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim series, created Rip Kirby with writer and journalist Ward Greene, with an extremely modern approach for the time. The series was first published on March 4, 1946 and continued for more than five decades, establishing it as one of the favorites of the detective genre. The stories of the first “thinking detective” combine elements of mystery with elegance and romance, while it also stands out for its special narrative and depth of characters – in addition to its innovative illustrations that emphasize on realism.

Rip Kirby was so successful that Raymond won the Reuben Award from the National Society of Cartoonists in 1949 for his work on the series. His creation brought a new level of elegance to the medium of comics, influencing entire generations of artists. After Raymond’s tragic death in a car accident in 1956, artist John Prentice took over the comic strip and continued it until 1999, maintaining its popularity.

Rip Kirby became a worldwide success, with publications in newspapers around the world, and particular appeal in Europe and South America. Some of Rip Kirby’s comics were republished in India as comic books in the popular comic strip series Indrajal Comics, while the series was also published in a dozen comic magazines in the former Yugoslavia. In 1983, Radio Television of Serbia produced an educational series about comics, which included live-action scenes with Nebojsa Krstic as Rip Kirby and Predrag Milinkovic as his valet. From 2011 to 2019, Croatian publishing house Fibra reprinted the series 1946-1999 in 19 volumes.

Rip Kirby’s influence is still evident in noir and detective stories today. The adventures of the elegant detective have been collected in several volumes by IDW Publishing, making the classic comics available to new generations of readers who love the police mystery, told in a particularly sophisticated atmosphere.

Photos Courtesy of libraryofamericancomics.com