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It was neither the most likely of pairings nor would it last long, but the original outings of Secret Agent X-9, which premiered in January 1934, teamed one of the great practitioners of mystery fiction, Dashiell Hammett, with one of the most significant comic strip artists to ever ply his craft, Alex Raymond.

Hammett remains known for such hard-boiled detective novels as The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and Red Harvest, while Raymond would define his legend with Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim and later Rip Kirby.

The daily strip – there were no Sunday pages for this one – featured mystery and some of the wit that made The Thin Man so popular, and despite the fact that the collaboration was very short-lived, they make for some great reading. It doesn’t start evenly, but the strip finds its stride fairly soon and quickly becomes very enjoyable.

While it’s not the master work of either creator, it is a compelling bit of history that heretofore has been missing. It’s not on the level of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson’s 1960s revamp of the strip as Secret Agent Corrigan, but it does have its own distinct charm.

And even with Hammett and Raymond’s quick exits from Secret Agent X-9, it should be noted that among those who followed Hammett was The Saint’s creator, Leslie Charteris, under whom the strip definitely held its own. This collection spans January 22, 1934 through October 31, 1936.

– J.C. Vaughn