The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

The third and final instalment of the innovative marketing stunt. This case really makes a meal of setting up the various suspects over three of the four strips, but crucially does not give away any vital information in the title, which is a marked improvement. (Jumbo Comics 015, Fight Comics 005, Jungle Comics 005, Planet Comics 005, 1940) In a break from tradition and a major disappointment, the actual solution is not given along with the list of winners, so…

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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…

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In 1940, Fiction House tried an innovative new method to sell their comics: a serialized contest! Specifically, they printed a series of adventures by detective Bullseye Bannon across issues of Fight Comics, Jumbo Comics, Jungle Comics and Planet Comics, and to enter the contest you had to send in your solution to the mystery along with four little coupons clipped from the issues. I can only assume that the whole exercise was more trouble than it was worth, because they…

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