T-Men | "Chick" Farrell and "Bull" Madden | Later Tales with T-Man Turner
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Target Comics
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His name recalls a pulp magazine detective, Robert Leslie Bellem's Dan Turner. However T-Man Turner has a different personality and approach.
T-Men ran in Target Comics, from #1 (Vol. 1 #1) (February 1940), through #9 (Vol. 1 #9) (October 1940). It is unclear what relation the comic book series has, if any, with the famous and much later movie directed by Anthony Mann, T-Men (1947), which also deals with Treasury Agents.
The Case of the Black Widow Spider (#1, (Vol. 1 #1) February 1940). Writer: E. F. Webster. Art: Joe Simon. This first episode is an awful racist melodrama of no value. Thankfully, this sort of material is largely absent in the rest of the tales.
The opening shows Turner being tested for membership in the T-Men, then trained. The tale is thus an origin story for Turner. However, we learn nothing about Turner's background or personal life. Nor do subsequent tales tell us any more.
Turner is not cited by name during his testing and training (page 1 after the splash, first panel of page 2). But one can identify him throughout his testing and training, by the forelock of hair that curves over his forehead.
Sabotage (#2, (Vol. 1 #2) March 1940). Writer: E. F. Webster. Art: Joe Simon. A sinister American gang is hired by an evil foreign agent to sabotage American munitions.
This story is clearly intended to a warning to Americans. I feel a certain sympathy to its political message: America would soon indeed be the target of war.
However, little in the tale is especially good as storytelling. It's mainly a minor work.
There is a certain perverse charge, to the Identity Theft episode of the story (page 4). Identity theft tales sometimes involve:
First appearance of T-Man "Chick" Farrell, and his partner from the regular police "Bull" Madden. I have no idea why the series suddenly introduces new protagonists here, after the first two stories about T-Man Turner. Still, the new protagonists are appealing, and better characterized than the early not-so-hot tales about Turner, who is not seen or mentioned here or in the next issue.
Despite the title "Return of the Octopus", this seems to be the villainous Octopus' first and only appearance.
MYSTERY PLOT. The hero uses genuine detective work throughout, to identify and track down the bad guys. This gives a solid story thread throughout the tale.
SPOILERS. A good surprise twist is simply revealed late in the tale (page 6). An earlier look at the character subtly suggests this twist (page 2).
THRILLS. This tale offers some thrills at both of its main locations.
SIDEKICK. "Bull" Madden reminds one of the sidekicks in Western movies of the era. Like them, he is a comic character. And sometimes not too competent. But, also like the sidekicks, he is a 100% Good Guy, always on the side of law and order.
CITYSCAPE. There is a good, if simple, cityscape (page 2). It's an overhead view.
CLOTHES. When "Chick" Farrell swims out to the boat, he keeps his suit jacket on. This is implausible by any athletic standards - he'd swim better with it off. But the suit is part of his hero symbolism. Also, it keeps his appearance constant throughout the tale: he's always in his suit.
The Counterfeit Lottery Ring (1940). Writer: Ben Thompson. Art: Ben Thompson. Title for this titleless story supplied by the Grand Comics Database. "Chick" Farrell and partner "Bull" Madden track down crooks who are counterfeiting lottery tickets. This is the second and better of the two tales about Farrell and Madden.
MYSTERY PLOT. Well done mystery that shows ingenuity on the part of Farrell, in his scheme to locate the crooks' hide-out. Farrell is blindfolded and taken to a hide-out whose location he does not know; later he has to figure out where it is. Some prose mystery short stories in pulp magazines offered somewhat similar problems to their heroes: T. T. Flynn's "The Letters and the Law" (1936) and Roland Phillips with "Death Lies Waiting" (1944). Phillips' and Flynn's solutions and handling of the situation will be very different, from each other's and this comic book tale.
In addition to information in the dialogue, there is also a visual clue in the art of the story (bottom panels of page 4). This clue, if the reader notices it, would help the reader solve the mystery. Visual clues have a long, if sporadic, appearance in various comic book mysteries.
COMEDY. The story has fun comedy relief with Bull Madden, including nifty dialogue.
CLOTHES. "Chick" Farrell is in an excellent double-breasted suit of the noir era. He still looks classy.
The police are in uniforms with Sam Browne belts and epaulettes. One officer looks especially good, with the shiny visor of his peaked cap pulled down to shade his eyes (top right of page 3).
T-Man Turner actually goes undercover here, as a painter in the picturesque village. Painters were supposed to have an affinity for the New England seaside, and a painter's role will not be uncommon for male characters of the era.
Interesting things are done with letters, both by the crooks and T-Man Turner.
The issue with the final letter sent, is identifying the location of the bad guys (bottom panels of page 6, last panel of page 7). This issue was also central to the mystery in "The Counterfeit Lottery Ring".
However, in "Monk the Diamond Smuggler" this is a clever scheme by the hero that the reader is challenged to guess. By contrast "The Counterfeit Lottery Ring" has a mystery puzzle that both the hero and the reader have to try to solve. This mystery puzzle approach in "The Counterfeit Lottery Ring" is deeper and more creative. This difference is a key reason I don't rate "Monk the Diamond Smuggler" as highly as "The Counterfeit Lottery Ring".
The High Sierra Gold Robbery (1940). Writer: ?. Art: Larry Antonette. Title for this titleless story supplied by the Grand Comics Database. T-Man Turner is aboard when a train carried government gold is wrecked and robbed. The best parts of this OK tale focus on technology, both in the train wreck, and the subsequent lab work Turner uses to detect the criminals.
This story shows T-Man Turner using planes, boats, trains and other glamorous means of transportation in his crime fighting. Such vehicles were popular in 1930's crime-fighter comic strips and comic books.
Some of the landscape panoramas are good. Especially nice: a map-like aerial view showing a car making its way to a cove in the distance (page 5).
More landscape art by Larry Antonette can be seen in the Sub-Zero story "Volcanic Problem" (Blue Bolt #2, July 1940). An overhead view of a road leading to a mountain (last panel of page 1) recalls a bit the aerial view of the car on a road on the way to a cove in "The High Sierra Gold Robbery". There is much more landscape art in "Volcanic Problem" as well.
The Construction Saboteurs (1940). Writer: Larry Antonette. Art: Larry Antonette. Title for this titleless story supplied by the Grand Comics Database. When a building collapses due to construction problems, T-Man Turner investigates and tries to find the culprit. Like many of the T-Men stories, this one opens with an exciting action scene, here showing the collapsing wall.
SEMI-DOCUMENTARY. Then the story shifts into detective mode. T-Man Turner regularly uses high-tech work in his government labs to analyze evidence. The lab work in this tale is especially rich and varied. He also engages in some code breaking work. These technical analysis scenes are the best part of the story. They anticipate the high-tech techniques used by government agents in the semi-documentary crime films put out by Hollywood in the later 1940's. These T-Men comic book tales were earlier than most, but not all, of the semi-doc films: please see my chart showing the history of the semi-doc film.
The industrial setting here (the construction site) also anticipates the many industrial locales in the semi-documentary films. The semi-doc films tended to use industrial areas for their big finales; this comic book tale uses the construction site for its opening.
The story has a logically constructed if fairly simple mystery plot, as well.
UNDERCOVER? T-Man Turner is described here as an "undercover agent" of the Treasury. He certainly is a Treasury Agent, making full use of his governmental powers and lab facilities. But he does not seem to have any sort of "undercover" role in this tale. He always seems to be investigating in his own persona as T-Man Turner. By contrast, the heroes of the film T-Men (1947) take on actual undercover roles, posing as crooks and infiltrating a gang of counterfeiters. True undercover roles were common in early comics books; such Jerry Siegel heroes as Slam Bradley and Spy often undertook them; so did Speed Saunders.
The Money Order Robbery (1940). Writer: ?. Art: Larry Antonette. Title for this titleless story supplied by the Grand Comics Database. Crooks steal Post Office money orders. Simple but pleasant tale.
The hero admirably solves the case by detective work, not by guessing: