Veteran News Photographer Kent Murdock in the Very First Graphic Novel Illustrations by Robert Stanley

Veteran News Photographer Kent Murdock stars in the very first graphic novel, published by Dell in 1950, as part of an intended mini-line of digest sized comic books.  "Told in pictures" and it is.  Not too many others were published, and the experiment failed.  Consequently, the book is rare today and a $100 dollar item, but it was reprinted in full by Pure Imagination a few years ago.  Look for the original.   I found mine for three bucks at an antique mall.

Striking illustrations by Robert Stanley, who also did many of the covers for Dell's much-loved Mapback series, and the book was also published as one.

Kent Murdock was a fictional crime photographer from the early Weegee era.  In the film "Murder with Pictures" you can see him portrayed by square jaw low-talker Lew Ayres. The flick is on Youtube in full but the book is better.

George Harmon Coxe created the character, and Kent Murdock was not his only crime shutterbug.  He also created crime photographer Jack Casey.   (AKA "Flashgun Casey")

Kent used his fists more than his camera, but he is always in the darkroom.  The graphic novel is great, but the movie is the kind I haven't been able to sit through since college, when pot made any movie watchable.
 
Hardboiled, but soft back.

Four Frightened Woman by George Harmon Coxe (A Kent Murdoch Murder Mystery) illustrated by Robert Stanley 1950 Dell  "Told in Pictures" book.

Books and ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE