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Photo, Print, Drawing Secret Agent X-9. X-9's plane is fast closing in on "The Mask" / Alex Raymond.

[ digital file from original drawing ]

Full online access to this resource is only available at the Library of Congress.

About this Item

Title

  • Secret Agent X-9. X-9's plane is fast closing in on "The Mask" / Alex Raymond.

Summary

  • Three-panel comic strip shows Special Agent X-9 in the cockpit of a plane, aiming a machine gun at another plane carrying "The Mask." The other plane undertakes desperate manuevers to avoid being hit. In 1934, King Features Syndicate launched Secret Agent X-9 to compete with the new popular strip Dick Tracy and hired Dashiell Hammett to write the narrative and Alex Raymond to draw it. Hammett quit after a year and Raymond a few months later (to concentrate on two other popular strips, Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim). This sequence is one of the few produced by the Hammett-Raymond collaboration. The strip continued under different artists and writers until 1996.

Names

  • Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961.
  • Raymond, Alex, 1909-1956, artist

Created / Published

  • c1934 12-7.

Headings

  • -  Biplanes--1930-1940

Headings

  • Comics--American--1930-1940.
  • Ink drawings--American--1930-1940.

Genre

  • Comics--American--1930-1940
  • Ink drawings--American--1930-1940

Notes

  • -  Title from item.
  • -  Caption label from exhibit Cartoon America: In this airplane sequence the title character, Special Agent X-9, stands in the cockpit aiming his machine gun at a plane carrying "The Mask." Dashiell Hammett wrote the script and Alex Raymond drew the hard-boiled detective comic strip. Hammett left after writing four stories, and Raymond, too, stopped drawing the strip to devote time to his Flash Gordon. Raymond transformed the art of the comic strip from tight pen-and-ink drawing to loose dry brush strokes to create a sense of dynamic action. He was drawing his strip about a scientific detective, Rip Kirby, when he died in an automobile accident.
  • -  Copyright 1934 by King Features Syndicate, Inc., Great Britain rights reserved.
  • -  Forms part of: Art Wood Collection of Caricature and Cartoon (Library of Congress).
  • -  Exhibited: Cartoon America: Highlights from the Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature, Library of Congress, 2006-2007.
  • -  Unprocessed in WOOD/Raymond.263
  • -  Sources: Hammet, Secret Agent X-9, 1990, p. 4; Don Markstein's Toonopedia [online]; 100 years of American newspaper comics, p. 341 ljr

Medium

  • 1 drawing : ink brush and blue pencil over graphite underdrawing ; 18 x 68.8 cm (sheet)

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:055-4 [item] [P&P]

Repository

  • Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Digital Id

  • ppmsca 04617 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.04617

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2005677265

Reproduction Number

  • LC-DIG-ppmsca-04617 (digital file from original drawing)

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: Rights status not evaluated. For general information see "Copyright and Other Restrictions...," https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/195_copr.html
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-04617 (digital file from original drawing)
  • Call Number: Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:055-4 [item] [P&P]
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Hammett, Dashiell, and Alex Raymond. Secret Agent X-9. X-9's plane is fast closing in on "The Mask" / Alex Raymond. , ca. 1934. 12-7. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005677265/.

APA citation style:

Hammett, D. & Raymond, A. (ca. 1934) Secret Agent X-9. X-9's plane is fast closing in on "The Mask" / Alex Raymond. , ca. 1934. 12-7. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2005677265/.

MLA citation style:

Hammett, Dashiell, and Alex Raymond. Secret Agent X-9. X-9's plane is fast closing in on "The Mask" / Alex Raymond. 12-7. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2005677265/>.