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Photo, Print, Drawing [Secret Agent X-9]. Her winning way. "But it's impossible to get 'The Top' on the 'phone in three minutes!" / Alex Raymond.

[ digital file from original drawing ]

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About this Item

Title

  • [Secret Agent X-9]. Her winning way. "But it's impossible to get 'The Top' on the 'phone in three minutes!" / Alex Raymond.

Summary

  • Four-panel comic strip shows a beautiful woman holding a gun and forcing a seedy-looking man with a mustache to get "The Top" on the phone in three minutes. [In the next strip with the call completed, she shoots the man.] Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip created by William Randolph Hearst's King Features Syndicate in 1934 to compete with the popular strip Dick Tracy. Dashiell Hammet (creator of Sam Spade and other popular fictional detectives) and Alex Raymond (creator of Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim) collaborated on the new strip for the first year. Agent X-9 was a curious mix of mysterious agent and private detective. The first story dealt with X-9's efforts to find the master criminal known as "The Top." The episodes in which the evil Grace Powers casually shoots The Top's henchman are considered to be among the "high points" in Hammet's fiction.

Names

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

Created / Published

  • c1934 August 14.

Headings

  • -  Criminals--1930-1940

Headings

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

Genre

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

Notes

  • -  Section title from item.
  • -  Copyright 1934, King Features Syndicate, Inc., Great Britain rights reserved.
  • -  Forms part of: Art Wood Collection of Caricature and Cartoon (Library of Congress).
  • -  Unprocessed in WOOD/Raymond.260
  • -  Portion of title from verso/ww
  • -  Sources: Hammett, Secret Agent X-9, 1990, p. 4-16; Don Markstein's toonopedia [online] ljr

Medium

  • 1 drawing : ink brush and blue pencil over graphite underdrawing, with paste-on ; 17.8 x 67.4 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 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Digital Id

  • ppmsca 07738 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.07738

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2005677340

Reproduction Number

  • LC-DIG-ppmsca-07738 (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-07738 (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. Her winning way. "But it's impossible to get 'The Top' on the 'phone in three minutes!" / Alex Raymond. , ca. 1934. August 14. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005677340/.

APA citation style:

Hammett, D. & Raymond, A. (ca. 1934) Secret Agent X-9. Her winning way. "But it's impossible to get 'The Top' on the 'phone in three minutes!" / Alex Raymond. , ca. 1934. August 14. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2005677340/.

MLA citation style:

Hammett, Dashiell, and Alex Raymond. Secret Agent X-9. Her winning way. "But it's impossible to get 'The Top' on the 'phone in three minutes!" / Alex Raymond. August 14. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2005677340/>.