Hollywood Detective Vs. Magic

Dan Turner started out a private dick in mystery anthologies before he got his own title in 1942. The pulp magazine Hollwood Detective had Turner as the highlighted character with not only prose stories of his cases, but also short comics featuring himself along with fellow female investigator Sally The Sleuth. The publisher changed from Culture Publications to Trojan Magazines which lead to them switching to comics in 1950, including the new title Crime Smashers that had Dan and Ms. The Sleuth in full-length comic adventures. Dan Turner was your average gumshoe in Tinseltown who had his own particular dialogue as he would refer to a murder victim as being "defunct". One case in Crime Smashers #12 had him attending a private meeting of a group called The Midnight Men. They're not an illuminati, but a gentlemen's club that are being entertained by the leggy magician Charm Marlowe performing in just her underwear while making snakes appear out of her top hat. Charm promises a kiss to any volunteer for her disappearing act. Comedian Tony Vann gets suckered into it, even though he previously cheated on Charm's sister. After seeming to vanish, Tony is defunct from snake bites, despite the fact that Charm had her snakes' fangs removed. The murderer turns out to be Tony's nephew Pete Drake who let it slip that he had already caught Charm's act and he poisoned his uncle with a special ring idiotically crafted to have a snake head on it. Turner shoos away the other party goers to not have their reps tarnished as he hands Pete over to the police, then finishes out the night in a make out session with Charm. Dan Turner was a living cliche of noir detective tropes, always getting the girl in the end, but still popular enough to get two different movies based on his exploits, including one starring The Beastmaster.