Dr. Drew, Stalker of the Unknown, appeared in The Secret Files of Dr. Drew, an occult detective series created by Will Eisner, Marilyn Mercer and Jerry Grandenetti. (Eisner’s studio was still producing material for Fiction House in 1949, unlike DC which had its own creative department.) Desmond Drew was the star of the series though he acted as narrator as often as participant. The initial style was cartoony and reminiscent of Eisner’s The Spirit (who began in 1940), which was intentional. For the last episodes of the series, Grandenetti drew it more realistically.
Dr. Drew’s first adventure was in Rangers Comics #49 (June 1949), and he would remain there until Issue #60 (August 1951). That numbered his files at fourteen cases. In all those adventures, he never received a cover at Rangers. These always went to the top draw, the red-haired cow-girl, Firehair.
Drew came after the original comic book ghostbuster, DC’s Doctor Occult (1935) as well as Zero, Ghost Detective (1940), The Werewolf Hunter (1942), Dr. Styx (1943) and a number of one-shot characters that didn’t take. Dr. Drew was Fiction House’s answer to the weird detective who solved the cases the police could not. Like any good Sherlock, he has a Watson in Higgins and later in the policeman, Sergeant Dawson, who is usually not that important but allows Drew to have someone to explain things to, along with the reader.
Each episode begins with a shot of Bone Hill, Dr. Drew’s creepy digs. The bottom frames, in the style of a Spirit comic, open the action. This would change with the eleventh episode, when Grandenetti abandoned the Will Eisner style for a more modern look (and consequently standard comic openers.)
Here are the cases. Most of the titles are mine.
“The Case of the Absent Floor” (Rangers Comics #47, June 1949) begins when an elevator operator comes to Drew with a strange story of a 13th floor in his building. The detective and client go back to investigate and find a ghostly floor where ghosts reenact two twenty year-old murders. The fear of a thirteenth floor is an old chestnut that is till used today. The show Evil did a wonderful episode with the idea last season.
“The Philosopher’s Stone” (Rangers Comics #48, August 1949) has Drew’s friend, Gordon Kyle phone him. He has found the Philosopher’s Stone. A trail of hundred year old imbeciles leads the detective to Count St. Germain, who has his stone back at last. The two thousand year old man tries to kill Dr. Drew but the detective uses modern science to stop him, making a device from an electric lamp that create an electrical field. St. Germain knows modern things too and shoots Drew with a pistol. The stone is shattered by the bullet, causing St. Germain to turn into a pile of dust.
“The Witch’s Doll” (Rangers Comics #49, October 1949) starts with an actress named Jennie Paris suffering from mysterious pain. Drew sees she has a doll that looks like her. It was a present from an African explorer named Leander Miles, who has since disappeared. When Drew tracks the doll to a shop he is rendered unconscious. He wakes to find a doll of his own likeness. He begins to feel mystery pains too. He tracks the source to Leander Miles, who is not dead. Drew destroys all his voodoo making supplies. Miles dies when the house collapses.
“The Soul of Paul Vincent” (Rangers Comics #50, December 1949) has Dr. Drew face off against Stan himself. The Evil One was cheated of the soul of Vincenti, a violin genius. His soul has been reincarnated in Paul Vincent. If Satan, who poses as Vincent’s agent, can get him to play the one song Vincenti never did, he will go to Hell forever. Drew defeats Old Nick by using the watch Satan gave him to reflect light and burn through Vincent’s violin strings.
“The Burned Witch” (Rangers Comics #51, February 1950) has six men in a coma after being kissed by a mysterious gypsy woman. Drew and the local cop are on her trail. Dr. Drew figures out that she is attacking the descendants of men who put Witch Anna to the stake. His ancestor Hamilton Drew was one of them. Anna comes for the detective but the cop, who has grown jealous of Drew, ruins her game. When her wagon burns, the ghost is dispelled too.
“Bride of Vampire” (Rangers Comics #52, April 1950) pulls Dr. Drew into Hollywood. The director, Pandro Kleeg, brings him in when one of his actresses dies from loss of blood. The actors all blame each other but Drew flushes out the foreign star, Draja Borisi, who is a real vampire. (That’s a wonderful combination of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.) The monster flees but Drew blinds him with a light, causing him to fall to his death.
“The Order of Elusa” (Rangers Comics #53, June 1950) begins with Professor Jon Le Claire coming to Drew as he dies. His last words are “The Order of Elusa” and his last wish is to be buried at sea at the spot where his bathysphere went down. The detective complies, going deep into the ocean afterwards. He discovers Le Claire is not dead but reborn as an Elusian. The lost civilization of immortals exists underwater. Drew meets Queen Elusa and is forced to die and join them. Jealousy steps in as Le Claire sees Elusa favors the detective. He allows Drew to escape with the scroll that contains the secret.
“The Pirate Galleon” (Rangers Comics #54, August 1950) takes place close to home. Skull Valley is just off from Bone Hill. Gregg takes Drew to his project to build an aqueduct. When the crew hit Skull Valley the project stalled. Drew goes below and discovers the rival company of Markiss is sabotaging the works with depth charges. Drew defuses the charge then discovers a ship full of ghost pirates. He is made a galley slave but frees the prisoners instead. Markiss and Company get blown up by their own explosives and Drew frees the ghosts who are trapped in time.
“The Mandible Curse” (Rangers Comics #55, October 1950) has Charles Mandible come to Dr. Drew because at midnight a family curse will take him. The detective comes to the ancestral home on the moors. He meets Charles’s sister, Melani. He also discovers the missing uncle but Melani takes a mace to his head. When he wakes Drew finds he has been replaced by Sergeant Dawson, the local lawman. Melani kicks Drew out. Before midnight arrives, Drew sneaks back but Melani shoots him. The clock strikes twelve and Charles turns into the Hound of the Mandibles. Dawson kills the monster.
“Sabina the Sorceress” (Rangers Comics #56, December 1950) has been accused of a murder she did not commit. The murderer turns out to a ghost! The police won’t listen to Drew so their culprit disappears from his cell.
“Druid Castle” (Rangers Comics #57, February 1951) has a friend of Drew’s about to marry the beautiful Myra but spirits of the past plot against him. Can Drew brew the green elixir in time to save them?
“The Dartbane Horrors” (Rangers Comics #58, April 1951) features the ghosts of Dartbane Prison from the year 1832 and the gate to the netherworld.
“Red For Rage” (Rangers Comics #59, June 1951) pits Drew against a series of dresses, each a different color and emotion. The women who wear them become possessed and deadly. This perhaps the most original of all the ideas used in this series.
“Tiara” (Rangers Comics #60, August 1951) has Dr. Drew starting on the wrong side of an affair concerning the jewels of an old tiara. He is helping the sinister Sandini, but by the end, he has championed an old blind man, Sightless Ben, and his beautiful young charge.
Conclusion
The series has a wonderful consistency since Mercer and Grandenetti did all fourteen tales. Often as a series becomes less popular it gets less-talented people working on it until it finally succumbs in an agonizing stupidity. Not here. The quality remains high though Grandenetti’s style changes to a more modern look, which I find dull. Mercer’s writing at the beginning was wonderful too. The plots by the end feel more familiar and trite but with some high points. The first ten issues form a solid core of inventive art and well researched writing. The last four are the waning off, though the editors might have thought it would save the comic to update the look.
Unlike other ghostbreakers, Dr. Drew, Stalker of the Unknown, did not go on to other comics by other hands. These fourteen adventures are his entire canon. After he appeared, DC Comics had the Phantom Stranger, who had a similar look and also took the narrator position at first. When fans think of an occult detective in fedora and cape they are more likely to think of the Phantom Stranger, but Desmond Drew was first. Both Terence Thirteen, a debonndaire sleuth and Johnny Peril at DC, feel like Desmond Drew too. His adventures left a legacy on the comic book ghostbreakers to come.
All the Rangers Comics are available free at DCM.
