LEGENDARY HEROES #20

SECRET AGENT X-9

"Secret Agent X-9" was a comic strip created by writer Dashiell Hammett ("The Maltese Falcon") and illustrator Alex Raymond ("Flash Gordon") and distributed by King Features for 62 years from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996.  X-9 was a nameless agent working for a nameless government agency.  He used the name Dexter in the first story explaining "It's not my name, but it'll do", but in the 1940s he acquired the name Phil Corrigan.  Decades later the strip would be renamed "Secret Agent Corrigan" and the secret agency would become the FBI.  Hammett's writing had all the hardboiled banter of his novels.  In one exchange a killer femme fatale tells X-9 "I like you.  I really do", to which he responds "I don't like you.  I really don't".  Hammett wrote the first four stories in the series and was followed by Leslie Charteris who also wrote "The Saint" novels.  Alex Raymond exited the strip in November 1935 in order to concentrate on his "Flash Gordon" and "Jungle Jim" comic strips.  Raymond was succeeded by Charles Flanders, Nicholas Afonsky, and Austin Briggs who collectively drew the strip from 1935-1940.  Then Mel Graff took over the art and writing duties of the comic for the next 20 years.

It was Mel Graff who devised the Phil Corrigan identity for X-9 and who gave the secret agent a personal life.  The first romantic interest of X-9 was Linda Reed, his girl Friday, followed by Wilda Dorre, a beautiful blonde mystery novelist.  Phil and Wilda were wed in 1947 and a daughter was born to them in 1952.  Graff also took a page from "Dick Tracy" and created a series of grotesque villains with colorful names like Blue Jaw, Liver Lips, and Grape Eyes.  Longtime comic strip artist Bob Lubbers drew the strip from 1960-1967, and then Al Williamson took over the artwork.  Comic book writer Archie Goodwin did the scripting and the collaboration of Goodwin & Williamson took the strip to another level.  Williamson, who was heavily inspired by Alex Raymond and one of the great artists of EC comics fame, created artwork for the strip that is seldom seen in newspaper comics.  They eliminated Phil's wife from the strip via divorce to enable Corrigan to have romantic adventures with the attractive women that he encountered.  Coincidentally, (or maybe not) the character of Phil Corrigan resembled artist Williamson.  In 1980 George Evans, also one of the fantastic artists from EC, took over the strip and drew it for the next 16 years until it ceased publication.

In the 1930s "Secret Agent X-9" adventures were reprinted in Big Little Books and the David McKay Feature comic books.  X-9 was very popular in Australia and the strips were reprinted in comic book form by Atlas Publications from 1948-1956.  In the mid-1960s X-9 became a serialized back-up feature in King Comics "Flash Gordon" title.  The stories were only five pages in length and appeared in issues #4-8 with the first installment written by Goodwin and drawn by Williamson.  In 1937 Universal Studios released a 12-chapter movie serial starring Scott Kolk as X-9 with a supporting cast that included Jean Rogers and Lon Chaney, Jr..  The same studio released a 13-chapter serial in 1945 that featured Lloyd Bridges in the title role and used footage from the studio's feature WWII film "Gung Ho!"  "Secret Agent X-9" wasn't adapted to radio until 1994, when the BBC in England produced four radio dramas based on the comic strip that starred Stuart Milligan and Connie Booth.

"Secret Agent X-9" became a pop culture phenomenon at a time when spies and secret agents were not widely recognized by the public at large.  Conrad and Maugham had written stories and novels of espionage, but X-9 brought the secret world of government agents into the mainstream, and the readers of the comic strip were taken to thrilling cities in exotic lands where adventure lurked behind every corner.  Authors Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen King have referenced X-9 in their novels, and the comic strip was the inspiration for a song by the rock band Modest Mouse.