Ka-Chow! — Robert Leslie Bellem

Robert Leslie Bellem was a prolific American writer who wrote in a variety of genres and for many pulp magazines, especially those of Culture Publications that included mastheads such as Spicy Detective, Spicy Adventure, Spicy Western, and Spicy Mystery. After the demise of the pulps, Bellem started writing for television and contributed scripts to shows such as The Lone Ranger, Adventures of Superman (1950s version), the original Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, and others. His most famous creation was the hardboiled detective Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, who narrates the stories in the first person in a racy, slangy style that made them very popular at the time. Bellem also wrote at least two novels, of which the best known is Blue Murder. Almost every issue of Hollywood Detective featured a “Dan Turner in Pictures” graphic story by Robert Leslie Bellem with line art by Adolphe Barreaux. KA-CHOW! includes seven such stories from the 40s: “The Murdered Mummy” (January 1943), “Zoot Suit Killers” (March 1943), “The Case of the Poisoned Puppet” (July 1943), “Killer's Chord” (June 1944), “Sinister Santa Claus” (October 1944), “The Devil's Ballet” (August 1945), and “Strangler's Ballet” (February 1942).