Sexton Blake Bibliography: 1953
Publishing: KNOCKOUT becomes KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS. From issue 772, the Sexton Blake serials are dropped and the strips in each issue are a complete story in themselves. The quality drops to its lowest point.
For the first time in two decades, the SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY starts to feature covers by artists other than Eric Parker.
The Blake saga is at its lowest ebb now. There's a sense of tiredness and repetition in most of the stories.
KNOCKOUT · Issue 726 · 24/01/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: This is a short story rather than a comic strip. Sexton Blake is called when it appears that atomic secrets have been tampered with. The safe in which they are stored is in an upper storey room which, to all appearances, is impregnable. However, Tinker spots telephone wires connected to the building above the room's window. Blake surmises that a foreign criminal, a high-wire walker known as The Bat is the culprit and finds that the man was seen getting on a bus to the airport. The detectives give chase and stop the bus but The Bat has mysteriously vanished from it. They retrace their steps and see a helicopter in a field with The Bat racing towards it. Tinker gives chase and the criminal, realising that he won't reach the 'copter in time, climbs a pylon and walks the wire across a river. With no bridge for miles, Blake and Tinker are cut off. However, The Bat has forgotten the helicopter. The detectives fly it over the wires and Blake, dangling from a rope ladder, captures the crook.
Trivia: The Bat of this story is entirely unrelated to Dirk Dolland, who was also nicknamed The Bat in his UNION JACK stories.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 727 · 31/01/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: This is a short story rather than a comic strip. Tom, a taxi driver, picks up a passenger who comes running from a house. The man is desperate to see Sexton Blake. However, when he arrives in Baker Street, Tom finds that his fare has mysteriously vanished from the back of the cab. After learning that the only place Tom stopped was at traffic lights on a road named Dark Cut, Sexton Blake orders the driver to take him there. In an empty shop on the street, he finds signs of a scuffle and surmises that the jeweller's next door is about to be raided and that the passenger was the owner. He creeps upstairs and manages to render one crook unconscious with a well-timed uppercut. He finds the unconscious jeweller before tackling the second crook and overpowering him. He then explains to Tom how the vanishing trick was performed.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 728 · 07/02/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are commissioned to investigate a case of diamond smuggling. En route to the docks, the detectives stop at a railway crossing and discover strange goings-on at the signal box. The signalman tells them that every time the boat train goes through, a car appears at the crossing gates and then mysteriously vanishes. Sure enough, as the train approaches, a car appears and is then obscured by the passing carriages. As shots are fired from the vehicle, Blake leaps aboard the train. Tinker sees that the car has gone but then spots it driving towards another rail crossing. Meanwhile, Blake fights with the driver and fireman of the locomotive which collides with the ghost car. The detective explains the trick that had been used to pass the smuggled diamonds from the train drivers to the car.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 737 · 11/04/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are driving through mountainous country when they are stopped by a girl named Mary Grey. Her brother has been kidnapped and a note left demanding a ransom of £500. The money, the note instructs, must be placed in Doric's Cave. As she guides the detectives to this location, the outline of a human bat is seen against the moon. Blake enters the cave and is confronted by the gun-toting bat. He takes the criminal by surprise and overpowers him, revealing him to be, beneath the costume, Mary's uncle.
Trivia: The stories from this issue until the issue dated 25/06/1960 were scripted by Mike Butterworth, John Newton Chance, Angus Allan, Ron Clarke, Jack Higgins, Jack Hunt, Arthur Boucher, J. Roose, F. Passmore, H. Goldman, Harold Lamb and T. Chorlton. It is not currently possible to identify which story was written by whom.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 738 · 18/04/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: A man leaps from a car, smashes the window of a jewellery shop, and snatches the window disply. Sexton Blake and Tinker are driving by and ram his car. He flees on foot and ducks into a theatre. The detectives follow and locate the crook in a dressing room. He is keeping his features covered by a gigantic monster mask. Blake ducks as a gun is fired at him then follows the villain out onto the stage. Obeying his guv'nor's whispered directions, Tinker pulls a lever to drop the safety curtain. This distracts the robber long enough for Sexton Blake to attack and capture him.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 739 · 25/04/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: After a day spent hiking, Sexton Blake and Tinker enter the small railway station of Much Clumping. In the ticket office, they find the attendant fast asleep at his desk. The station master appears and informs them that there are no more trains that night, so the detective and his assistant settle down in the waiting room. His suspicions aroused, Blake goes to take a look around. Left alone, Tinker is overpowered by a couple of thugs. Meanwhile, Blake discovers that a gold train is due to pass through the station later that night and notices that the signal has been tampered with. However, the crooks attack him and throw him onto the rails as the train approaches. He manages to crawl out of its path as it screeches to a halt. The gang boards the train and sets it in motion, intending to take it to a quarry where the gold will be unloaded. Sexton Blake, though, switches the points, sending the train careening into a siding. He then leaps aboard and captures the criminals.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 741 · 09/05/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: A financier, Sir William Datchley, is reported killed in a climbing accident by his two male secretaries. Sexton Blake and Tinker climb to the scene of the accident and find themselves under attack. The secretaries, believing that they have killed the detectives, meet with Sir William's father and the three men depart to settle the deceased man's affairs. Blake, Tinker and Inspector Coutts intercept them and expose the fraud that has taken place.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 742 · 16/05/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Robert MacGillivray)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake is called to Castle Keep by Joseph Cask, who informs him that the castle is being haunted by a ghost that according to legend guards a hidden treasure. As Blake and Tinker approach, the castle's drawbridge raises, causing them to crash. They see a glowing figure on the battlements and, after climbing the wall, discover that it has left a trail of luminous paint. They follow this and see the mysterious figure darting through a door. When they reach it, they find to be locked. However, the 'ghost' re-emerges and attacks Blake. He fights it off, tearing the costume from it. The exposed crook runs ... straight into Tinker's fist! He turns out to be Cask's cousin who, having found the treasure, was trying to scare his relation away.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 743 · 23/05/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Graham Coton)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker witness an accident in which a van smashes into a jeweller's window. The driver asks the jeweller to get in contact with his company to arrange payment for the damage. He then drives away. A few moments later, it's discovered that five trays of jewels have vanished. Blake follows a trail that leads to the now abandoned van. Upon examining it, he finds that the engine is in the back and, beneath the bonnet, there is a padded compartment. When he hears the driver approaching with his partner, the detective conceals himself in the compartment then pounces on the crook. The partner is captured by Tinker.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 747 · 20/06/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Graham Coton)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are at a speedway track when it's reported that the gold cup has been stolen. The race is stopped and a brass band marches onto the track to keep the crowd entertained. Near the safe from which the cup was stolen, Blake finds a small piece of leopard skin. He realises what this means and rushes out into the arena. The bass drum player in the band makes a break for it and flees in a jeep. The detective gives chase on a speedway bike and catches the crook. The cup is found concealed in the drum.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 752 · 25/07/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Graham Coton)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake is asked to investigate a lorry driver who is suspected of regularly stealing a secret chemical from the factory where he works. The detective arranges to accompany the driver on his next job. En route to his destination, the driver stops to help a colleague whose vehicle has had a puncture. He offers his spare tyre, in which the chemical is concealed. When Blake exposes the trick, the two drivers knock him unconscious. The first drives away while the second attempts to run the detective over. Tinker, who has been following in a car, saves his guv'nor and they pursue the fleeing man who crashes and is captured.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 753 · 01/08/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. ('Footbal Club Mystery')
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake is called to Carson's Circus where the takings have been stolen. The thieves, Mario the Tiger Man and Lotti the clown, fall out and Lotti decides to kill his accomplice who he thinks is about to give the game away. Using an air-rifle, he shoots at Mario's tigers, sending them into a rage. Blake tackles the clown while Tinker helps to get the big cats under control. The two criminals are arrested.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 754 · 08/08/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Graham Coton)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are watching practice sessions at the Featherstone racing circuit when they witness an accident. The driver is Betty Randle who, with her brother Harry, owns the racing car. She reveals to Blake that it has been repeatedly sabotaged. The detective offers his services as mechanic and investigator. Next morning, he discovers a time bomb hidden on the car and deduces that the enemy is a rival driver named Lorenzo. Tinker drives in the race and steers his car close to Lorenzo's at the time the bomb had been set to go off. The crook panics and veers off the track to escape the expected explosion. Tinker goes on to win the race.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 756 · 22/08/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. ('Grinley Grange')
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: A young boy finds that it's raining pound notes and, realising that they're blowing out of a window, knocks on the door of the building and returns them. They belong to a couple of forgers who reward him with one of the notes. When the lad tries to spend it in a newsagent, Sexton Blake is in the shop and notices that the note is counterfeit. The boy shows him the house and the detective, with Tinker, uses a skeleton key to gain entrance. Tinker holds one of the crooks but the other escapes onto the rooftops with Blake hot on his heels. After a brief chase, he is caught and handed over to the police.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT · Issue 758 · 05/09/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (W. Partridge)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker walk along a secret passage from the inn to a wine cellar under Grinley Grange. There they watch from the shadows as a monk-like figure fetches a dog from a room and takes it up a crumbling staircase to the courtyard of the house. They follow and see Mary Manville in a tower window and, entering the building, start to climb the stairs towards the room where she is held prisoner. Suddenly, though, they are confronted by the dog. They retreat but a trapdoor opens under their feet and they plummet into darkness.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS · Issue 761 · 26/09/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (W. Partridge)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: As the hooded figure known as The Abbot slashes the bell-rope, Tinker swings sideways and grabs the rail of a balcony. He continues his pursuit of Burton but the crook entangles him in a net and knocks him out. When he recovers, he finds himself bound and gagged beside Mary Manville. Meanwhile, Sexton Blake manages to free himself from his own bonds and makes a daring escape by crashing out through a window and plummeting into a pool far below. As he surfaces, he finds himself surrounded by ferocious guard dogs.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS · Issue 765 · 24/10/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (James Higgins)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Footballer Ted Wilson returns to the Morley Rovers football ground late at night to pick up the watch he'd left in the dressing room. Suddenly, a sinister figure emerges from the shadows and knocks him unconscious. His assailant, Sancho, steals the watch and then climbs the ground's clock tower. Meanwhile, Ted recovers and telephones Pat Henson, the team manager. He happens to have Sexton Blake and Tinker staying with him as guests, so they all — along with Pat's daughter Jo — rush to the football ground. They search for the intruder but he has already left and gone to nearby Garsley Towers, where he reports to his master, Jason Soames, who is a director of the club. He wants full possession of the ground but, to achieve this, he must destroy the team, who have part-ownership. Next day, the Morley Rovers start a match which is immediately interrupted when the clock tower explodes!
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS · Issue 766 · 31/10/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (James Higgins)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake, Tinker, Jo Hensen and Ted Wilson dive for cover as masonary rains down around them. In the aftermath of this act of sabotage, Blake deduces that whoever set the bomb must have reached the clock from outside the tower. A few days later, the team travel to an away match. During the game, the ball explodes releasing gas. The players collapse.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS · Issue 767 · 07/11/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (James Higgins)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker assist the players who are stricken by the gas fumes. With the game brought to a sudden close, the crowd disperses, many of them disgruntled at yet another cancelled match. Jason Soames revels in the chaos he has caused. Suspecting that the saboteur is near at hand, Blake arranges for Tinker to join the team. The following Saturday, at a match against Grassley Athletic, a helicopter swoops out of the sky trailing a noose which sweeps towards the Moorley Rovers captain. Tinker pushes the intended target aside and finds himself roped instead and dragged into the sky. As the helicopter speeds away, Blake sets off in pursuit. Meanwhile, Soames realises that he's hooked the wrong man.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS · Issue 771 · 05/12/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (James Higgins)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: This marks the end of the Sexton Blake serials in KNOCKOUT. Henceforth, complete tales of detection feature instead. They are significantly inferior in quality.
Unrated
KNOCKOUT AND COMIC CUTS · Issue 772 · 12/12/1953 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (W. Bryce Hamilton)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: When three ships from the Blue-Planet line are sunk in quick succession, Sexton Blake is commissioned to investigate. He and Tinker follow a ship from the line and spot a torpedo heading towards it. To their horror, when the ship responds to their warning by changing course, the torpedo changes course too. It hits but the captain has closed all the watertight doors, so the vessel is able to limp to port. In dry dock, Blake examines the damage and realises that the weapon was guided by magnets. Suddenly the dock gates open and water rushes in. Blake escapes and catches the culprit — a former captain of the line who is bent on revenge after being sacked.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 279 · Jan. 1953 · Amalgamated Press · 8d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: None
Notes: During the war, Bernice Chantelot worked for the French Resistance. Now, a decade later, she is murdered in a hotel after returning hastily from a visit to France. Her final telephone call is to Peter Muir, who had worked with her during the conflict. He discovers the body and is initially a suspect — a fact that brings him to Sexton Blake's attention. While Blake retraces Bernice's steps on the continent, Tinker follows Muir to a pub and witnesses him meeting with the landlady, Maud Denham, and her enigmatic daughter, Melanie. The next day, Muir vanishes, and, not long after, Maud reports to Tinker that Melanie has disappeared as well. As she leaves the Baker Street house, Maud is kidnapped by Hubert Alvey, Bernice's employer. He is searching for Melanie and takes her mother to France, where all the protagonists — Sexton Blake, Tinker, Peter Muir, Alvey and Maud — now gather. A prosperous lumber region owned by a man named Antoine Vallon appears to be the focus of the mystery and it is there that Blake begins to realise the true nature of the case. Maud and Alvey are both murdered and soon after, Mr Denham, Maud's husband, arrives from England to search for her. He visits the Vallon house where things aren't at all what they seem. A great deception occurred here during the days of the Resistance and its participants are prepared to go to any lengths to keep it secret. When Peter Muir also turns up, suppressed violence erupts. Sexton Blake and Tinker, who have untangled the mystery, arrive in time to witness that justice has been done. Melanie's whereabouts are revealed, as is her true identity. The adventure ends with her becoming Mrs Muir.
Trivia: Tinker uses his nom de plume of Carter.
Rating: ★★☆★☆
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 282 · Feb. 1953 · Amalgamated Press · 8d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: None
Notes: This was reprinted as a hardcover novel with the same title in 1968.
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 283 · Mar. 1953 · Amalgamated Press · 8d
Illustrator: Unknown
Other content: None
Notes: Story takes place in South Africa. This is a revised version of THE BLACK CLOUD from UNION JACK issue 1,265 (1928).
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 285 · Apr. 1953 · Amalgamated Press · 8d
Illustrator: Unknown
Other content: None
Notes: In Bombay, sailors Tom Lees and Jock Mackenzie are on a spree, enjoying their shore leave, when they fall in with a man who introduces himself as Mr Blair. He befriends them and allows them to drink liberally at his expense. He tells them that the best club in the city is the one run by Jasmine the Beautiful but that it is out-of-bounds for sailors. After giving them money to spend, he leaves them, telling them that he has to attend a party. Drunk, the two seamen ignore his advice and force their way into Jasmine's club where they engage in a huge fight with the patrons. They wake up in a police cell, accused of murder. Jasmine had been found dead and all the circumstantial evidence is against Lees and Mackenzie. In particular, the testimony of a woman named Aleeyas weighs against them. The Admiralty calls in Sexton Blake, who happens to be in India to investigate the whereabouts of the fortune of a banished maharajah. Details of its hiding place are thought to have been left in a diary but no-one knows where this book is. Blake discovers that Jasmine used to be the maharajah's favoured dancer but left him to set up her club some years previously. Then, when he was deposed, Aleeya, who had replaced her, joined Jasmine at the club. The detective therefore suspects Ayeela of involvement with the lost diary and with the frame-up of the sailors. That it is a frame-up is further proven when Blake discovers the location of the cafe where Lees and Mackenzie had met Blair. It has been transformed into a cigarette shop! It appears that Ayeela and Blair are in cahoots and may be responsible for Jasmine's death, killing her to recover the diary that had been entrusted to her by the maharajah. The tangled plot gradually unwinds as Blake discovers clue after clue and is eventually led to Blair, whose real name is Gordon Finney. He had been appointed as the Maharajah's financial advisor but, after being dismissed for misappropriating funds, had sought revenge, first by manipulating Ayeela into the position of 'court favourite' and then, when the maharajah was ousted, by seeking to gain his treasure. He had stolen the book and, having arranged a diversion in the form of the unwitting Tom Lees and Jock Mackenzie, had murdered the girl. Confronted by Blake, Finney shoots Ayeela to prevent her giving evidence against him. She survives and he is sent for trial where he's expected to be sentenced to death by hanging.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 298 · Oct. 1953 · Amalgamated Press · 8d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: None
Notes: Inspector James Reck of the Thames River Police is patrolling the waterway one night when he sees the 'ghost ship' — an extremely fast boat that appears whenever there's a big robbery in London. Reck tries to pursue the vessel but it is far too fast to catch. He does, though, discover a body in the river. He calls Inspector Clayton of Scotland Yard who reveals that steel magnate Sir Thomas Blay has just been robbed his three famous diamonds, the Triple Stars. Blay identifies the body as that of his valet and commissions Sexton Blake to investigate. Clayton catches a petty crook named Larry Parkes and finds upon him a gun — the murder weapon — and a diamond which an expert known as 'Diamond Willie', confirms is one of the missing Triple Stars. Blake sends Tinker to investigate the north bank of the Thames. His assistant later calls to tell him something about a pub called The Marquis of Grimsby. During the conversation, Blake hears Tinker being attacked and knocked out. Working with Reck, the detective surrounds the pub with policemen, goes in, and tells the landlord that unless Tinker is returned the premises will be raided. Tinker is returned. Next day, Diamond Willie informs Blake that he has seen a Russian diamond merchant, Kriminski, who he believes has come to claim the Triple Stars. In disguise, Blake visits the pub again and detects the sound of machinery coming from the basement. When he tells Clayton this, the Yard man informs him that he suspects a girl called Sheila Mason of complicity in the crimes. The two detectives get a warrant and search The Marquis of Grimsby but find nothing. When Diamond Willie reveals that Kriminski has approached him and asked about the diamonds, Blake decides to set a trap by letting it be known that the third Trinity Star is at Willie's office. Five thugs come to retrieve the stone but are all shot by Diamond Willie. The gang, which is headed by a man named Wilmington and sponsored by the Russian government, kidnaps Willie in revenge. Blake, upon learning that there will be a society event soon, realises that it's the gang's most likely next target and so arranges to be a guest there. Meanwhile, Tinker discovers a way into a secret cellar beneath the pub and rescues Diamond Willie. Willie then joins Reck on a fast naval vessel which lays in wait for the ghost ship. At the society event, the criminals swoop but are quickly rounded up, including Sheila Mason who turns out to be Wilmington's wife and the valet's murderer. Hearing of this, Wilmington attempts to flee on the ghost ship which is promptly intercepted by Reck. The head of the gang is captured and the diamonds are recovered.
Trivia: The title of this story bears no relation to the contents!
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
