Sexton Blake - Publication History

Publication History

The first Sexton Blake story was "The Missing Millionaire". Written by Harry Blyth (under the pen-name Hal Meredeth) it appeared in the story paper The Halfpenny Marvel #6, on December 20, 1893. He appeared in a few more stories by Meredeth.

His adventures subsequently appeared in a variety of publications, primarily Union Jack, launched in April 1894. Blake appeared in Issue 2 of Union Jack (under the title Sexton Blake, Detective) and in 1904 the character went on to become the star of the title until Union Jack became Detective Weekly in 1933. Blake continued as the lead feature until Detective Weekly folded in 1940.

Blake also appeared in a number of serials in The Boys' Friend beginning in 1905 and in Penny Pictorial from 1907 to 1913 (when that magazine folded). The Boys' Friend introduced the first truly lengthy stories (of up to 60,000 words), allowing for greater plot and character development.

In 1907, a story entitled "Sexton Blake's Honour" dealt with Blake's pursuit of a criminal who turned out to be his brother, Henry Blake. Another bad brother, Nigel, was revealed in 1933 in the first issue of Detective Weekly, in a story titled "Sexton Blake's Secret".

With the popularity of school stories during this era, Blake's assistant Tinker had his schooldays chronicled in issues 229 and 232. Perhaps most famously, Blake starred in his own long-running title, The Sexton Blake Library, from 1915 to 1968 which was published in five "series". Publication was constant at 2–4 issues per month until the end of series 4 in 1964. Series 5, starting in 1965, was a sporadic series of paperbacks.

The first issue of The Sexton Blake Library appeared on 20 September 1915, entitled "The Yellow Tiger" and written by G.H. Teed. This issue introduced villains Wu Ling and Baron de Beauremon in an eleven chapter story, costing 3d (1.25p). The second issue, "Ill Gotten Gains (The Secret of Salcoth Island)", saw Blake fight Count Carlac and Professor Kew. Issue three was entitled "The Shadow of his Crime" and issue four "The Rajah's Revenge". The last edition, "Down Among The Ad Men" written by W.A Ballinger (Wilfred McNeilly), was published in October 1968. Some additional Sexton Blake books were published in 1968 and 1969 that were not explicitly labelled as part of the Sexton Blake Library.

The majority of Sexton Blake Library covers (prior to editor William Howard Baker's 1956 revamp of the character) were painted by master Sexton Blake illustrator Eric Parker.

Writers who worked on Blake's appearances throughout this 53-year span included John Creasey, Jack Trevor Story and Michael Moorcock.

After Fleetway ceased publishing the Sexton Blake Library series at the end of its fourth volume in 1963, Blake editor William Howard Baker licensed the character from IPC and published a fifth volume independently, via Mayflower-Dell Books, that ran until 1968. He then published a final series of four Sexton Blake novels, under his Howard Baker Books imprint, in 1969.

A series of 160-page Sexton Blake annuals, featuring old stories and new material, began in 1938 and lasted till 1941.

Blake comic strips appeared in The Knock-Out Comic (later Knock-Out Comic & Magnet and, finally, simply Knockout) from 1939 to 1960. The Blake strip was originally illustrated by artist Jos Walker and then taken over by Alfred Taylor, who illustrated Blake's adventures for ten years. The undoubted highlight of Blake's 21-year run in Knockout was a 14-part 1949 strip drawn by Blake's greatest illustrator Eric Parker, entitled "The Secret of Monte Cristo". This was Parker's only contribution to Blake's comic strip adventures.

There was one Super Detective Library appearance for Blake: issue 68 (published November 1955), featuring a comic strip entitled "Sexton Blake's Diamond Hunt".

Four hardbacks designed for the younger market were published by Dean & Son Ltd in 1968 (the third of these, "Raffles' Crime in Gibraltar", portrayed Blake going up against Raffles, E.W. Hornung's amateur cracksman).

A final Sexton Blake comic strip (launched to tie in with the 1967–1971 TV show) appeared in IPC's weekly boys' anthology Valiant from January 1968 to May 1970.

A seven part Blake comic strip appeared in IPC's Tornado comic from March 1979 to May 1979. A contract dispute (subsequently resolved in IPC's favour) led the Tornado editorial team to rename Blake as "Victor Drago" (and Tinker & Pedro as "Spencer & Brutus") for the duration of this strip.

In 2009, IPC's information manager, David Abbott, signed several licenses to publish Blake omnibus archive editions, the first of which is The Casebook of Sexton Blake, published by Wordsworth Editions Ltd. on 5 March 2009.