Sexton Blake Bibliography: 1943
Publishing: Author Walter Tyrer joins the ranks of Sexton Blake writers. Born in 1900, he sold his first story (non-Blake) in 1921 and by 1947 had sold at least 20,000,000 words of juvenile fiction. He died in 1978, aged 78.
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 201 · 02/01/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and his group approach The Penguin's secret base under cover of darkness. After overpowering a sentry, they manage to locate Helen James and rush upon their enemy in an attempt to save her.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 202 · 09/01/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake finds the hut where the Penguin is holding Helen James captive. The detective orders Tinker to take Helen and her father to the Rolling Sphere. After disabling the radio station, Blake and Rastus then adjust the giant gun, so that it will fire straight upward, the shell then descending to destroy the base.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 203 · 16/01/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Tinker returns to the island to assist Blake. He arrives just as the detective fires the gun. The falling shell will kill him! Blake uses a rope to lasso his assistant, yanking him out of the way just in time. The bomb destroys the dyke beside the gun, and the sea comes rushing in. The base is destroyed. Blake, Tinker, Rastus and Cobber Brown are swept along on the swirling tide. They see the Rolling Sphere coming to their rescue.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 204 · 23/01/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: The flood drags Blake and his companions away from the Rolling Sphere. They climb onto a wooden hut, which is being swept along with them, only to find that the Penguin is already on it, along with two Japanese soldiers. After a brief fight, the villains are knocked into the water. The heroes climb aboard the sphere and head out to see, their adventure reaching its conclusion. Immediately, HQ radios and ordeers them to Ceylon.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 205 · 30/01/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and his friends arrive in the Rolling Sphere at Colombo, Ceylon, to receive instructions. They are ordered to the Mediterranean, where they are to contact a submarine. However, when they locate it, they find that it is being attacked by three bombers. The sphere shoots two down but the third escapes and flies away to alert the Penguin. A general aboard the sub instructs Blake to recover secret documents that are in the safe aboard a sunken French battleship. The sphere locates the wreck ... but so, too, does a mysterious deep sea diver.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 206 · 06/02/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: In the Rolling Sphere, Sexton Blake and his allies discover the sunken ship, the Tourraine. Blake dons a diving suit and crosses to the wreck to search for the missing documents. He finds that he is not alone ... another diver is hunting for the papers. The two men fight and Blake overpowers his foe, who turns out to be The Penguin. As he leaves, the detective finds himself cornered by a group of enemy divers.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 208 · 20/02/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake is rescued by his friends aboard the Rolling Sphere which then submerges and fights off an enemy fleet. Later, at midnight, the Sphere surfaces and is met by a flying boat. Blake and Tinker are escorted to London while the Sphere proceeds to Gibraltar. The detective is given a new mission — to work with the French Resistance — and a small tank. Upon arrival on the French coast, he and Tinker drive inland but are pursued by Nazi tanks. Blake steers into the yard of a farm. When the Nazis arrive, the British tank seems to have vanished!
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 219 · 08/05/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: After sabotaging the submarine construction yard, Sexton Blake and Tinker dodge into a tunnel which leads them to another part of the site. From here, they gain entry into the giant submarine and load a torpedo which they fire at a stack of dynamite. The explosion brings down the roof of the cavern, totally destroying the submarine. But can the detectives escape?
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 220 · 15/05/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Blake and Tinker escape through an air shaft and are met by members of the Resistance. They are taken to the coast where Hoo Sung and Bert Smith wait in the Rolling Sphere. General Johnson is also present and gives Blake a new mission: to find out whether the Nazis are building a flying aircraft carrier. The Sphere proceeds to Naples where Blake and Tinker find a secret air base. They witness the gigantic aircraft carrier taking off and vow to destroy the base before any more can be constructed.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 222 · 29/05/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker enter the aircraft hanger workshop at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. Here, they find a second Flying Aircraft-Carrier under construction. However, before they can wreck it, they are spotted by a sentry. They flee, knocking down the Penguin, and escape in a Nazi bomber. Flying over the volcano, they drop a bomb into it, causing it to erupt.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 224 · 12/06/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Blake and Tinker's commandeered plane is hit by enemy fire. Tinker radios an S.O.S. which is responded to by Hoo Sung. After crash landing in the sea, the detectives are picked up by the Rolling Sphere. However, the Sphere is spotted by the enemy and the Italian fleet launches an all-out attack.
Rating: ★★★★☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 225 · 19/06/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Hoo Sung crashes the Rolling Sphere into the hull of one of the Italian ships, before submerging and fleeing from the falling depth charges. The enemy is left behind and the Sphere proceeds to the secret airbase where the British flying aircraft carrier is being constructed. Blake informs the authorities the the Nazi carrier is already in service. He and Tinker are offered a ride in the British version, which is about to go in search of its counterpart.
Rating: ★★★★★
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 226 · 26/06/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: The huge British flying aircraft carrier lifts off with Sexton Blake and Tinker aboard. It travels to Sicily in search of its Nazi counterpart and quickly encounters the enemy. Swarms of fighters engage, with Blake and Tinker flying among them. When their fighter is hit, they parachute onto the German carrier where The Penguin awaits.
Rating: ★★★★★
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 241 · 09/10/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Blake and Tinker have been captured by German troops. The detective confesses that he and his assistant are agents and have been sent to rendezvous with a confederate at a nearby windmill. Tinker, astonished, cannot understand why his guv'nor has given the game away. As the enemy commander orders two of his men to carry the radio transmitter, Blake surreptitiously drops a hand grenade that has a delayed action fuse. The group sets off, the commander intent on capturing Kurt Loder at the windmill. Behind them, the grenade detonates. The Germans go back to investigate, leaving two men to keep an eye on the prisoners. This is exactly what Blake had intended. He and Tinker overpower the guards and make their way to the windmill, where they are greeted by Loder. He informs them that he has another hideout nearby, to which they should flee, blowing up the windmill behind them to destroy the evidence it contains. This is done, and as Blake, Tinker and Loder clamber into a hollow tree stump — the entrance to an underground shelter — the mill is swallowed by a ball of flame.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 244 · 30/10/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker help the free Germans to fix explosives to the Bodensee Viaduct. A Nazi patrol spots them but too late — the bridge explodes. In the confusion, Blake's party escapes. Returning to headquarters, they learn that British planes are on their way. The R.A.F. bombers drop munitions to the freedom fighters but, while Blake and his friends collect the shipment, the Penguin arrives on the scene!
Rating: ★★★☆☆
KNOCK-OUT COMIC AND MAGNET · Issue 248 · 27/11/1943 · Amalgamated Press · 3d
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: Blake and Tinker are called to a conference in London, which is also attended by Hoo Sung. They are instructed to go to China where, over a stretch of the Burma Road where there is no Japanese military presence, allied planes are mysteriously vanishing. When the Rolling Sphere reaches China, it is spotted by enemy destroyers, so submerges to avoid them. The water, however, is too shallow to allow for avoidance of depth charges. Hoo Sung has a solution. He sends the sphere upward and, by means of suction-tipped arms, has it attach itself to the hull of one of the battleships. In this manner, the explosions are avoided.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
KNOCK-OUT FUN BOOK 1943 · Date unknown · Amalgamated Press · Price unknown
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Other content: Various strips and text stories.
Notes: None at present.
Unrated
Notes: None at present.
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 39 · Jan. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: Playing for Safety (article)
Notes: At an Army base some thirty miles outside London, Private James Carter is falling for one of the girls who occasionally works in the canteen; a mysterious American named Eve Dorien. Arranging to meet her outside the camp, Carter is attacked by two men wearing theatrical make-up. He breaks free from them and returns to his barracks. Next morning, the police arrive and arrest him for the murder of Miss Dorien. His clasp knife, which he had lost the day before, had been used to kill the girl and disfigure her face, making the corpse unrecognisable. Carter's C.O. asks Sexton Blake to investigate. The detective learns that Eve had worked for Julius Cattray, an important American who has recently had some vital papers pertaining to government business stolen from him. Tinker discovers that Eve has rented her flat to a rather oily character named Mr Ledbetter. He works for a film company and, after breaking into his flat, Tinker finds evidence that Carter's attackers, Higson and Tug, also work at the studios. Higson makes an attempt on Cattray's life but is foiled by Blake. He then kills the doorman at the building where Eve used to live when he learns that the man saw her alive after the time of her supposed death. Realising that the murder victim was disfigured to disguise the fact that Eve is still alive, Blake wonders whether the missing girl has been kidnapped because she learned of a plot to steal papers from Cattray. Ledbetter, who is second in command of the spy ring responsible, has Higson shot to prevent him from betraying the mysterious figure who leads it. Top suspects are Holbein and Bennison, Cattray's secretaries... but when the former is shot at by Tug — who is then critically injured when he crashes his motorcycle — and the latter is gunned down, it begins to seem as if the plot might originate at a much higher level. Tinker, aided by Private Carter, traces the whereabouts of Eve; finding her drugged and in the power of the gang. Blake, meanwhile, discovers how the documents are being smuggled out of the country and sets a trap for the mastermind behind the scheme. Avoiding a hand grenade and a hail of bullets, he brings the criminals to justice, exposing their leader as a Nazi sympathiser.
Rating: ★★★★☆
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 41 · Feb. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: Unsolved Murders (article)
Trivia: The cover gets the author's initials wrong: 'L.G.' instead of the correct 'L.C.'
Notes: None at present.
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 42 · Feb. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: Three "Real Life" Stories (article); The Clue of the Two Letters (article).
Notes: None at present.
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 45 · Apr. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: Threatened Lives (article)
Notes: Blake is visited by Mrs. Letitia Hardman, whose husband, Jim, an engineer, has been convicted for blowing up a wing of the Unity Production Company in Blackridge near Manchester. It’s an act of sabotage for which he insists he is innocent despite explosives being found under his bed at Mrs. Marrable’s lodging house where he’d been staying. Blake heads to Blackridge where he learns that Hardman claimed he was walking home from a pub when the explosion occurred. However, a fellow lodger, Miss Smith, contradicts this, insisting that he’d been at the cinema with her at the time. Another key piece of evidence is that Hardman had received a considerable amount of money through the post, most likely payment for the crime, though he claims it was winnings from playing the horses with an associate named Charlie. This, Blake quickly establishes, is true. Sensing that Hardman has been framed by the real saboteur, he and Tinker relocate to Blackridge and take lodgings at Mrs. Marrable’s. Immediately, they catch Mrs. Smith spinning a web of lies. They also become suspicious of a tenant named Allman. The investigation closes in on a watchmaker's shop and its owner, Cox. Blake discovers that the 15th—in three days—is a key date and the sewerage plant is somehow involved in whatever is going to happen. He commissions an ex-petty thief of his acquaintance to keep the shop under surveillance. When this man is murdered, he realises that the saboteurs are now on their guard. Allman tries to kill Blake by opening a gas tap in his room. The detective feigns death and the villains mistakenly consider him to be out of the picture. On the 15th, Tinker keeps watch on the shop and sees three individuals lower themselves through a manhole into a sewer tunnel. Policemen follow. The tunnel runs beneath a factory. Blake and more policemen are waiting there. The pincers of the trap close around the German agents and their plan is foiled. Smith is captured and she confesses all. Cox and Allman die while attempting to escape. Jim Hardman, proved innocent, is released from prison.
Trivia: Upon entering the Baker Street house and climbing the stairs, one comes to a landing onto which three doors open. The one on the right gives access to a laboratory. The one straight ahead presumably leads through to the consulting room. An inner door connects the two chambers.
Blake uses dousing rods to detect the course of an underground conduit.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 47 · May 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: The Laughing Guillotine (article)
Notes: This was filmed as THE ECHO MURDERS starring David Farrar as Sexton Blake.
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 49 · Jun. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: The Unheard Shot (article)
Notes: This is Zenith the Albino's very last story. Sexton Blake is commissioned to investigate the theft of a statuette — the Bronze Basilisk — from Brunton House, a building perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. Pretty soon, he finds himself caught in the middle of gang warfare. The occupant of the house, a criminal named Minchfield, is battling with Zenith for possession of the statuette. Minchfield is a thoroughly nasty piece of work; he brutally murders one of his own servants. When the the two criminals set their henchmen against Blake, the detective is pushed to his physical limits. He survives the attempts on his life and discovers that Zenith has planted time-bombs across London to simulate an air-raid. While the populace heads for the shelters, his gang will be emptying houses of their valuables. Blake tackles the albino in one of the houses and both men are caught by the exploding bomb. Injured, they are captured by Minchfield's mob. Zenith appears to be dead. However, Blake is conscious and manages to get a message to Tinker, who rescues him. Later, he visits Smith's Kitchen — the club for criminals that Zenith has always frequented. He finds albino lying in state. Minchfield has set this up to win the loyalty of his enemy's henchmen. Zenith is, though, very much alive and is soon on the run with the gang boss's loot. Tinker is next to fall into Minchfield's hands and is nearly tortured (a knife is slipped into his cheek in preparation to disfigure him), only escaping when Blake wades in. The Minchfield gang is finally defeated but their boss escapes and confronts the albino. A fight erupts but Blake saves Zenith and captures Minchfield, handing him over to Detective Inspector Coutts. In the confusion, though, Zenith has once again made a clean getaway. Blake deduces that the Bronze Basilisk must be hidden in Brunton House. He heads there and once again battles Zenith. Unknown to both, Griffin's widow — determined to avenge her husband's murder — has planted dynamite at the base of the building. The blast sends the house sliding into the sea. Blake is knocked senseless by falling debris. He regains consciousness lying on a huge pile of rubble at the water's edge. He searches for Zenith and finds his cloak and hat, but of the albino there is no sign. Finally, he unravels the secret of the basilisk and all the plot's loose threads are finally tied.
Trivia: Eric Parker's cover is interesting in that Zenith appears to be considerably aged. A touch of realism perhaps ... and a clue to Sexton Blake's greatest secret (see THE SEXTON BLAKE TIMELINE).
Rating: ★★★★★ A thrilling but extraordinarily violent adventure. The contrast between Zenith's old-world charm and Minchfield's modern brutality is profound.
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 52 · Jul. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: Asking For Trouble (article)
Notes: This shouldn't be confused with CALLING WHITEHALL 1212 (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 3rd series, issue 275) by Hugh Clevely, which is an entirely different Sexton Blake novel.
Unrated
THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY · 3rd series · Issue 54 · Aug. 1943 · Amalgamated Press · 7d
Illustrator: Eric Parker
Other content: Danger Underground (article)
Notes: None at present.
Unrated
Notes: None at present
Unrated
