Velda

Inspired by the lurid comic book crime publications of the 1950s!

My name is Velda Bellinghausen. I'm a private investigator. I used to be a showgirl at Slotnik's Follies, but I got pretty sick and tired of shedding my clothes twice a day, four times on weekends for matinees. So I followed up on an ad I saw on a matchbook cover and sent in my twenty bucks for the Hawkshaw Course on Detection. It was the best twenty bucks I ever spent, too! In no time at all, I had my license and was in business for myself! Now I'm called upon to investigate murders, burglaries, and all sorts of crimes occurring in the big city.

Velda: Girl Detective - Volume One is a multi-leveled representation of not only the more lurid of the 1950s crime comics but of comic collecting itself. This book is also more than a passing homage to the noir films and hard-boiled detective school of writing of the 1950s. Purporting to be an anthology of all the issues of a little-known golden age comic, Volume One includes a history of the creation of the Velda: Girl Detective comic, an interview with its creator and an episode list of the "Girl Detective" TV show as well as special features. Also included are the vintage ads as well as comic features such as "Hawkshaw Hawk, Bird Detective" and "Neolithica: Girl of the Pleistocene."