About This Book
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. The 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, it includes a history of the creation of the comic, an interview with its creator and an episode list of the Girl Detective TV show as well as special features including a Velda paper doll kit and the complete 1952 Velda pinup calendar. The comics also include vintage ads as well as featurettes such as Hawkshaw Hawk, Bird Detective and Neolithica: Girl of the Pleistocene. Velda has also been featured in a series of radio plays broadcast by NPR - as well as a full-length stage play. Velda is the kind of detective I like.- Richard S. Prather (writer, Shell Scott novels). Hubba Hubba! - Kevin Burton Smith, thrillingdetective.com. A pulp classic! If you like your action gritty, yet full of surprises, then you'll love Velda... - Rick Overton (writer, Dennis Miller Show, actor). The Velda Comic is spectacular. I felt like I was a kid again as it had the real flavor of the old detective comics I used to read. - Bob Burns
