MURDER ISN’T FUNNY [A Mike Lanson Mystery] by J. Harvey Bond

CRIME REPORTER INVESTIGATES THE DEATH OF THE KING OF THE FUNNY PAGES—AND FINDS MURDER IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!

"Cash reward and no questions asked if the six original drawings of the comic strip DREAM MAN are returned immediately…"

Mike Lanson, crime reporter for the Gazette, was told by his editor to follow this ad which appeared in their classified section. But the advertiser had already been picked up by the FBI for questioning—and instead, Mike found murder. This, in turn, led to Mike getting fired from the only job he knew how to do.

Mike knew the murderer was to be found in the strange, neurotic world of comic-strip writers and artists. To find the tie-up and get his job back, he'd have to plunge himself deep into that unpredictable talent pool—that is, if the killer didn't pin him to his murder board first.

"A mystery about the death of a comic-strip artist. There's a lot in the book about how comic strips were produced back in the '50s, about the syndication, about how the artist and the writer worked, and so on. The narrator is a newspaper reporter, so there's a good bit about newspapers, too. The plot involves not one, not two, but three beautiful women, and there are plenty of complications. Bond's (or Winterbotham's) writing is smooth and professional. I always enjoy a brief return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when life was a bit different from the way it is now." —Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine

In this mystery classic you will meet:

Mike Lanson: No one believed what he said about this not-so-funny murder—except the murderer.

Sherman S. Sydney: He was killed because he fell in love with the wrong people—the ones he created on his drawing board.

Nora Donovan: All her heroes were in the funny pages.

Arthur Gervais: This ghost writer almost became a ghost!

Max Vickery: He was a good artist—which almost turned out too bad for him.

Phylana Kane: What she knew made her dangerous—would it also make her dead?