Publisher: Crestwood Publications
Publication Dates: June-July 1948 – February-March 1949
Number of Issues Published: 5 (#v1#1 (1) – #v1#5)
Color: Color
Dimensions: Standard Golden Age U. S.
Paper Stock: Newsprint
Binding: Saddle-stitched
Publishing Format: Was Ongoing Series
Publisher: Dell
Publication Dates: October-December 1965 – March 1966
Number of Issues Published: 2 (#1 – #2)
Color: Color
Dimensions: Standard Silver Age U. S.
Publisher: DC
Publication Dates: May-June 1958 – March-April 1959
Number of Issues Published: 6 (#1 – #6)
Color: color
Dimensions: standard Silver Age US
Paper Stock: glossy cover; newsprint interior
Binding: saddle-stitched
Publishing Format: was ongoing series
Publisher: Malibu
Publication Dates: March 1989 – August 1989
Number of Issues Published: 6 (#1 – #6)
Color: color cover; black & white interior
Dimensions: standard modern age US
Binding: saddle-stitched
This short-lived series was a licensed property based on the Charlie Chan television series starring J. Carroll Naish as Charlie Chan and James Hong as his son, Barry Chan.
Charlie Chan is a fictional U.S. Chinese detective created by Earl Derr Biggers. Loosely basing Chan on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Chan is a detective for the Honolulu police, though many stories feature Chan traveling the world as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.
Chan first appeared in Biggers’ novels, then was featured in a number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. The character was first portrayed by East Asian actors, and the films met with little success. In 1931, the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland as Chan in Charlie Chan Carries On; the film became popular, and Fox went on to produce fifteen more Chan films with Oland in the title role. After Oland’s death, U.S. actor Sidney Toler was cast as Chan; Toler made twenty-two Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios. After Toler’s death, six films were made, starring Roland Winters.
Readers and movie-goers greeted Chan warmly (in the 1930s, audiences even in Shanghai found the character positive and funny), but twenty-first century critics have taken contending views. Some see Chan as an attractive character who is portrayed as intelligent, heroic, benevolent and honorable in contrast to the racist depictions of evil or conniving Asians which dominated Hollywood and national media. Others find that Chan, despite his good qualities, reinforces condescending stereotypes such as an alleged incapacity to speak idiomatic English and a tradition-bound and subservient nature. Many found it objectionable that he was played on screen by Caucasian actors in so-called Yellowface.
More recent film adaptations in the 1990s have been poorly received. The character has been featured in several radio programs, two television shows, and comics.
A Charlie Chan comic strip, drawn by Alfred Andriola, was distributed by the McNaught Syndicate beginning October 24, 1938. Andriola was chosen by Biggers to draw the character. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the strip was dropped in May 1942.
Over decades, other Charlie Chan comic books have been published: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Prize Comics’ Charlie Chan (1948) which ran for five issues. It was followed by a Charlton Comics title (four issues, 1955). DC Comics published The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, a 1958 tie-in with the TV series; the DC series lasted for six issues. Dell Comics did the title for two issues in 1965. In the 1970s, Gold Key Comics published a short-lived series of Chan comics based on the Hanna-Barbera animated series.
In addition, a board game, The Great Charlie Chan Detective Mystery Game (1937), and a Charlie Chan Card Game (1939), have been released.
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