Comic Review: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie #1

Anyone who has ever met me eventually discovers I am a huge Nancy Drew fan and have been since I read my first Nancy Drew mystery – The Clue in the Old Album (original text) – when I was nine years old, way back in 1973.

Why Nancy Drew and not the Hardy Boys? Well, even then I was more into mysteries than adventure stories, and, to me, the Hardys always read as more of an adventure story with hints of mystery than actual mysteries. For what it’s worth, when I re-read the Hardys as an adult I am surprised at how much mystery there is in some of the books, especially in the revised texts.

A Little History . . .

Nancy Drew was the last successful series created by Edward Stratemeyer, a book packager who created and published series through several publishers, including Grosset & Dunlap (now part of Penguin Random House, LLC) and Cupples & Leon (defunct). He would create the outlines for volumes in a series and farm them out to carefully selected ghostwriters to flesh out.

Nancy Drew was first published in 1930, and the Hardy Boys debuted three years earlier – in 1927. Other Stratemeyer Syndicate series include the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, the Rover Boys, the Dana Girls, Kay Tracey, and Linda Craig. In all, more than 100 series were created by Stratemeyer and, after his death in 1930, his daughters, Harriet Adams and Edna Squier. The last series created by the syndicate was Wynn & Lonny, a six-book series set in the world of auto racing. In 1984, the surviving partners of the Stratemeyer Syndicate sold the properties to Simon & Schuster, who continue to publish Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books.

(Another popular Syndicate series was The Happy Hollisters. The series, created by Andrew E. Svenson and loosely based on his family, was given outright to Svenson upon his retirement from the Stratemeyer Syndicate.)

I’ve already used the terms “original text” and “revised text.” Collectors use these terms to denote the fact that the early volumes of both the Nancy Drew (34 volumes) and the Hardy Boys (38 volumes) series were revised to shorten stories to a maximum of 20 chapters, remove negative stereotypes (racial and/or ethnic, primarily), and/or update the stories in other ways including – at times – creating a new story based on the original title.

What may surprise some readers is that the original Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books were written for an older audience (12- to 16-year-olds), though by the time I started reading the series the back of the Hardy Boys books proclaimed, “All boys 10-14 who likes lively adventure stories . . ..” (This was later changed to “Anyone 10-14 . . .,” which even then made a lot of sense as boys were reading Nancy Drew books and girls were reading the Hardy Boys.) Currently, the Nancy Drew Diaries and Hardy Boys Adventures stories are written for the 8- to 12-year-old crowd and there are series for both that appeal to even younger readers.

. . . before the main attraction . . . uh, the review . . .

One of the first things Simon & Schuster attempted was to hold on to readers of the ongoing Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series (then at 74 and 81 volumes, respectively) by beginning to create books for older readers. The final two books in both series (Nancy Drew 77 and 78; Hardy Boys 84 and 85) before placing the original series on hiatus for more than a year were written for a teen audience. The books featured more mature themes including more serious crimes, romance and war in third-world countries. Evidently the experiment was successful as the publisher launched the Nancy Drew Files in 1986 and the Hardy Boys Casefiles in 1987. Spinoff series included the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys SuperMysteries (1988), River Heights (1989), and Nancy Drew on Campus (1995). Even Tom Swift got a new series in 1990.

Since 1998, however, Simon & Schuster has focused both series on the reader who is 12 or younger. That changed as of March 8, 2017.

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie #1 by writer Anthony Del Col (who secured the license to use the characters from Simon & Schuster and then shopped around for a publisher – the opposite of how things are usually done), artist Werther Dell’Edera, and colorist Stefano Simeone brings Nancy Drew, Frank and Joe Hardy, and their world into the 21^st century in a noir-inspired setting where corruption is simmering just below the surface of an East Coast resort town like Bayport.

Synopsis: The Big Lie is a Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery unlike any other you've ever read...

When the teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are accused of the murder of their father – a detective in the small resort town of Bayport – they must team up with the femme fatale Nancy Drew to prove their innocence (and find the real guilty party in the process) in a twisting, hard-boiled tale, complete with double-crosses, deceit and dames.

Inspired by new crime classics like Ed Brubaker's Fatale and Darwyn Cooke's Parker series, writer Anthony Del Col (Assassin's Creed, Kill Shakespeare) and artist Werther Dell'Edera (Batman: Detective Comics, House of Mystery) bring the iconic teen detectives into the modern age, and redefine noir for a new generation of readers!

Readers are introduced first to Bayport, described as a “. . . postcard kind of town. Postcards that show off all of its best parts.” The art on Page 1 reminds me of the location shots movie viewers would see in early James Bond movies of the ‘60s, where everything would look bright and happy just before the seedy underbelly is revealed. Colorist Stefano Simeone perfectly complements Werther Dell’Edera’s art on the first page by using techniques to duplicate (as closely as 21^st century printing technology allows) the color palette and appearance of a 1960s or ‘70s comic printed on newsprint, right down to having the dots of color visible. Turning the page, the art and colors take on a different tone that immediately informs the reader that not everything in Bayport is as pretty as a postcard.

It is evident that Anthony Del Col has not only read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books but has an affection for the characters. Yet he doesn’t allow that affection to keep Nancy, Frank, and Joe encased in the shrine of perfection that make up many of the books published from the 1950’s through the early ‘80s. Del Col states in the back of the first issue, “With this series I’m continuing the three teens’ quest to out-smart evil adults and organizations. But the world today is more complicated, and thus their adventures should be. That’s why I’ve put them in a whole new genre – the hard-boiled noir.”

No, Frank, Joe, and Nancy (what we see of her in the first issue) aren’t suddenly cursing like sailors, sporting tattoos, throwing back three fingers of scotch – neat, using drugs, or involved with busty, leggy blondes (or brunettes or redheads) who are more trouble than they’re worth, but they exhibit different characteristics than what we’ve been shown for years: that Frank is the thinker, Joe the impulsive one, and Nancy the one who puts all the pieces of the puzzle together. So far it appears that Nancy is the strategist for the trio and that Frank isn’t thinking of much other than fighting with Joe. And then there’s Bayport police chief Ezra Collig, whose law-and-order personality from the books is gone and in its place in The Big Lie is a man who is described by Frank as “not the smartest app on the phone.” Yet, later in the story, Collig and Detective Sam Peterson have a conversation where Collig shows he may be a little bit smarter than he appears while interrogating Frank.

Also making an appearance or mentioned by name in the first issue are Tom Swift and Nan and Bert Bobbsey, and the solicitation for the fourth issue of the miniseries mentions the name “Rover.” Del Col has certainly done his research on the Stratemeyer properties. While it is possible these are Easter eggs for long-time readers/series book collectors, I have a hunch that they will play a part in the rest of the miniseries.

For the covers of the first issue, Dynamite gathered an amazing roster of talent, including main cover artist for the series Fay Dalton, interior artist Werther Dell’Edera, Emma Vieceli, and Robert Hack.

To say that I’m excited about this miniseries – and future possibilities – is a major understatement. One issue in and I’m already hoping that Simon & Schuster will allow Del Col, Dell’Edera, and Simeone the opportunity to create additional stories for Dynamite Entertainment and that – once again – Simon & Schuster will realize there is also a market for a more “mature” series of novels featuring Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and possibly other Stratemeyer Syndicate properties. Del Col has capably proven that the characters can be taken in a more serious direction without resorting to excessive cursing (the word “ass” is used once in the first issue, and then by Detective Peterson) or anything else that might prevent the characters being marketed for younger readers at the same time.

Rating: An enthusiastic 5/5

Cover Gallery

 

Top row, from left, Cover A - Fay Dalton; Cover B - Emma Vieceli; Subscription Cover C - Robert Hack; Hardy Boys Artboard Sketch 1:10 Incentive Cover D - Werther Dell'Edera; and Nancy Drew Artboard Sketch 1:20 Incentive Cover E - Werther Dell'Edera; bottom row, from left, Virgin Art 1:30 Incentive Cover F - Emma Vieceli; Virgin Art 1:40 Incentive Cover G - Robert Hack; Virgin Art 1:50 Incentive Cover H - Fay Dalton; Final Order Cutoff 1:5 Incentive Cover I - Werther Dell'Edera; and Fried Pie Variant Cover J - Robert Hack. (All images obtained from Dynamite Entertainment's website.)