Captain ILL has the utmost respect for amateur crimefighters like Nancy Drew and Frank and Joe Hardy. In fact, way back in the day, when the Captain was just an itty bitty superhero, he would voraciously devour every Hardy Boy book he could get his hands on. While Captain ILL has his own particular crimefighting style that involves a lot more booting than Frank and Joe ever used, he ocassionally still has to find a clue now and then before the booting can commence. So thanks to Nancy and the Boys for reminding a stubborn old superhero of his roots; in their honor, for the next week, the Captain will find two clues for every criminal he boots instead of the usual zero.
3 comments:
I read a biography of "Franklin W. Dixon" a while back, and he was actually Edward Stratemeyer, who developed Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys into the giant syndicate we know today. I was surprised to learn that the Hardy Boy books I grew up reading were actually pale imitations of the original releases --- the earlier books had more description and more character development that was edited out of later editions. I'm still waiting for my roadster (and my chums.)
D'oh. Turns out the book I remember was "The Ghost of the Hardy Boys", which was NOT written by Stratemeyer (who would never reveal his secrets) but instead was written by Leslie McFarlane, who is considered the "author" of the first 20 or so HB books. Good thing I don't have any super powers -- I'd be forever apologizing for booting in error.
Captain ILL was also shocked when some librarian casually mentioned that Mr. Dixon and Ms. Keene were actually several different persons writing under the same name. He wasn't quite as shocked to learn that his collection of Hardy Boys books had been modernized.
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