Detective Chimp
Detective Chimp ( German detective chimpanzee or chimpanzee detective ) is the title of various series of comics that have been published by the US publisher DC-Comics since 1952 .
publication
The first story about "Detective Chimp" ( "Meet Detective Chimp" ) appeared in issue # 4 of the series "The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog" from July / August 1952, a comic about various fancy animals going on crazy adventures. The author of this story was the American John Broome , the drawings were done by the artist Carmine Infantino . The concept proved so popular that Chimp became a permanent feature of "Rex the Wonder Dog" starting with issue # 6 ( "The Return of Detective Chimp!" ) . From then on, every issue of the series contained a story about Chimp written by Broome until it was discontinued in 1959. As a draftsman, Infantino continued to work mostly on the Chimp series, but also such draftsmen and Inker as Sy Barry and Frank Giacoia.
From 1974 onwards, some old "Detective Chimp" stories were reissued as backup features within the " Tarzan " series , starting with issue # 230 from April / May 1974. After Chimp had disappeared for a little over a decade, that became Concept finally revived in 1989: Issue # 40 of the "Secret Origins" series told a new story about Chimp that retained the basic scenario, but varied it slightly and adapted it to the changing zeitgeist. Responsible for this story were the author Andy Helfer, the draftsman Rusty Wells and the ink artist Andy Badger.
From then on, new adventures in the series appeared in loose succession, most recently the special "The Helmet of Fate: The Detective Chimp" in March 2007. Since 2006, Chimp has also been one of the main characters in the "Mystery" series "Shadowpact".
Main character and plot
The title character of Detective Chimp is a chimpanzee named Bobo T. Chimpanzee , who uses his outstanding intelligence to solve tricky criminal cases. As "BT Chimp", Bobo runs the detective agency "Schimpanzee Investigations" as a private detective. Chimp, who wears his trademark , the so-called " Deerstalker hat" , as an homage to his great role model Sherlock Holmes , not only has human intelligence, but also the ability to speak.
In the original version of the material from the 50s, Chimp was just an "ordinary" chimpanzee, who was "intelligent" by the standards of its kind - and could even understand human conversations and make people understandable through gestures and facial expressions - but its intelligence in no way came close to the intelligence of the average person. In those early adventures, Chimp was the trained mascot of the office of Edward Chase , the sheriff of the American town of Oscaloosa County , Florida , who took care of him after Chimp helped him murder his previous owner, animal trainer Fred Thorpe to enlighten.
Later the character "Chimp" underwent a major overhaul: It was established that Thorpe Chimp caught on an expedition in Equatorial Africa in 1953 and then trained as a fairground attraction under the name "Bobo the Detective Chimp". In the course of his fairground number, since then it has been pretended that Chimp is a "master detective": The illusion was created by making Chimp respond to certain requests / circumstances / scenarios with fixed reactions through a rehearsed combination of gestural stimuli and rewards. During a trip to the Florida swamps, Chimp finally drank from the "spring of youth" - a magical well - and acquired the gift of being able to communicate with all living beings in their language. He also received the gift of eternal youth. It was also stated that after Chase's death, Chimp went into business for himself and opened his own law firm: the latter is the starting point for all "Detective Chimp" adventures.
Alone or as a member of the obscure organization "Bureau of Amplified Animals" , Chimp solves the craziest criminal cases in his adventures. The interweaving of typical clichés of classic detective materials such as the use of a magnifying glass to search for clues, wearing a Sherlock Holmes-typical English raincoat, the habit of excessive consumption of tobacco and alcohol, like the detectives of the so-called "black series", etc. A recurring theme of his adventures is his clients' refusal to pay their bills - which he cannot claim to be paid because chimpanzees are not recognized as legal entities by the US judiciary.
Recurring supporting characters in the Detective Chimp adventures are Chimp's fellow detective Ralph Dibny and John Jones (who is actually a Martian in disguise), the mysterious Phantom Stranger, and Rex the Wonder Dog , an intelligent dog.