Ace Mifflin
Created by Ted Slampyak

Here's another private eye spawned during the 1980's comic book/graphic novel boom/renaissance. In the "jazz age" of 1926 Boston, ALEXANDER C. "ACE" MIFFLIN is a private detective who appeared in a series of excellent, well-researched adventures in creator Slampyak's Jazz Age Chronicles, alternating with stories about a hoity-toity archaeology professor (and Indiana Jones wannabe) Dr. Clifton Jennings.

Ace is no prize -- he's a rude, vulgar, and frequently drunken lout, and is constantly getting his P.I. ticket revoked. He works out of his office on Boston's notorious Scollay Square -- when he's not sleeping one off -- and has rarely shown any evidence of professionalism or respect for authority. 

Lord knows what his long-suffering sweetie and secretary, Rita Burns, sees in him.

A great but woefully-neglected series, full of pulpy energy, and featuring a cheerfully-imperfect hero. but maybe things are looking up. In 2002, Jazz Age returned, as part of the short-lived subscription-based webcomics anthology Adventure Strips.com, edited by Christopher Mills, co-creator of the online comic Femme Noir and former editor of Noir. When AdventureStrips crashed and burned, Ace dusted himself off and soon found a new home at JazzAgeComics.com.

COMICS

• THE JAZZ AGE CHRONICLES
  (1989-91, Caliber Press)
  Volume 1, 3 issues
  Art and Text by Ted Slampyk.
  .

• "The Case of the Beguiling Baroness" (1989,# 1-3).
  .

• THE JAZZ AGE CHRONICLES
  (1989-91, Caliber Press)
  Volume 2, 6 issues
  Art and Text by Ted Slampyk
  ..

• "Vote Early and Often" (March 1990, # 1-May 1990, #2)
• "The Flowers of San Pedro" (July 1990, # 3-5)
• "A Stranger in Bryn Mawr" (1991, volume 2, #6).
  .

• CALIBER PRESENTS
  (1990, Caliber)
  Anthology
  Art and text: Ted Slampyk.
  .

• "Jazz Age Chronicles" (February 1990, #9; two short stories, intended at test runs, one featuring Mifflin, one featuring Jennings, from 1989)
  .

• THE DETECTIVES
  (April 1993, Alpha Productions)
  1 issue, colour cover, B&W inside
  .

• "Ace Mifflin Pin-up" by Ted Slampyak

COLLECTIONS

• THE CASE OF THE BEGUILING BARONESS
  (1991, Caliber Press)
  Art and text by Ted Slampyak
  .

• Includes complete story from 1st three issues, plus:
• "Café Noir" (a prose piece)
• "An Ace Mifflin Mini-Mystery"
• "Jazz Age Chronicles" (the two test runs, eventually run in Caliber Presents)

WEB COMICS

• THE BIG CASE
  (1993; also 2003, JazzAgeComics.com)
  Written by Marc Gacy
  Art by Ted Slampyak
  An inept wannabe P.I. follows Ace around.
  .
• THE POWER OF SILAS ROURKE
  (2002-03, JazzAgeComics.com)
  Art and text by Ted Slampyak

RELATED LINKS

• JazzAgeComics.com
  Beloved shamus Ace Mifflin now has his own site (that he has to share with that Jennings character), complete with a weekly strip appearing every Monday, and soon you'll be able to catch up on back-issues in their archive.
  .
• The Jazz Age Message Board
  Drop in and leave a message...
  

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.