The Defective Detectives:
Handicapped Heroes

What is it about handicapped heroes? (Oops! I mean physically-challenged, I guess).

Originally springing from the pages of the weird menace pulps of the thirties, such as Strange Detective Mysteries, Detective Mystery Magazine and especially Dime Mystery Magazine, this bizarre sub-sub-genre has had a long, if not always glorious tradition. You can read all about it in the highly-recommended (if you can find it) The Defective Detective in the Pulps, a 1983 anthology edited by Ray Browne and Gary Hoppenstand, and its 1985 sequel, More Tales of the Defective Detective in the Pulps.

Although the intentional shock value of the "defective" eye has been virtually vanquished ("Look, ma! Freaks!"), physically-challenged eyes continue to this day, including such noteworthy specimans as Michael Collins' outstanding Dan Fortune series, Dick Francis' Sid Halley and Jonathan Lethem's Lionel Essrog, which replace cheap gimmicks with compassion and understanding, and shock with empathy.

There's probably plenty more. If you can think of any, let me know.

• Joe Binney by Jack Livingston (deaf)
• Ben Bryn by Russell Gray (polio victim)
• Robert Dumont, "Le Manchot" by Pierre Saurel (missing left hand)
• Lionel Essrog by Jonathan Lethem (Tourette's Syndrome)
• Ginny Fistoulari by Reed Stephens (missing hand)
• Dan Fortune by Michael Collins (missing an arm)
• Joe Gee by Wyatt Blassingame (insomnia; doidn't sleep while on a case)
• C.B. Green by Bill Capron (colourblind)
• Sid Halley by Dick Francis (missing a hand)
• Dan Holden by Leon Bryne (deaf)
• D Hunter by Nelson George (HIV positive)
• John Kenneth Galbraith Jantarro by Simon Ritchie (missing an arm)
• Calvin Kane by Russell Gray (the "Crab Detective," unable to walk due to his deformed body)
• Slot Machine Kelly by Dennis Lynds (missing an arm)
• Mike Longstreet (blind)
• Captain Duncan Maclain by Baynard Kendrick (blind)
• Mongo by George C. Chesbro (dwarf)
• Manville Moon by Richard Deming (missing a leg)
• Lin Melchan by Warren Lucas (overly-heightened sense of hearing)
• Adrian Monk by Andrew Breckman (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
• Nat Perry by Edith and Ejler Jacobson (hemophiliac)
• Peter Quest by John Kobler (glaucoma, resulting in periodic blindness)
• Mark Saber (missing an arm)
• Harold Schillman by Eric Bercovici (failed suicide)
• Seekay by Paul Ernst (no face!)
• Leonard Shelby by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan (short-term memory loss
• Steve Silk by James Brendan O'Sullivan (missing a lung)
• Sarge Steel by Dick Giardino (missing left hand)
• Nicholas Street by Nat Schachner (amnesia)
• Samuel Clemens Tucker by Jerry Allen (missing a foot and a testicle)
• Henry Morton Wardlaw by James Atlee Phillips (blind)
• Zen Moses by Elizabeth Cosin (missing a lung, due to cancer)
  .
• And, in passing
• Fred Carver by John Lutz
  This Florida P.I. has to walk with a cane, thanks to the hold-up man's bullet that ended his police career and left him with a permanently-stiff left leg.
• Dan Green by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty
  During the course of their comic book adventures, Ms. Tree's young op loses a hand.
• Joe Graham by Don Wilson
  Wilson's series eye Neil Carey is the protege of detective Joe Graham, who is mising an arm.
• Gil Hamilton by Larry Niven
  If you want to cross genres, Niven's sci-fi eye Gil Hamilton is also missing an arm, although he manages to find a use for the incorporeal arm occasionally.

And, of course, don't forget those eyes who are, shall we say, Reality-Challenged?

Compiled by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Mark Blumenthal, Duke Seabrook and Gerald So for their suggestions and help with this page.