coming soon
10: The Great Pumpkin Smash – 09/19
For Sale: Paperback – Hardcover
Illustrated by Santy Gutierrez
Detective brothers Frank and Joe investigate a crime of smashin’ in the tenth book in the interactive Hardy Boys Clue Book series.
Frank, Joe, and their best friend Chet are attending Bayport Zoo’s annual Halloween carnival. Frank and Joe have a routine planned for Scaryoke, and Chet has entered the pumpkin pie-eating contest-he even brought his own whipped cream!
After their performance, Frank and Joe go to check out the painted pumpkins on display. But when the brothers enter the tent, they see their Scaryoke song wasn’t the only smash hit at the carnival. The floor is littered with bits of pulverized pumpkins! What’s worse, the organizer says that unless the culprits are caught by the end of the day, this will be the last Boo at the Zoo.forever!
Can Frank and Joe find out what happened before it’s too late? Or is this pumpkin crime unpatchable?
19: Dungeons & Detectives – 10/19
For Sale: Paperback – Hardcover
Brother detectives Frank and Joe search a hidden castle for clues to help them find a missing comic book in the nineteenth book in the thrilling Hardy Boys Adventures series.
Frank and Joe have been hanging out at Sir Robert’s Comic Kingdom, the local comic and gaming shop, and got the exclusive invite to this year’s Halloween costume ball at Bayport’s one and only castle. Sir Robert plans to use the big event to unveil his most prized possession, a super rare comic that is rumored to contain a map to buried treasure.
Sir Robert agrees to show his store regulars-who now include Frank and Joe-a sneak preview of the comic before the party. But when he goes to unlock the fireproof casing, he finds the book is gone.
It will take all of Frank and Joe’s recently acquired LARPing skills to solve this case. Anything can happen in a castle full of dungeons and deception. Can the Hardy boys keep up?
Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Missing Adults
Hardcover Graphic Novel – August 6, 2019
by Scott Bryan Wilson (Author), Bob Solanovicz (Artist)
Eating candy nonstop and watching TV all day sounds great . . . until you actually do it, as the kids of Bayport High find out when all the adults vanish, and the world’s greatest (high school) detectives–the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew!–have to team up to solve the mystery! Whether it’s going under cover, sneaking out at night, chasing weird buses, or following a strange smell, they know it’ll take all their wits and smarts to get their parents and teachers back . . . that is, if Joe and Frank don’t kill each other first. Oh, and there’s also the matter of the skeleton that can walk. And a major feud with a rival high school. And a koala-in-a-diaper costume. And lawlessness in the hallways. And an unrequited crush . . .
Written by Scott Bryan Wilson (Batman Annual, Star Trek: Waypoint) and drawn by Bob Solanovicz (Mister Meow), NANCY DREW AND THE HARDY BOYS: THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING ADULTS! is a high-octane, nonstop comedic romp full of action, excitement, mystery, and friendship. And mayhem. Lots of mayhem.
This poster was sold through the “Super Saturday Club.” It started the year that the Hardy Boys cartoon premiered and was a big deal. It was advertised on television and in comic books. Anyone could join for 50 cents and for that you got a pin, membership card, stick-on, pennant, stamps, stamp album card, iron-on emblem, a poster, and a handbook/newsletter. The “Super Saturday Club” logo had the ABC-TV logo alongside of it. There were big plans for the club. The stamps were supposed to help you get club premiums every month. The premiums and how you got them were supposed to announced on ABC twice every Saturday morning.I joined the club and so did my brothers. I don’t remember all of the details behind this poster. It may or may not have been one of the club premiums announced on television. What I do remember is that I mail ordered them through the Super Saturday Club. I still have the mailing tube that it came in. This Hardy Boys poster was one of a set of three posters. The other two in the set were for “Hot Wheels” and “Skyhawks,” two other cartoons on ABC the same year. I still have those posters too.
The club seemed really great and my brothers and I were really excited about it. But for some reason, the club was disbanded and every member was refunded his 50 cents. To this day, I don’t know why. I also don’t know if any other Hardy Boys products were sold through the club. There could be!Also, the club newsletter has two pages on each cartoon (one page is a picture and the other page is text). But the picture of the Hardy Boys looks NOTHING like the cartoon characters. I remember this was a big disappointment to me when I was a kid. All of the cartoon characters from each show are also pictured in the club stamps and on the poster. But these drawings only vaguely resemble the cartoon characters from each show.
It would be interesting if you could find anyone else who joined that club. Maybe they could tell us if there were any more Hardy Boys products. As I said before, the club was heavily advertised. Practically every comic book at the time had a four page advertisement that promoted all of the cartoons to air on ABC that season and the “Super Saturday Club.”
I wonder how scarce this poster is and how much it would be worth.
This article originally appeared in the Bayport Times #7
book of the month: The Flickering Torch Mystery
Cover Art & Edition Information
Original: 1943 Leslie McFarlane (212 pages)
Outline: Harriet Adams
Revised: 1971 Vincent Buranelli (181 pages) – For Sale
Outline: Andrew Svenson
Revision: Completely Different
Art: 1943 Paul Laune
Art: 1962 John Leone
Art: 1971 Rudy Nappi
Notes: In a 10/5/42 letter to the Syndicate, McFarlane thanked them for their check and apologized for the story, stating it had been written “under awkward circumstances… getting settled into a new city”. McFarlane received the outline on 7/25/42 and completed the story by mid-September. He received $165 for this story.
Another source indicates Andrew Svenson as author of the revised edition.
PC editions lacking the white over-printing on the back cover are scarce.
The Hardy Boys solve the mystery of Asa Grable’s missing silk moths and the theft of construction materials.
Revised: The Boys investigate mysterious plane crashes and contraband uranium isotopes.
Description of current edition: Two unexplainable plane crashes near an airport on the East Coast plunge Frank and Joe Hardy into a bizarre case. From the moment Frank and Joe find a radioactive engine in an airplane junkyard, unexpected dangers strike like lightning. Despite the repeated attempts on their lives, the teenage detectives pursue their investigation, discovering two vital clues and others that provide the solution to one of the most baffling mysteries the boys and Mr. Hardy have ever encountered.
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