Kerry Drake

According to Saunders, Dan Dunn rivaled Dick Tracy in pioneering themes and techniques of the American detective comic—until 1942 when Marsh had an argument with Publishers Syndicate and "stormed out." The syndicate then had Saunders (as writer and the syndicate's comics editor) and artist Andriola take over the abandoned newspaper strip and subsequently replace it in 1943 with a new detective strip, Kerry Drake. Among Andriola's many assistants or ghosts over the years, specifically in drawing, were artists Hy Eisman, Jerry Robinson, Fran Matera and most notably Sururi Gümen, the last of whom worked on the strip for 30 years and shared credit with Andriola from 1976 to 1983. Eisman has said he ghosted the strip from 1957 to 1960.

• Title — Kerry Drake • Current — Alfred Andriola (c. 1970–1983) • Author — Allen Saunders (1943–c. 1970, uncredited) • Illustrator — Alfred Andriola (1943–1983) Hy Eisman (1957–1960, uncredited) Jerry Robinson (uncredited) Fran Matera (1943–1983, uncredited)

When the strip began, Drake was a criminal investigator for the district attorney. Later, after the murder of his secretary and fiancée, Sandy Burns, by Trinket and Bulldozer, he left the DA's office and joined his city's police force. Kerry fought Dr. Prey, the Man with No Face, and many others. The stories had plenty of suspense, action and danger, but unlike Dan Dunn, who had followed early Dick Tracy in often explosive shoot-out resolutions of crime, the emphasis was on how Drake traced clues with up-to-date crime analysis tools to solve complex cases that gradually unfolded and intrigued readers. White-haired Drake was attractive and intelligent, while his nefarious opponents were initially drawn with facial distortion (an evil-is-ugly convention for villains that was also found in the cartooning of Pete Hoffman and Chester Gould). Cartooning of Sururi Gümen, on the other hand, consistently made the artwork look more realistic. Meanwhile, Drake advanced in his career and developed in his personal life as Saunders combined action and drama. In 1957, Drake married Mindy, a police widow, and when they had quadruplets, he had to balance the conflicting demands of work and family. His younger brother, private eye David, better known as Lefty, then took over more of the adventuring and case resolution.

After the strip no longer was produced for American newspapers, a comic book version was produced by the Swedish publisher Semic Press from 1986 through 1995. A total of 100 episodes were made by creators such as Brian Delaney, Claes Reimerthi, Joan Boix and Enrique Villagrán. They were published in Seriemagasinet, a long-running anthology comic book that had already published most of Andriola's stories.

In Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film Lolita, Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers) is seen reading Kerry Drake in a hotel lobby.