| Kensington Slade | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Kensington Slade |
|
First Appearance |
Strange Terrors #1 (June 1952) |
|
Original Publisher |
St. John |
|
Created by |
Charles Sultan |
Golden Age Origin
Kensington Slade was an investigator who specialized in dealing with weird phenomena. Slade and his assistant Mike were asked by Jane Edmonds, niece and sole heir of the recently deceased newspaper tycoon Madison Hawkes, to investigate Vaux Manor which she believed to be haunted by a howling ghost. However, the Howling Beast in fact followed Jane to Slade's office and even though Kensington was a crack shot the creature seemed unfazed by the two hits from Slade's gun as it tried to escape. After the beast left, Slade and Mike agreed to take the case. Slade mentioned to Jane that he knew her uncle quite well. Mr. Hawke even gave the investigator a rare gold coin from his personal collection.
After taking the case, Mike and Slade headed straight for Vaux Manor and began to take a look around. They discover that behind a secret panel someone had hidden Madison Hawke's rare coin collection. However after their discovery, the duo was confronted by the Howling Beast who after making threats proceeded to run away. As they tried to follow the beast, a flash fire broke out forcing both the beast and the investigators out of the manor.
From the roof of the manor, Slade saw the Howler trip and proceeded to leap from a tree to apprehend the villain. After taking down the Howling Beast, Jane and a police officer arrive to witness Slade unmasking the villain as Dahlgren, the trustee of Madison Hawke's estate. Slade deduced that Dahlgren used his skills as a former movie stunt man to fool Jane and anyone she tired to hire to fix up the manor into thinking her uncle's house was haunted so he could steal Hawke's expensive coin collection.
Golden Age Appearances
- Strange Terrors #1
Notes
- The story from Dynamic Comics #1 was reprinted by St. John in Strange Terrors #1, Crime Reporter #2, and Authentic Police Cases #8. Lucky Coyne was re-named and re-colored in each reprint as Kensington Slade, Rocky Stone, and Jinx Jordan respectively.