The Detective Scribbles, No. 12, Sam Spade

When someone says "Private Eye", the first image that comes to this scribbler's mind, at least, is a sort of 1940's setting with the detective sitting in his office, as his trench coat and fedora are hanging in one secluded corner beside the office door, with the neon sign buzzing relentlessly as the detective looks out to the hustle and bustle of the city street below. The detective would describe the activities below as "the calm before the storm," and how his next client was "a dame with a secret to hide." I have always had a soft spot for the hardboiled detectives of the late 20's, this is why the twelfth detective to adorn this series is the famous detective Sam Spade, the loquacious brainchild of Dashiell Hammett.
The world owes a great debt to those film noir detectives like Spade and Marlowe because they showed that not only was England shining during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (which took part around the late 1800's to the early 1930's) with their Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, but America took a great part of the deal, too. But I am rambling a bit, back to the detective.
Sam Spade, a partner in the Archer and Spade Detective Agency, based in San Francisco, made his debut in a serial that later was compiled into a book entitled The Maltese Falcon, first serialized in late 1929 and finished in early 1930. After his first story, American audiences were astounded at this first of a genuinely unique type of detective, later coined "hardboiled". After the first of these stories, with other contributions by other famous authors like Raymond Chandler, the moving picture industry's interest sparked. The first attempt was in 1931, but it was a complete dud with Spade being depicted as a sort of philanderer, then another film in 1931, but was also a dud. Then came the Warner Brothers' version with Humphrey Bogart as the quintessential Sam Spade in 1941's version of The Maltese Falcon with a now legendary cast of actors such as Peter Lorre and Mary Astor. Those films, along with the books, have made history and Sam Spade is the right and proper detective to thank for such an achievement.
Notes: This drawing was done with waterproof ink and a dip pen. A fine point pen was used to make light sketches like the neon sign that bears Spade's name. Also this drawing is opportune due to the fact that the most recent episode of Castle (admittedly one of my favorite shows), an episode entitled The Blue Butterfly, in which parts of it are nostalgic, reminiscent of the Bogart film noir detectives.
Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.