willjohn wrote:The one thing that puzzles me is that " Lefty" is usually a nickname for a left handed man but he is spanking her with his right hand.
Surely he was not a communist

?
Kerry Drake June 18, 1967. Web-Ed asked if anyone knew the origin of David '
Lefty' Drake's nickname. So I took up the quest. Before we go any further I have to admit that I was unable to pin down the answer [I'm not going to do an exhaustive search on a topic that is - well quite frankly interesting but a bit off-topic, if you know what I mean

.] So if your only reason for reading the next several posts is to discover why David Drake is nicknamed Lefty you might as well stop reading now.

This is a very strange fraternal relationship. We immediately find out that in June of 1967 these two brothers have not seen each other in many years. David has of late been living in Hong Kong but when things got 'hairy' he headed back to the states and to Kerry's hometown to establish a private detective agency. He expected to run into Kerry but has made no attempt to contact the man who had been helping him out of jams since they were children. We'll note that Kerry immediately calls him Lefty not David.

- KerryDrake and Lefty June 18 1967.jpg (50.44 KiB) Viewed 3982 times
Kerry Drake June 19, 1967 We can't tell by the artwork - especially of course when we are looking at black and white frames - but Lefty is a
redhead. In fact, minor characters [nurses, crooks] frequently refer to him as "Red".
I'm very left-handed but no one has ever referred to me as lefty. I bet if I had a head of blazing red-hair some people would notice and nickname me "Red". Oh by the way, willjohn and Web-Ed have already noticed that Lefty isn't necessarily a southpaw but being obsessive about this kind of thing I had to see for myself.

By the way, it's interesting to see so many of these characters smoke up a storm. They smoke in restaurants, the police station, in homes and at the hospital. You know it's 1967. Just odd to see from our 2018 point of view.

- KerryDrake and Lefty June19, 1967.jpg (72.66 KiB) Viewed 3982 times
Kerry Drake June 20, 1967 A Picasso has been stolen. Kerry's initial police work is rather odd. Just sitting on it in anticipation of a ransom note just doesn't cut it. Much more likely that the art ends up in the hands of a private collector and indeed that turns out to be the case. How odd is it that Kerry refers to Mindy as 'my wife' to his own brother.

- KerryDrake and Lefty June 20, 1967.jpg (47.82 KiB) Viewed 3982 times