Never Was Comic Strip: Shaft
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From Thrilling Detective (coarse language warning):
JOHN SHAFT is one of the few private eyes probably best known outside the shamus gang for his theme song (Peter Gunn‘s the only other one I can think of). In Shaft’s case, it’s Isaac Hayes’ Academy Award-winning, percolating, throbbing slab of funk that served as the theme for the 1971 film (based on Ernest Tidyman’s novel of the same year) …
And Shaft was every bit as innovative as his theme song, both as the harbinger of the blaxploitation film explosion of the seventies, and within the literary genre of private eyes. Up until Shaft, black eyes were few and far between. In fact, except for Ed Lacy’s Toussaint Moore, there were few of any consequence at all. A few P.I.’s, either chock-full of racist stereotypes, or victims of a condescending whitewash, and that was about it.
Shaft changed all that.
Ernest Tidyman turned his hero into a licensing bonanza.
There was even an attempt by Tidyman to bring Shaft to the comics page. He commissioned veteran comic artist Don Rico to develop a presentation package for a Shaft strip, and while their efforts went unsold, there’s no doubt how serious they were. A generous sampling, consisting of partial and finished strips, plus a folder of conceptual sketches, correspondence and draft scripts existed, were sold at auction for almost two grand in 2023.
According to Steve Aldous in The World of Shaft (page 91) Ernest Tidyman tried a few comic artists before settling on Don Rico:
By the end of 1972 Tidyman and Rico had four weeks of comic strips and began shopping them around.
Perhaps if they had tried again in the late 1970s during the brief adventure strip resurgence (Spider-Man, Star Wars, Lone Ranger, Terry and the Pirates, etc) the strip may have had a chance with a syndicate, but yeah, the early 1970s newspaper comics pages were not adventure continuity friendly.
Images here are mostly taken from Heritage Auctions’ 2017 page.
Coollines Artwork provides the four weeks of tryouts at Comic Art Fans.
Coollines brief profile of Ernest Tidayman:
Written and created by Ernest Tidyman(1928-1984) Writer / Producer Ernest Tidyman was born on 1 January 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The French Connection (1971), High Plains Drifter (1973) and Shaft (2019). He was previously married to Chris Clark and Susan Gould. He died on 14 July 1984 in London, England, UK. One of the few white people to win an NAACP Image Award for creating the ‘Shaft’ books.Came up with the character’s name by looking out his book publisher’s window and seeing a sign that read “Fire Shaft”.Began his writing career as a reporter for the New York Post. Dropped out of school at age 14 and then embarked on a 25 year long career as a journalist, beginning as police reporter for ‘The Cleveland News’. In 1960, he became assistant women’s editor for ‘The New York Times’.Played the violin.His two first film screenplays were Shaft (1971) and The French Connection (1971), both iconic films dealing with the crime scene.
Tellers of Weird Tales has a profile of comics artist, writer, editor Don Rico.
Don Rico (1912-1985)
Aka Dan Rico, Danny Rico, Donella St. Michaels, Donna Richards, Joseph Milton, N. Korok
Graphic Artist, Illustrator, Comic Book Writer, Artist, and Editor, Novelist, Screenwriter, Teacher, Singer
Born September 26, 1912, Rochester, New York
Died March 27, 1985, Los Angeles, California
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