All-Negro Comics and Counterhistories of Race in the Golden Age

Detective Ace Harlem may have a sharp eye for detail on the job, but the Zoot Chain Killers have him stumped. Once he inspects the strangled body at Pop’s Bar-B-Que Shack, Ace declares, “Never saw anything like this before!” and after speaking with a witness, he thinks to himself, “This is certainly a new one to me!”¹ The provocation of the strange case continues to baffle the expert African American detective, dressed in a sharp double-breasted suit, trench coat, and fedora as he approaches the fingerprint expert’s office and admits, “First time I ever tackled one like this!” (10). Clues