What Came Next –? (Red Barry)

At the start of 2023 we launched this occasional feature, “What Came Next –?”, in which we display the strips that came immediately after the last ones printed in some of our Library of American Comics volumes. The inaugural installment offered a look at Bert Christman’s Scorchy Smith; we followed up by shining the spotlight on What Came Next for Jack Kent’s delightful King Aroo, then Secret Agent X-9, Archie‘s swingin’ sixties (by Bob Montana), and most recently, the early 1934 dailies from Polly and Her Pals.  

This time we skip ahead a couple years from that date, to January 1936, for the sixth entry in the series, where we pick up the narrative for Red Barry as his city is menaced by the mysterious “Monk.” Our Barry volume carried the dailies from inception to the end of 1935 the very start of ’36: at that time Red was on the outs with Inspector Scott in the wake of the Monk’s audacious million-dollar jewel robbery …

… But as you’ll see in these strips from January of 1936, the two men quickly patch up their differences and begin to deal with the mysterious girl known only as “Mississippi,” whose suicide attempt was foiled by Red and who may prove to be the key link in a chain that will lead to the Monk himself — though the path will not be an easy one! (Click each of the smaller images below for an isolated view.)

The story didn’t end here, of course, and if there’s enough call for it perhaps in the future we’ll continue Will Gould’s chronicle of the conflict between Red Barry and The Monk. For now, we hope you enjoyed this look at What Came Next once our Red Barry volume ended …