Sexton Blake is a fictional British detective, who appeared in stories published over eight decades from 1893 to 1978. Blake featured in more than 4,000 stories by approximately 200 different authors, making him one of the most prolifically chronicled characters in English literature. The detective's adventures spanned multiple formats including comic strips, novels, radio serials, silent films, and a 1960s ITV television series, reaching audiences across Britain and internationally in various languages.
Initially conceived as a Victorian gentleman detective, Blake evolved significantly over time, acquiring now-iconic elements like his Baker Street residence, his young assistant Tinker, his bloodhound Pedro, and his housekeeper Mrs. Bardell. While often compared to Sherlock Holmes, Blake's adventures typically featured more action-oriented plots and colourful adversaries, including memorable villains like Zenith the Albino, George Marsden Plummer, Dr. Huxton Rymer, Leon Kestrel, Waldo the Wonderman and the Criminals' Confederation. The character reached his peak popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, particularly through publications like The Union Jack and The Sexton Blake Library, which at its height published five times monthly.
Publication history
The first Sexton Blake story was "The Missing Millionaire". Written by Harry Blyth (using the pseudonym Hal Meredeth), it was published in The Halfpenny Marvel number 6, on 20 December 1893, a story paper owned by the Amalgamated Press.Wright, Norman. The Adventures of Sexton Blake Detective. Introduction to The Sexton Blake Detective Library, Hawk Books, 1989 p. 7. Blyth wrote six more Sexton Blake tales, three for the Marvel and three for The Union Jack a story paper launched in April 1894.
The Amalgamated Press purchased the copyright to Blake along with the first story Blyth had submitted and from 1895 onwards several authors began to pen Blake tales. From August 1905 Blake became the resident character in Union Jack, appearing in every issue until its transformation into the Detective Weekly in 1933. Blake continued as the main feature until Detective Weekly ended in 1940.
Blake's popularity began to grow during the Edwardian era, and he appeared in a number of different story papers. These appearances included serials in the tabloid sized Boys' Friend (1905), complete tales in the pocket-sized Penny Pictorial (from 1907 to 1913 (when that magazine ended), and short stories in Answers, (1908–1911) one of the Amalgamated Press' most popular papers.Wright, Norman. The Adventures of Sexton Blake Detective. Introduction to The Sexton Blake Detective Library, Hawk Books, 1989 p. 9. Writers from this era include: William Murray Graydon, Maxwell Scott, Norman Goddard, Cecil Hayter, D. H. Parry, E. W. Alais, W. J Lomax, and Michael Storm.
In the second decade of the 20th century, new writers joined the ranks and created the formidable master criminals that matched wits with Blake. These include Andrew Murray, Anthony Skene, Robert Murray Graydon, Edwy Searles Brooks and George Hamilton Teed.
Blake gets his own title
Longer tales of 60,000 words or so appeared in The Boys' Friend Library and the success of these led to the creation of The Sexton Blake Library in 1915.Wright, Norman. The Adventures of Sexton Blake Detective. Introduction to The Sexton Blake Detective Library, Hawk Books, 1989 p. 11. This digest-sized publication specialized in longer tales, and at the height of its popularity was published 5 times a month. It ran for just under 50 years.
The majority of Sexton Blake Library covers (prior to editor William Howard Baker's 1956 revamp of the character) were painted by master Sexton Blake illustrator Eric Parker
Writers who worked on Sexton Blake stories throughout this 53-year span included Charles Henry St. John Cooper, John Creasey, Jack Trevor Story, John G. Brandon Michael Moorcock, and (allegedly) Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien and Myles Coppaleen.)
In 1959 Fleetway Publications acquired the rights to Sexton Blake adventures and published The Sexton Blake Library until the title's demise. The final tale, The Last Tiger, was published in June 1963.Wright, Norman. The Adventures of Sexton Blake Detective. Introduction to The Sexton Blake Detective Library, Hawk Books, 1989 p. 16.
In 1965, Blake editor William Howard Baker licensed the rights of the Sexton Blake character. He published the fifth series of The Sexton Blake Library independently via Mayflower-Dell Books, which ran until 1968. He then issued a final series of four Sexton Blake novels, using his Howard Baker Books imprint, in 1969. From 1968 to 1971 Valiant published new comic strips in the style of the Knockout strips from decades earlier. Blake's last original appearance was in Sexton Blake and the Demon God “a period thriller with ancient curses and cliff-hanger endings” in 1978.
Comic strips: 1939–1979
Blake comic strips featured in The Knock-Out Comic (later Knock-Out Comic & Magnet and, finally, simply Knockout) from 1939 to 1960. The Blake strip was illustrated originally by artist Jos Walker and then by Alfred Taylor, who illustrated Blake's adventures for ten years. The undoubted highlight of Blake's 21-year run in Knockout was a 14-part 1949 strip drawn by Blake's greatest illustrator Eric Parker, entitled The Secret of Monte Cristo. This was Parker's only contribution to Blake's comic strip adventures.
There was one Super Detective Library story about Blake: issue 68 (published November 1955), featuring a comic strip entitled Sexton Blake's Diamond Hunt.
A final Sexton Blake comic strip (initiated to tie in with the 1967–1971 television show) featured in IPC's weekly boys' anthology Valiant, from January 1968 to May 1970.
A seven-part Blake comic strip featured in IPC's comic Tornado from March 1979 to May 1979. A contract dispute (subsequently resolved in IPC's favour) caused the Tornado editorial team to rename Blake "Victor Drago" (and Tinker & Pedro "Spencer & Brutus") for the duration of this strip.
Other publications
A series of 160-page Sexton Blake annuals, featuring old stories and new material, began in 1938 and lasted till 1941.
Four hardbacks designed for the younger market were published by Dean & Son Ltd during 1968.Sexton Blake Books (Dean and Son), publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 23 March 2025. The third of these, Raffles' Crime in Gibraltar, portrayed Blake contending with A. J. Raffles, E.W. Hornung's amateur cracksman.
There were a few anthologies and reprints in the 80s and 90s.
In 2009, IPC's information manager, David Abbott, signed licenses to publish two Blake omnibus archive editions: The Casebook of Sexton Blake, published by Wordsworth Editions, and Sexton Blake, Detective published by Snowbooks.
In 2013, Obverse Books licensed the character and published The Silent Thunder Caper by Mark Hodder, the first book in a proposed sixth series of the Sexton Blake Library, The imprint had previously published a collection of short stories featuring Blake villain Zenith the Albino.
2018 saw an uptick in Sexton Blake reprints, with the first print novels published by Stillwoods Publishing, a Canadian publisher out of Nova Scotia.
In 2020 ROH Press began publishing Sexton Blake tales with Sexton Blake The Early Years, a collection of Blake's first cases.
That same year British publishers Rebellion Developments released a Sexton Blake special under its Treasury of British Comics imprint.2000ad.com They also produced four anthologies in 2020-21, each introduced by Blakeologist Mark Hodder.
Sexton Blake bibliography
The Sexton Blake bibliography is so extensive it has been divided into four sections. For a list of titles from the different Blake eras check out the links below.
1893–1911: The Victorian/Edwardian Era Sexton Blake bibliography In this era Blake works solo and with a variety of partners and detectives. In 1904 he acquires a sidekick, a young boy named Tinker. The following year he moved to Baker Street and acquired a dog named Pedro and a landlady named Mrs Bardell.
1912–1945: The Master Criminals Era Sexton Blake bibliography part 2: 1912–1945 From 1913 onwards the master criminals reigned supreme, regularly matching with Blake.
1946–1978: The Post War Era Sexton Blake bibliography part 3: 1946–1978 The era of the New Order saw Blake become more of a James Bond type. It also saw the end of the Sexton Blake Library in 1963. There were a few attempts at bringing him back, but the last original Sexton Blake story was published in 1978.
1979–present: Revivals and Republications Sexton Blake bibliography part 4: 1979–present Various publishers issued Blake novels and anthologies, collections of some of his most popular adventures.
Blake's evolution As the years passed, Blake's character experienced various permutations. The first descriptions and illustrations of him showed him to be "a middle-aged Victorian gentleman dressed in the typical clothing of the era and carrying a heavy walking stick".Lofts, W. O., Blakiana, Collectors Digest v54 #647, 2000, p. 12
At the start of his career in 1893 he was partnered with Jules Gervaise, a French detective who was also his mentor. By early in 1894 Blake was solving cases solo. During the remainder of the Victorian era he worked with various assistants Griff (half-man and beast) and a Chinese boy named We-Wee.Lofts, W. O., Blakiana, Collectors Digest v54 #647, 2000, p. 13 He lived in a variety of places including Norfolk Street, Strand, New Inn Chambers, and Wych Street.
In The Lamp of Death (1894) Sexton Blake met Muriel Lane a woman who would eventually become his wife. His wife was referred to again in the Union Jack Christmas Number for 1901 then disappeared from the Blake canon forever. Blake remained a strict bachelor for the rest of his career.
In 1904 Blake moved to Baker Street, acquired an assistant named Tinker, a landlady named Martha Bardell and a dog named Pedro. Blake began more and more to resemble Sherlock Holmes. Blake was tall, lean, strong limbed, with hair receding at the temples, and with a high intellectual forehead. When indoors at Baker Street he wore a red dressing gown, smoked a briar pipe and had a favourite chair.
Throughout the Edwardian era he worked undercover at variety of jobs: reporter, cab driver, laundryman, sailor and cowboy, all of which were reflected in the titles of his adventures. In Sexton Blake KC it was disclosed that he was a fully trained lawyer; in "The Tattooed Eye" (21 November 1908) he says he is a duly qualified medical man but has never practised medicine.
Throughout his career Blake also visited many countries in North America, Africa, South America, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Blake spoke a variety of languages and often disguised himself as a local.
In 1908 Blake matched wits with George Marsden Plummer, the first of what would become a long line of master criminals. He was followed by Count Ivor Carlac in 1912, then Professor Kew, Prince Wu Ling, Zenith the Albino and many others.
The 1920s and early 1930s are considered Blake's Golden Age, a time when he matched wits with some of his greatest foes. By the mid 1940s most had disappeared.
Many of Blake's writers had been men of adventure who had travelled the world. When World War II started, they enlisted, leaving just a small group of writers behind (with the addition of the occasional guest writer). Consequently, the standard of Blake's stories suffered.
In November 1955, William Howard Baker became editor of the Sexton Blake Library and, during 1956, introduced a successful update of the Blake formula. The Sexton Blake Library found new popularity with faster-moving, more contemporary stories (often influenced by American pulp fiction).