Hannibal’s Literary Ancestors

- by Austin S. Camacho

When I created Hannibal Jones I did not cast him as the traditional private detective. In fact Hannibal always tries to avoid that label. P.I’s like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe don’t generally want to admit that they’re involved in a case in order to help someone out of a jam.

However, it would dishonest and unfair for me to pretend that I’ve come up with an original spin on the hard-boiled genre. So, just so you know that I know, I thought I’d share Hannibal’s heroic heritage with you.

The earliest example of the hard-boiled problem solver that I am aware of is Leslie Charters’ classic good guy/bad guy, The Saint. Simon Templar, owner of that saintly nickname, was known to the police only as a felon, but in his adventures he seemed only to prey on other predators. Starting in 1928 with Meet the Tiger, he appeared in more than 50 books. Many of these are collections of short stories and novellas. There’s even a novel or two tossed in for good measure, but generally they are short, punchy tales in which The Saint foils the plans of some greater evildoer, generally by using the methods of the underworld to do it. He was never a private eye, but Templar had the wit, the attitude and the philosophy of his hard-boiled brethren. In one of his stories he described his objective as follows, by way of introduction:

"In my small way I try to put right a few of the things that are wrong with this cock-eyed world, and clean up some of the excrescences I come across."

A higher level of vocabulary than most of his ilk, but the essence is what separates Lew Archer and Spencer from the general run of investigators. I discovered The Saint in a ragged hip pocket paperback, well before the TV show starring Roger Moore. He captured my imagination, as had Batman before him. If Hannibal Jones has an earliest known progenitor, it would be this British trouble maker, and trouble shooter.

In the 1960’s, John D. MacDonald introduced his own updated Robin Hood named Travis McGee. Mcgee billed himself as a recovery specialist, finding things others had lost. In fact, he was a professional rescuer and, as back cover copy often said, a "slayer of small, savage fish." I found Travis McGee not long after the series started and read through all that had been published, then devoured them each as they were released. This hero was more outwardly philosophical than any other hard-boiled character until Spencer appeared. He seemed to have an Eastern view of life at times and one could compare him to the wandering samurai so popular in Japanese cinema. An example of his musings, from A Tan and Sandy Silence (1972)included:

"up with life. Stamp out all small and large indignities... Down with hurting... Love all love. Hate all hate."

Hannibal Jones would echo every one of those words. He doesn’t live on a boat in Florida as Travis McGee does, but he’d still have to call McGee one of his literary fathers.

TV Troubleshooters 

More recently, television provided characters upon whom Hannibal Jones is based. For example, in 1985 - I was 32 years old - Edward Woodward played Robert McCall on a CBS series called The Equalizer. This guy really was a hero by trade. People responded to his classified ad in the newspaper, and the only requirement for his help was to be facing danger which the police could not, or would not, defend you from. Little was known about this fellow, except that he was a former secret agent with all the attendant skills. He was dark, he was vicious, he was cold. And like the two gentlemen previously mentioned, he worked on the side of the angels using the methods of the devils. This was a guy no one wanted to mess with. If he had worn a costume, he would have been The Batman. The show lasted four seasons, while I was stationed in Fort Stewart, Georgia and just beginning to write adventure stories about former thieves and mercenaries.

The year after The Equalizer began, NBC debuted a series called Stingray, starring Nick Mancuso. This show’s 25 episodes were more stylish than gritty. The hero, known only as Ray, drove a black 1965 Corvette Stingray with tinted windows and untraceable license plates. He also had a "Doc Savage" mix of talents and skills gained in his clouded days with the CIA (like the Equalizer.) Ray was the prototype mysterious stranger whose only purpose appeared to be helping people in trouble. Sound familiar? Using a classified ad in the paper (even more familiar,) Ray assisted those in need but, unlike Hannibal, there was no charge. At least not in money. Each person he saved owed him a favor. This was, in fact, the most fun of the series. Some weeks Ray would assemble a "Mission Impossible" cast of characters, each of whom would use their talent or training to repay their favor by helping him save the next person who had answered his ad. Generally, they were happy to be part of Ray’s informal network, and looked forward to helping someone, as Ray had helped them.

Hannibal Jones’ most recent predecessor appeared in 1998. His name was Mr. Chapel, the hero of the ABC series Vengeance Unlimited. The show starred Michael Madsen, basically portraying the same wacko he was in Reservoir Dogs, only doing good this time. He would occasionally lead in to station breaks staring into the camera and saying "Stay tuned, I’m gonna get stranger." For 16 well-produced episodes, Chapel used Stingray’s shtick with The Equalizer’s attitude. The result was that you could often see the chill go up a person’s spine when Chapel returned for his favor (sort of like having Rumpelstiltskin grant you a wish) and they were always relieved to be quit of him afterward. Like all the others on this page, Chapel was into doing bad things to bad people, but his show was the only one I’d classify as truly noir in approach. In this way, he was as hard-boiled as The Saint’s books - as opposed to the lightweight TV show.

I don’t know of any "bail you out" professionals currently appearing on the television screen or in paperbacks, except for the private eyes of Parker and Pronzini, but with luck, Hannibal Jones will keep the Troubleshooter tradition alive for a while.