Nostalgic for my childhood - The Adventures Of The Black Hand Gang

Reading has played an important part in my life for as long as I can remember and I want to use this ‘thread’ to discuss books that, in their own way, shaped not only my future reading habits but also my future writing habits.  

Another successful purchase from the Rothwell Juniors Bookworm Club, was “The Adventures Of The Black Hand Gang”, by H. J. Press.  My copy was published by Methuen (the 1978 reprint), translated from the German by Barbara Littlewood, having originally been published there in 1965.

Hans Jürgen Press (1926–2002) was a German illustrator and writer of children's books, many of which contain stories and puzzles in which the reader searches the illustrations for clues to the mystery.  In 1953 he began illustrating for "Sternchen", the children's supplement of German magazine Stern.  The Adventures Of The Black Hand Gang was a combination of story and illustration which appeared in weekly chapters, the solution to this week's riddle given the next week.

The Black Hand Gang made its headquarters at 49 Canal Street, “at the top of the house, up seventy-two creaking stairs” and their clubroom was called the ‘Airport’.  Meeting regularly after school, the gang is: “Frank, who played the trumpet, was the leader; then there was quick-witted Angela; Ralph, who usually wore a striped sweater; and lastly Keith W.S. and his inseparable companion , a squirrel (W.S. stands for With Squirrel).  Well known locally as amateur sleuths”, their friend is Police Sergeant Shorthouse.

The book contains four adventures - “The Mysterious House” (featuring a forger), “The Treasure In Breezy Lake” (the gang help solve a burglary), “The Smuggler’s Tunnel” (the gang go to stay with Ralph’s Uncle Paul and stumble across a drug smuggling ring) and “A Theft At The Zoo” (featuring the hunt for stolen animals).

The stories, in general, are decent little mysteries and they adhere to the idea that kids are smart and grown-ups aren’t, with the gang constantly foiling criminals and out-thinking every adult around them.  What really works, though, is the format Press devised.  On the left hand side of each spread is a page of text, carrying the story forward and dropping clues whilst on the right is picture (or combination of them), showing the reader what the gang can see and therefore inviting them into the action.  The answer is given on the next page.

The illustrations, it has to be said, are tremendous.  Beautifully crafted, with a deceptively simple style that was thoroughly detailed, they invited repeat viewing, even if you’d already ‘got’ the clue.  What I also liked about them was that they weren’t English or American - and in 70s Britain, that was unusual - the architecture and cars were all different and the number plates were especially odd.

Press was a key proponent (indeed, along with Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel, he’s regarded as a father of the ‘overcrowded’ style) of the "Wimmelbild", a genre of illustration deliberately overcrowded with detail, to please children as they search for items.

How did she guess there was someone in the mysterious house?
(from The Mysterious House)

Which shop stocked Don Carlos cigars?

(from The Mysterious House)

Which row were the suspects in?

(from The Treasure In Breezy Lake)

Which way had the smugglers gone?
(from The Smuggler’s Tunnel)

The stories are great fun and the illustrations still have the power to transport me back in time, making it lovely to revisit them as an adult (whilst trying hard not to guide Dude into finding the clues, but letting him have as much fun with finding them as I did at his age).  My copy, 35 years old this year, still stands proudly on my bookshelf, a little beaten up (at one point, we used it as an initiation to the investigators group Claire Gibson and I were going to set up during the summer of ’78) but still much loved.

In case you're interested, there's a Facebook group dedicated to the book, moderated by Gavin Worby, which can be found at this link.

Thanks to Chad Lockwood, Gavin Worby  and tygertale