My name is Velda Bellinghausen. I'm a private investigator. I used to be a showgirl at Slotnik's Follies, but I got pretty sick and tired of shedding my clothes twice a day, four times on weekends for matinees. So I followed up on an ad I saw on a matchbook cover and sent in my twenty bucks for the Hawkshaw Course on Detection. It was the best twenty bucks I ever spent, too! In no time at all, I had my license and was in business for myself! Now I'm called upon to investigate murders, burglaries, and all sorts of crimes occurring in the big city. Velda: Girl Detective is a multi-leveled representation of the more lurid of the 1950s crime comics as if it actually existed as a classic Golden Age comic. A passing homage to the noir films and hard-boiled detective school of writing of the 1950s as it includes vintage ads as well as side story featurettes such as "Hawkshaw Hawk, Bird Detective" and "Neolithica: Girl of the Pleistocene." In this second volume, stories of Velda's exploits continue in Velda "Goes to the Circus" and "Goes to Hollywood" plus Velda hypnotized, visiting a dude ranch, and Velda against a crazed strangler. See the action tales of a burlesque queen who became a private eye. As a special bonus, this volume contains Velda's calendar pinups!
Ron Miller is an illustrator and author with more than forty books to his credit. These include the best-selling "The Grand Tour" as well as the Hugo Award-winning "The Art of Chesley Bonestell." He has also worked on motion pictures such as "Dune" as a production illustrator and been a guest lecturer at the International Space University. He also provides illustrations for publishers such as Scientific American, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Berkeley/Ace and Baen Books. A commemorative stamp he designed for the US Postal Service is attached to the New Horizons spacecraft currently bound for Pluto.
