Have you ever heard of Jupiter Jones? If you have, you're in for a treat because today's theme is on those boys with the chalk! If you haven't heard of him, then sit back and read all about one of the minor but terrific literary series for kids: The Three Investigators!
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Jupiter, Pete, and Bob |

In their first adventure, the boys read in the newspaper about how Alfred Hitchcock is looking for an actual haunted house to use in his next motion picture. So they finagle an interview with him to get permission to investigate said "Terror Castle," and thus begin their long association with him.


In 1979 several dramatic things happened to The Three Investigators: Random House decided to stop publishing the hard-bound versions AND they stopped using illustrations inside. I remember coming across The Mystery of the Sinister Scarecrow as a brand-new adventure but it was in the reprint format (paperback!), with a different artist (no more Marchesi?!) and it had no illustrations inside!! Even now, Sinister Scarecrow is not one of my favorites in the series for those three reasons.

Then on April 29, 1980 The Three Investigators faced their most serious problem: the great Alfred Hitchcock died. Would the series cease? The answer came with novel #31, The Mystery of the Scar-Faced Beggar, which introduced the fictitious author-former private detective-restaurateur Hector Sebastian. He took over the role the voice of the reader in the last chapter to help clear up any possible lingering questions, and nominally "introduced" the casese. The Hitchcock silhouette, which had been used on all of the recent reprintings, became the shape of a door-lock. The series continued for another ten books until it finally ended in 1987. The last new book I purchased, however, was the last Hitchcock book, The Mystery of Shark Reef. I figured that was a pretty good place to end.

However, the story didn't actually end there.
Just recently I re-discovered The Three Investigators and realized that there is a lot more to the story. On my recent trip back to Japan I found my thirty books and re-read the first fifteen or so. When I went on the internet to see what I could find about them, I learned that there are various homepages about them, their creators, and their fans. I learned that there have been two movies made about The Three Investigators in the last few years: SKELETON ISLAND and TERROR CASTLE.
I found various homepages about them, their creators, and their fans. I also found that although the series ended in the late 80s in the United States, the series continues in Germany under the name "The Three Question Marks" (Die Drei ???). This is a reference, by the way, to their habit of using question marks as their symbol on their business cards or in their chalk messages. So I also need to acquire a German version for myself. While in Japan I also started hunting down the Japanese versions of the series. On the back of the paperback versions it had said, "Millions of fans around the world...from America to Finland to Japan...have thrilled to (their) exciting adventures...." It turns out that in Japan there were actually two versions: the novels and "manga" comic-book versions. They haven't been reprinted in more than 30 years, so it will make tracking them down difficult, but I am on the case! It looks like there are versions of the books in the Library of the Japanese Congress, so if I have to go there to read them, I will, haha!

Also, I found out that back here in the States, after the original series ceased publication the boys came back in another series of novels called The Three Investigators Crime Busters. In these books they are now 17 years old and as interested in cars and girls as they are in mysteries. I have only found two of these so far so I can't really comment on them....BUT, they don't really compare in quality to the best of the originals. Still, there are ten or so more I need to track down.
So....I have a lot to catch up on. This will be fun! :-)
Cool. What a relive and great research! Im a huge fan. Seen some of the japanese versions, but NOT the mangas.. bah. Im an artist hoping to do a fanfic motion graphic novel with the crimebuster 3i but not too bad as the series was. I enjoy every book.. what can i say? Im a fan! HUGE fan for 30 years now! Live on!
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