Editing Sexton Blake (section)

===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.<ref name="Wright 1989 p11">Wright, Norman. The Adventures of Sexton Blake Detective. Introduction to The Sexton Blake Detective Library, Hawk Books, 1989 p. 11. {{ISBN|9780948248962}}</ref> This digest-sized publication specialized in longer tales, and at the height of its popularity was published 5 times a month.<ref name="Wright 1989 p11"/> 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 (illustrator)|Eric Parker]]

Writers who worked on Sexton Blake stories throughout this 53-year span included Charles Henry St. John Cooper,<ref>{{cite book|author=Marshall, H. |title= Memories of a Private Detective|location= London| publisher= Hutchinson|date= 1924|page=236}}</ref> [[John Creasey]], [[Jack Trevor Story]], [[John G. Brandon]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Arnold |first=John |title=John G. Brandon and 'Coutts Brisbane': Two Australian Contributors to Sexton Blake and Inter-War Popular Fiction |journal=Australasian Journal of Popular Culture |volume=6 |issue=1 |date= March 2017 |pages=117–33|doi=10.1386/ajpc.6.1.117_1 }}</ref> [[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.<ref name="Wright 1989 p16">Wright, Norman. The Adventures of Sexton Blake Detective. Introduction to The Sexton Blake Detective Library, Hawk Books, 1989 p. 16. {{ISBN|9780948248962}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Wright 1989 p16"/> From 1968 to 1971 Valiant published new comic strips in the style of the Knockout strips from decades earlier.<ref name="Wright 1989 p16"/> 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.<ref name="Wright 1989 p16"/>