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Official Site: Moonstone Books

Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip begun by writer Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) and artist Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon). Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996.

X-9 was a nameless agent who worked for a nameless agency. X-9 acquired the name "Phil Corrigan" in the 1940s and decades later the strip was renamed Secret Agent Corrigan. The nameless agency was also briefly the FBI when the FBI was in vogue, but when the FBI became less popular, references to it were dropped and the agency was nameless again.

The strip was something of a combination of a secret agent and private eye adventure, and went back and forth between the two. Despite the initial combination of talents, the strip was never a success, and perhaps the confusion about what kind of strip it actually was contributed to this. By the next year, Hammett and Raymond had both left the strip.

It was continued by Charles Flanders (1937), Robert Storm (a King Features "house name", who did the actual writing is unknown) (1938-1943?), and drawn by Mel Graff from 1939 to the 1960's. Graff is the one who gave X-9 his name, "Phil Corrigan". Graff thought it didn't make sense for a secret agent to be addressed by his secret moniker, "X-9". The name "Phil Corrigan" was inspired by "Phil Cardigan" who was a character in one of Graff's earlier comic strips, "The Adventures of Patsy." Graff also gave X-9 a more personal life with romantic interests "Linda" and "Wilda". Both these characters inspired popular songs: "Linda" written by Jack Lawrence and "Wilda" written by Graff himself. Wilda became Phil Corrigan's wife.

Secret Agent X-9 has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.