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Kelly, Mugs. Mugs Kelly was created by Donald Bayne Hobart (Whistling Waddy) and appeared in twenty-one stories in a variety of pulps from 1939 to 1952, beginning with “Suicides are Saps” (Black Book Detective Magazine, Jan. 1939).

Mugs Kelly is a Bellem. He is a New York City private detective. He isn’t particularly clever but eventually dopes things out and solves cases.

‘Mugs’ Kelly is the name, and I guess the first part fits my face. If handsome is as handsome does, then it must have been out to lunch when my features were being constructed. I’ll grant you a private detective like I am doesn’t have to be a pretty boy, but I hate to go around scaring mirrors...I can get along with people—some of them realize that I have a heart of gold, and with those I don’t like said heart can be just as hard as the bright metal.

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