Nick and Nora Charles the bantering, romantically involved detective duo has become a well-used trope in literature, stage, screen, and television ever since. The characters first appear in Dashiell Hammett's best-selling last novel "The Thin Man" (1934). Nick is an alcoholic former private detective who retired when he married Nora, a wealthy Nob Hill heiress. Hammett reportedly modeled Nora on his longtime partner Lillian Hellman, and the characters' boozy, flippant dialogue on their relationship. (The novel also mentions that Nick was once a Pinkerton detective, as was Hammett.) The novel is considered one of the seminal texts of the hard-boiled subgenre of mystery novels,
Jan (comic book writer) Art and Industry). He also collaborated on some periodicals for children at this time, and later, on comic books and newspaper supplements. Jan returned to Spain in 1969, and worked in the now defunct publishing house Editorial Bruguera until 1985 where he helped illustrate the work of other comic book artists. In 1973, however, Jan created Superlópez, a parodized version of Superman. It was a series that began as a single page and later expanded into full albums, with adventures involving supervillains and criminal organizations. It also dealt with issues affecting contemporary Spain, namely the illegal drug trade, the transition