Pencil Illustration | Philip Marlowe

Nothing surpasses Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled detective, Philip Marlowe.  In Marlowe’s own words: “I’ve been stabbed, snubbed, generally snookered. I ache all over. My office qualifies for urban renewal. The cops envy my successes … they’re trying to take my license away. I’d say that’s an average day.”

And no one played him better than Robert Mitchum in “Farewell, My Lovely.”