Detective Chimp

Detective Chimp
Promotional art for "The Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp" #1 (March 2007) cover, art by Brian Bolland.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #4 (July–August 1952)
Created by	John Broome Carmine Infantino
In-story information
Alter ego	Magnificent Finder of Tasty Grubs
Species	Common Chimpanzee
Team affiliations	Bureau of Amplified Animals Chimpanzee Investigations Croatoan Society Shadowpact
Notable aliases	Bobo T. Chimpanzee, Detective B.T. Chimp
Abilities	Ability to speak to all animals Genius human level intellect Chimpanzees are naturally several times stronger than even athletic humans.

Detective Chimp (alias Bobo T. Chimpanzee) is a fictional comic book character appearing in books published by DC Comics. A common chimpanzee who wears a deerstalker hat (à la Sherlock Holmes), Detective Chimp has human-level intelligence and solves crimes, often with the help of the Bureau of Amplified Animals, a group of intelligent animals that also includes Rex the Wonder Dog. He was originally created in the final years of the Golden Age of Comic Books, during the interregnum between the former and the Silver Age of Comic Books.

After his initial appearance in Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog he continued to appear in that title as a backup feature until 1959, at which point he faded into obscurity. Several decades after his last appearance, Detective Chimp appeared in several cameos, namely in a 1981 story, "Whatever Happened to Rex the Wonder Dog" (DC Comics Presents #35) and later in a brief cameo with Sam Simeon in Gorilla City during 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following these appearances, Bobo started appearing in DC titles with some regularity, appearing in issues of Green Lantern, The Flash, and other titles. This eventually led to prominent roles in the 2005 Day of Vengeance miniseries and subsequently as a regular in its spin-off series Shadowpact. The character has gone on to guest-star in other DC Comics titles.

When first introduced, the Detective Chimp was a simple, although intelligent, trained chimpanzee, who acted as a "helping mascot" for the local sheriff, after helping him to solve the murder of his chimpanzee trainer, Fred Thorpe. He could not speak, but could understand humans and make himself understood. Bobo, a smoker, is a member of Mensa, and had a long-standing partnership with four other detectives as the Croatoan Society. One of the other former members of the Society was the detective/superhero Ralph Dibny.