Guns in the Gutters

NEWSFLASH: Parker coming to IDW

2008-07-24T15:50:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted here in a while, but this was crime comics news too big to ignore. Artist/writer Darwyn Cooke of DC's The Spirit, Selina's Big Score and Justice League: New Frontier, will be doing adaptations of Richard Stark's first four Parker novels – The Hunter, The Man With the Getaway Face, The Outfit and The Mourner – for IDW Publishing.

The series is fully authorized by Doanld E. Westlake (a/k/a Richard Stark). These B&W graphic novels will be coming out over the next couple of years. For the full story, here's the Newsarama article.

HYPE: Femme Noir Update

2008-06-02T23:05:00.003-04:00

The first three issues of Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries by your humble blogger and Joe Staton (and several accomplices) have been solicited – issue #3 is in this month's (June) Diamond Comics Distributors PREVIEWS catalog – and the first two issues are off to the printer. Issue #1 will be hitting the shelves later this month. Here's the solicitation copy for those first three issues, so you can pester your retailer to order copies:ISSUE #3 OF FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW IN THE CURRENT (JUNE, 2008) EDITION OF DIAMOND COMICS' PREVIEWS CATALOG. IT CAN BE FOUND UNDER "APE ENTERTAINMENT" ON PAGE 206, AND THE DIAMOND ITEM CODES ARE: JUN083647 FOR COVER "A" JOE STATON & ALFREDO LOPEZ, AND JUN083648 FOR COVER "B" BY PHIL HESTER.
ISSUE #2 OF FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER. THE DIAMOND ITEM CODES ARE: MAY083591 FOR COVER "A" BY JOE STATON & ALFREDO LOPEZ, AND MAY083592 FOR COVER "B" BY MATT HALEY.
THE FIRST ISSUE OF FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES IS STILL AVAILABLE FROM DIAMOND DISTRIBUTORS. THE DIAMOND ITEM CODES ARE: APR083544 FOR COVER "A" BY JOE STATON & ALFREDO LOPEZ, AND APR083545 FOR COVER"B" BY BRIAN BOLLAND.

SITE NEWS: The Deafening Sound of Silence

2008-05-07T00:33:00.005-04:00

Well, it goes without saying that I haven't been keeping up with this blog very well, despite my best intentions and best-laid plans. My only excuse is that other activities have taken priority of late, and will continue to do so for a while. These other activities primarily consist of getting my own comic books – Femme Noir (Issue #2 is in PREVIEWS now!), Perils on Planet X, Gravedigger: The Predators, and a handful of others – out the door and off to the printers. I'm not only writing those titles, but lettering and doing production on them as well, and I'm the de facto editor on them, too, which means it's up to me to keep everybody involved working.

I also have a couple of freelance editing gigs, a big work-for-hire scripting job, some graphic design work, a couple of prose story commitments and a perpetually delayed DVD column to try and stay on top of.... and clearly, time management isn't my strong point.

Usually, when I can find a few minutes to write a blog entry – 'cause I do like my bloggin' – it's quicker to write something for my personal blog, Atomic Pulp.

I'm not abandoning this blog, but reviews will continue to be posted infrequently. I have a small stack of crime comics on my desk and read them when I can grab a few minutes. I like writing the reviews, too, and will squeeze them whenever possible. I still think it's important to showcase non-superhero adventure comics, and will continue to do so... whenever I can.

One possibility I've been considering is opening this site up to reviews from other fans of crime, espionage and adventure comics. But I'd want them to maintain the existing format. I'd like to hear readers' thoughts on that possibility, and if someone's interested in writing some reviews, drop me a line. Maybe we can try it out with a couple of "guest reviews" and see how it works out.

Thanks to everyone who stops by to check every few days to see if there's anything new here to read. I truly appreciate it. I'll post a new review soon.

NEWSFLASH: Dixon Re-Releases Mad Dogs

2008-03-31T00:52:00.006-04:00

Here's some potentially interesting news for fans of crime and action-adventure comics.

Chuck Dixon announced over on his blog last week that his 1992 Eclipse crime comics miniseries, Mad Dogs (which I reviewed last year) was about to be reprinted, under the new title of Philly NARCO. That property would be sharing a flip-book with another 90's Dixon project.

Here's the announcement from Dixon's site:

"(This is) my first publication under my own Bruno Books imprint. Two books in one published in a “flip book” style like the old ACE Double editions of the 60s. A digest sized 170 page comic with black and white interiors for 9.95
Cardstock covers.

Jungle Rules (formerly entitled War Man) by me and Juan Zanotto. Action in the Amazon rain forest as a cocaine cartel sends a team of killers to murder the survivors of a jumbo jet crash. And Philly NARCO (formerly entitled Mad Dogs) a story of police corruption and intrigue set in 1980’s Philadelphia.

If this one’s successful, look for more reprint material as well as some all-new titles!"

War Man was a two-issue miniseries published by Marvel's Epic imprint in 1993.

According to Dixon, "Once the book is ready (a week or so) it'll be available through ComiXpress and Amazon."

I'll post an update once the book is available, with detailed ordering information.

Dodge's Bullets

2008-03-29T22:55:00.004-04:00

Written by Jay Faerber
Illustrated by James K. Francis
B&W, Graphic Novel
Image Comics, 2004

Writer Jay Faerber clearly loves the crime genre. Sure, most of his comics work is in the superhero field, but he's managed a few notable crime comics credits, too, with The Hat Squad for Moonstone and his private eye graphic novel, Dodge's Bullets from Image.

Webster Dodge is a young Seattle private eye, who lives on an old houseboat and plays guitar in a struggling bar band. He doesn't have an office, instead meeting his clients at a local coffee shop with convenient Internet access. One of those clients hires Dodge to find his long lost father, a picture of whom he's spotted in a newspaper photo of a Seattle marathon. Dodge takes on the seemingly-simple job, but soon finds himself – as is to be expected in a good private eye story – embroiled in a twisted case of false identities, stolen money and kidnapping.

Faerber's script is excellent, with a twisty yet logical mystery that keeps both his protagonist and his readers perpetually off-balance. The character of Webster Dodge is an inspired creation – an utterly believable contemporary shamus with a satisfying slew of insecurities and personal issues that keep him rooted in reality. He's not a perfect TV eye, nor a film noir cliche.

The black and white art by James Francis is suitably gritty, with an appealingly organic aesthetic and clear storytelling. Some of the backgrounds are a little too sketchy for my tastes, but at least they're there. Faces are distinctive and expressive, and the overall effect is very pleasing. it's nice stuff.

Dodge's Bullets is most notable for attempting – and rather successfully – to tell a modern private eye story, set in contemporary world of cellphones, PDA's, and laptop PCs, rather than being another pastiche of 40's genre tropes. There's no trenchcoats or scarfaced gangsters here, just a good mystery in a recognizably realistic 21st Century Seattle. Sure, the modern approach is common in prose fiction, but comics creators can often cling tenaciously to the comfort and safety of pastiche, and it's nice to see Faerber and Francis break free of the tired noir trappings.

(Says the genius behind Femme Noir! Ah, irony!)

When Jay saw that I had Dodge's listed as an upcoming review, he offered to share some background information on the creation and history of the project. Here's what he sent along:

I've been a private eye fan for as long as I can remember. It probably started with Magnum PI, which I used to watch religiously with my dad. From there, I discovered Spenser: For Hire (and that, in turn, led me to discover the Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker). It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I discovered The Rockford Files, but those three PI characters served as the main three inspirations for Dodge's Bullets, which remains a project of which I'm immensely proud.

The original plan was to do a three (or was it four?) issue mini-series, but once work got under way, Image convinced me to just make it a full-fledged "graphic novella." The original artist was Mike Norton, who has since gone on to make a name for himself at DC Comics. Mike was the first artist to actually draw Webster Dodge, and he even drew a 5-page sequence. Eventually, he had to back out due to being overcommitted. But he recommended an artist named Tom Feister, who was doing a lot of work with Tony Harris. Tom drew some pages, and brought his own sensibilities to the book before he, too, had to back out due to being overworked. Like Mike, he's gone on to bigger and better things at DC.

I then came across James Francis, a (fairly) local artist who had graduated from the Kubert School but hadn't done much in the way of comics. The book was to be set in Seattle, which is where I live, and James lived on the Washington coast, so he was much more of a local than Mike or Tom ever was. He at least got the Pacific Northwest "vibe" we were going for. At any rate, James signed on to draw the book, and we started over. That is, we weren't going to use any of the stuff Mike or Tom drew.

James did an amazing job with the book. That double-page title spread is still one of my favorite pieces of art from any of my projects. I served as a bit of a "location scout" for the book, tolling around Seattle and taking photos of various landmarks and locations for James to incorporate into the book. Sure, he lived in Washington, but Washington's a big state, and he was a good 90 minutes away from downtown Seattle, where most of the action from the book took place. So I'd email him photos and he'd use them for reference.

In addition to the artwork, my favorite thing about Dodge is the relationship between Dodge his policeman father. I'm not sure the rest of the supporting cast is as strong as it could've been, and if I ever revisit the character, I may tweak things in that regard.

James and I came really close to doing a follow-up mini-series at Moonstone Books. Image didn't really have any interest in a Dodge sequel, but Moonstone was eager to do something. James's band (yes, James is a musician, and so is Mike Norton and Tom Feister -- I'm the only one who isn't musically inclined) ended up getting more and more gigs, and he seems to have faded away from the comic book scene, and the sequel never took root.

I'm currently developing a new graphic novel in the crime genre, and while it won't be a straight Dodge follow-up, there's a chance he may play a role in some sort of ensemble cast.

Thanks for sharing, Jay.

Dodge's Bullets is a solid contemporary PI tale that deftly sidesteps, or finds new angles for, most of the common cliches of the genre, and is well worth picking up.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Dodge's Bullets may still be available through Amazon and other online dealers.

HYPE: Pre-Order Femme Noir #1

2008-03-29T12:37:00.004-04:00

The first issue of my own crime comic, Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries, drawn by the legendary Joe Staton (Michael Mauser, The P.I.s) is now available for pre-order through Diamond Comics Distributors' PREVIEWS catalog.

It's the April edition, with Indiana Jones on the cover. The catalog itself is available at better comic book shops for $4.50, but you don't need the catalog to order the comic as long as you tell the retailer that you want it and where in the catalog to find it.

Femme Noir is listed on page 212, under Ape Entertainment. The editors of PREVIEWS saw fit to single it out as one of their "Spotlight On:" listings, which is greatly appreciated. The Diamond Item Codes are: APR083544 for Cover "A" (Staton & Lopez) and APR083545 for Cover "B" (Brian Bolland).

Now, if you're just not able to get to a comic book store to pre-order the book, you can wait until June and order it online, but if you can pre-order it, please do. Not only does every individual order help, but it shows the retailer in question that there's interest in the book, and he might order a couple of extra copies for shelf display.

Thanks, guys, and look for several more new items and reviews here this weekend!

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Vol. 3

2008-03-03T22:39:00.005-05:00

Written by Max Allan Collins
Illustrated by Rick Fletcher
B&W, Trade Paperback
Checker Books, 2004

Today is Max Allan Collins' birthday. To celebrate, let's take a look at this third – and, to date, final – collection of the Collins/Fletcher Dick Tracy newspaper strip continuities from 1980 and '81.

Unsurprisingly, this trade paperback is right in line with the previous volumes from Checker Books: great stories, great art, poor design and somewhat overpriced. As in prior volumes, the Collins scripts are top-notch, and Rick Fletcher's cartooning is masterful. Also like the earlier volumes, Checker has chosen to put only three daily strips on each page when there's room for five, pumping up the page count and price.

This time, Checker has collected three complete continuities in this volume. Unlike some of Collins' earlier tales, which alternated classic Gould villians with new malefactors, all three of these stories introduce new villians to the Tracy mythos.

The first storyline, "Dick Tracy Meets Art Dekko," pits our favorite plain-clothes copper and his Major Crime Squad against a stylish art thief named Art Dekko, and his moustached girl Friday, Sue Real. This adventure also introduces the Tom Selleck-lookalike detective Johnny Adonis to Tracy's supporting cast.

The second continuity, "Dick Tracy Meets Breakdown," has Tracy's billionaire buddy Diet Smith kidnapped by his own former security chief, the anxiety-ridden Bernard Breakdown. Tracy is chosen to deliver the million-dollar ransom, but the situation is complicated by a teenaged, roller-skating pickpocket who steals the ransom briefcase right out of Dick's hands!

Finally, in "Dick Tracy Meets Torcher," a slumlord hires a professional arsonist to torch his condemned tenements, and the case falls to Tracy's task force to solve.

All three stories are fast-moving and smart, with Collin's usual strong plotting and clever wit. Fletcher's at his peak here, with some marvelous draftsmanship and storytelling – the climax of "Art Dekko," a shootout in a dark art gallery, is a visual tour de force under Fletcher's talented hands.

As I said above, the sparse layout and high price are definite drawbacks, but the quality of the material makes up for a lot of that.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Vol. 3 is available from Amazon and other book dealers.

NEWS: The Detectives Shipping Update

2008-02-14T22:39:00.006-05:00

I've received a half-dozen orders for copies of The Detectives. The weather has been pretty nasty here this week, with yet another foot of snow and then sleet and freezing rain, and that's kept me from getting to the post office to ship them out yet. I apologize for the delay.

I will try to get them into the mail tomorrow – Monday at the latest.

I still have plenty of copies, by the way, if any one else is interested!

UPDATE (2/20): I shipped everyone's orders Tuesday afternoon (I forgot Monday was a holiday). They're on the way!

Tony Bravado, Trouble-Shooter

2008-02-10T15:17:00.001-05:00

Written by Dave Darrigo
Illustrated by Steve LeBlanc, Louis Paradis
B&W, Comics Format
Renegade Press/Special Studios, 1988-89

Poor Tony Bravado. His short comics career was, ironically, plagued with troubles, and he never really had a shot. Which is a shame, because the character had a lot of potential.

Created by writer Dave Darrigo, whose acclaimed Wordsmith series chronicled the hard-luck life of a working pulp writer during the Depression, Tony Bravado, Trouble-Shooter was originally concieved for a proposed series of men's paperback adventure novels.

The concept behind the character and series was innovative and, frankly ripe with possibilities. In fact, here's that concept, as described by Darrigo himself in the title's introductory pages:

"Who is Tony Bravado? he's not a cop -- but he's been one. He's not a private eye -- but he's got a P.I. license. He's not a security consultant -- but that's what he calls himself at tax time. Bravado is a bodyguard and very personal agent for multi-millionaire businessman Lance Palmer. Palmer's business holdings made him famous among Wall Street watchers, but when he developed the 'Eden' concept he became a world-class celebrity. And a lot wealthier."

(Millionaire Palmer's 'Eden ' concept combines high-class resorts with an upscale magazine of erotica aimed at married couples. )

The first issue, "Dirty Jobs," chronicles a single day in the life of the Italian-American Trouble-Shooter as he flies from New York to the Eden Club resort in Jamaica, where he has to deal with a discharged club manager who's selling cocaine on company property.

Issue #2 contains the first part of "Point of No Return," which sends Bravado to Mexico City to handle a malevolent street gang that's terrorizing the local Eden Club's patrons. Meanwhile, his boss Lance Palmer's on a book tour, and becoming paranoid, terrified that someone's going to make an attempt on his life. He tries to recall Bravado from Mexico, but Tony refuses to return to the States until his current assignment is finished.

In issue #4's conclusion to "Point of No Return," Bravado leads an Eden security team into a violent confrontation with the Mexican street toughs before returning to States, where he must face his employer's wrath – and maybe save his life, too.

In the last issue, "The All-American Nightmare," Tony is assigned to protect a beautiful blonde model-actress from her jealous, abusive, and possibly homicidal pro football player husband.

Darrigo's scripts are a little rough in places, and sometimes too text-heavy, but his plotting and characterizations are excellent. He really captures Bravado's hedonistic, high-living milieu perfectly, and effectively contrasts that apparent luxury with the often brutal, gritty street violence that Bravado frequently finds himself embroiled in. While he carries a gun, Bravado prefers to deal with Palmer's problems with fists, and rarely involves the authorities, as his employer insists on avoiding negative publiscity or scandal.

Artist Steve LeBlanc – inked on the first two issues by Louis Paradis – was clearly learning on the job. His figure work, faces and backgrounds are very rough and frequently problematic, but over the course of the four isues, he did improve somewhat, especially once he began inking his own pencils. Still, his work was never more than just servicable.

As I mentioned above, the book was plagued with problems. The first issue was published by Deni Loubert's Renegade Press, which also published Ms. Tree. Unfortunately, a crash in the comics market had her shutting down her company soon after the first issue was shipped. Creator Darrigo ended up paying the printing bill on the second issue and self-distributing it, before assuming full publishing responsibilities on the following issues. Unfortunately, the damge had been done, and low sales did not justify continuing the book.

The character made at least two more appearances in short stories drawn by Peter Grau – a much better and suitable artist than LeBlanc – before fading away. One appeared as a back-up story in the Darrigo published title Piranha Is Loose!, the other in the Alpha Productions anthology, The Detectives.

To this day, Tony Bravado, Trouble-Shooter is one of my favorite characters and comics of the genre. I really wish that Dave had been able to revive the book at some point – preferably with Grau on the art – because the concept had so much going for it, and could have resulted in some pretty unique crime and adventure stories.

Four out of Six Bullets.

GITG Special Offer: The Detectives

2008-02-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

Back in 1993, while I was Editorial Director of a small, B&W comics company called Alpha Productions, I persuaded the publisher to allow me to put together a 48-page, squarebound comics anthology featuring new stories of some of comics' greatest private eye characters. I originally wanted to call it Shamus, but it eventually saw print as The Detectives.

Counting the 1923 publication of the first "Race Williams" story by Carroll John Daly and the first "Continental Op" story by Dashiell Hammett as the birth of the private eye genre, I called the book a 70th Anniversary Celebration, and set out to include as many creators and characters as I could fit in.

Beneath a cover by fan-favorite artist Adam Hughes, there was a text introduction by mystery writer Ed Gorman, a new Michael Mauser, Private Eye adventure by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton, a new MAZE Agency mystery by Mike W.Barr, Paul Pelletier and Bob Cram, a Tony Bravado, Trouble-Shooter story by Dave Darrigo and Peter Grau, and – in the volume's only reprint – a Johnny Dynamite story from the 1950's. I wanted a Ms. Tree story, but that character was tied up by DC Comics at the time, so Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty contributed a new Mike Mist Mist-ery instead. Filling out the last page in the book was a pin-up drawing of Ted Slampyak's P.I. character, Ace Mifflin, of The Jazz Age Chronicles.

There were two versions of the book – it was the 90's, after all – a standard edition with a red logo, and a "limited" edition with the logo printed in metallic gold ink. If memory serves, it was one of the best-selling books the company ever published, and I've recently found online dealers selling the standard edition for around $10 and the gold edition for twice that.

So what prompted this little stroll down Nostalgia Avenue?

Well, last night I found a box full of gold edition copies of The Detectives in my parents' basement. And, since the book's both kinda hard to find these days and, apparently, expensive if you can, I thought I'd make this once-in-a-lifetime gathering of comic book P.I.'s available again to GITG readers. So, if you're interested in getting your mitts on a mint-condition copy, I'm letting 'em go for just five bucks each, postage included. While supplies last, natch.

Orders can be made via Paypal sent to atomicpulp@gmail.com. If you don't do PayPal, and want to make other payment arrangements, contact me at the same address, and we'll work something out.

True Crime

2008-02-03T12:24:00.000-05:00

Written by Jenny Proctor, Dave Robison & Valarie Jones
Illustrated by Dan Spiegel
B&W, Comics Format
Eclipse Comics, 1993

In the early Nineties, Eclipse Comics had some success with a series of controversial trading cards sets. These cards featured portraits of notorious serial killers, mass murderers and gangsters, with brief biographies and "statistics" on the back. Despite some negative press and allegations by parents' groups that the company was using a children's medium to glorify serial killers and exploit the victims of violent crime, the cards were a surprising commercial success for the company.

Based on that success, they soon announced that they were establishing a comics imprint called "Eclipse Noir," and that the first title under that label would be a comic book version of their True Crime trading cards.

They ended up publishing two issues of True Crime, each containing two stories. All of the stories in these books were drawn by veteran comic book artist Dan Spiegel, who is probably best-known for the many Gold Key children's titles he illustrated in the 60's and 70's, as well as his collaborations with writer Mark Evanier in the 80's on adventure books like Crossfire and DC's Blackhawk.

Issue #1 contains "The Made Man," scripted by Jenny Proctor and Dave Robison, is a 13-page dramatization of John Gotti's rise in the New York underworld of the 1970's, and his involvement in the execution of Irish crimeboss James McBratney. The second feature, "The Aileen Wournos Story," scripted by Valarie Jones, is a fairly dry recitation of the career of Florida's notorious murderer – often credited as the "first" recognized female serial killer. This issue also features a single-page article on "genetic fingerprinting," by Peggy Collier and a "True Crime Q&A" letters column.

Issue #2 begins with "Bugs," by Proctor & Robison, dealing with the FBI's successful surveillance of Mafioso "Big Paulie" Castellano in the early 80's and the subsequent arrests of a number of the New York organization's top men. The second story, scripted by Jones, is "Amy Fisher: Psycho Seductress or Naive Nymphet?," a 14-page retelling of the tabloid darling's shooting of Mary Jo Buttafucco in 1992. Accompanying these two stories is another article on forensic science by Collier, an article on the media's role in the Amy Fisher phenomenon by Elayne Rapping, and another "True Crime Q&A" column.

There was also a stand-alone True Crime Special, about the death of Superman actor George Reeves and drawn by Jim Mooney, which I don't have.

Now, the comics field has a long and sordid history of sensationalist "true crime" comics , going back at least to Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay and its many imitators in the 40's and 50's. Unfortunately, True Crime's continuation of that tradition is, despite the excellent artwork of the always-excellent Spiegel, unbearably dull. In an apparent effort to minimize charges of being exploitative, Eclipses' handling of the material is dry, strictly factual and unfortunately, boring.

Perhaps that was unavoidable, though. In 1993, a comics company wouldn't have been able to get away with the wholesale invention and dramatic license of the 40's "true crime" titles. Even back then, that freewheeling approach to the material eventually backfired on the publishers, and led to government attention and industry self-censorship. But while Eclipse's approach was undoubtably more responsible, it didn't provide a whole lot of entertainment... and it didn't sell. The series was cancelled after two issues and a single Special, and the company was itself gone soon after.

Three out of Six Bullets.

Back Issue #26

2008-01-31T21:44:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of Back Issue magazine from TwoMorrows Publishing, #26, is their "Spies & Tough Guys" issue.

The cover features a striking portrait of Marvel's super spy, The Black Widow, as drawn by Paul Gulacy.

Articles include a profile and history of the aforementioned Widow, an interview with long-time collaborators Gulacy and Doug Moench of Master of Kung Fu and James Bond fame, a history of James Bond in comics, an overview of writer Don McGregor's private eye comics: Detectives Inc. and Nathaniel Dusk, a retrospective of Max Collins & Terry Beatty's Ms. Tree, and a number of other articles covering such non-superhero comics as Sgt. Rock, Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Chuck Dixon's 80's updating of aviation adventurer Airboy.

There's also a look at the short-lived 70's publishing house Atlas Comics, and a feature article on DC's Suicide Squad.

Readers of this blog will definitely want to pick up this issue. Back Issue is one of the best magazines about comics out there, and this edition is particularly great.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Time For A Crime Spree!

2008-01-17T23:34:00.000-05:00

Not a bad start for the new year.

So far this month, I've managed to knock out seven new reviews, and I've got a couple more in draft form that should be posted soon; clearly, I'm managing to keep to my resolution to update this blog more frequently... for now, anyway.

My goal is a minimum of one new review a week. We'll see how it goes.

Let's see... any news?

Greg Rucka (Felon) is apparently working on a new project called Stumptown, which he says is inspired by his love for the TV series, The Rockford Files. I hope this means that it's going to be a P.I. comic - there hasn't been a serious one published in a good long time. Can't wait. In other Rucka news, a feature film based on the crime graphic novel he did with Steve Lieber, Whiteout, is due in theaters later this year, with Kate Beckinsale in the lead role. (Hmmm.... maybe I should review the graphic novel when the movie comes out...)

Steven Grant's 2 Guns from BOOM! Studios is finally finished – turns out that it was a 5-issue miniseries, something that I never clearly understood from the way it was promoted. I was very excited about this book last Spring, but it's taken so long for the issues to come out that my enthusiasm's been a bit diminished. Nonetheless, I'm ordering #5 this weekend, and once I've had a chance to sit down and read the series all the way through, I'll review it here.

I also just found out that Fantagraphics' Hard Boiled Comics imprint published at least one comic book other than their Torpedo reprints – something called Mike Regan. I'm going to try and track down a copy of that and review it, too.

A few more crime comics creators have dropped me notes after discovering my reviews of their books in this blog. Robert Sodaro, writer/creator of Agent Unknown, felt I was bit hard on his book, but tells me that he's working on a revival of the series with new characters and a new artist. I'm pleased to hear it, as I thought the premise was solid and interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading the new version.

Don Mangus, creator of the worst-reviewed comic on this site, Crime And Passion, also dropped me a note recently. Although he called my review "savage," he seemed to have a sense of humor about it, and doesn't seem to be holding a grudge.

And I'm glad. I'm not here to hurt people's feelings or tear down anybody's hard work, but I really care about this genre, and feel that I have an obligation to be honest and fair in my evaluation of the titles I review. I want more crime comics out there, and even more importantly, more good ones. I also try to unearth some time-lost gems, in the hopes that fans of the genre will hunt them down and enjoy them too – and maybe new creators will be inspired to craft some cool new books of their own.

In fact, I'm always pleased to hear from any creator of crime, espionage or action-adventure comics, and willing to give them some space here to comment on their work or plug their projects.

And speaking of plugging projects, my own crime comics are coming along. It looks like Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries, drawn by Joe Staton, will be shipping from Ape Entertainment around June, and Rick Burchett and Fred Harper are hard at work on the art for the new Gravedigger graphic novel now. Look for it in late '08-early '09.

The illustration accompanying this post is another uncropped Grackle cover drawing by Paul Gulacy. Man, I love his stuff.

Somerset Holmes

2008-01-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

Written by Bruce Jones
Illustrated by Brent Anderson
6-Issues, Color, Comic Format
Pacific/Eclipse, 1983

Publishing a comic book as a means of pitching a movie story is very popular right now. For some publishers, such as BOOM! Studios and Platinum, it's their entire business model. But while it's very trendy now, it's not a new idea at all.

Bruce Jones' (Luger) Somerset Holmes is one early example, a Hitchcock-styled suspense thriller that was clearly intended to be a film screenplay – a pitch that was apparently bought by Hollywood, although no film was ever made.

An attractive young redhead is run down on a remote country road by a hit and run driver. She wakes up bruised and battered in a muddy ditch, her purse missing, with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She staggers off and comes across the home office of an elderly physician. Before she can be treated, though, he keels over in front of her with a knife in his back, whispering "nickles" with his dying breath. She dresses quickly and flees, soon finding herself in possession of a mysterious key and pursued by a horde of violent individuals, some of who appear to work for the government. She takes a name from a housing development billboard ("Somerset Homes"), and sets out to unravel the mystery of her identity, her past, and why so many people seem to be out to get her.

Suspense stories in the vein of North by Northwest or The Man Who Knew Too Much are particularly hard to pull off in comics, but Jones and co-plotter/editor April Campbell (who also modeled for the lead character of Somerset) do a pretty good job of it. The pacing is good, dialogue rings true, and the main character's completely understandable paranoia is almost palpable.

The art by Brent Anderson (Astro City) is heavily photo-referenced and very cinematic. In fact, the pages could easily be used as film storyboards, as Anderson's storytelling employs a variety of movie-like angles, lighting effects and atmospherics. Unfortunately, the coloring undercuts the fine art somewhat, with hand-painted hues that are often splotchy or inconsistent due to the primitive reproduction technologies of the era.

All six issues feature a chapter of the delightful back-up feature, Cliff Hanger, written by Jones and illustrated by the legendary Al Williamson. As the title implies, this is a loving and lovely homage to the old Saturday afternoon movie serials, complete with square-jawed hero Cliff, a beautiful damsel in distress, jungle thrills, diamonds, Nazis, and nail-biting cliffhangers. Great stuff!

The first four issues of the miniseries were published by Pacific Comics, one of the first independent comics publisher to take advantage of the then-new direct sales market. Their company was short-lived, though, and when they folded, the remaining two issues were published by Eclipse Comics. Eclipse also collected the series into a graphic album format.

It'd be nice if someone would reprint this with new coloring. It's a solid mystery-suspense thriller with strong work by talented creators.

Five Out of Six Bullets.

Gil Kane's Savage!

2008-01-16T01:11:00.001-05:00

Story by Gil Kane & Archie Goodwin
Art by Gil Kane
B&W, Magazine Format
Fantagraphics, 1982

Back in the mid-Nineties, I was editing a handful of comic books for a South Florida publisher, among them, Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger. While working there, I had the great fortune to meet a few of my creative heroes. The two most memorable meetings – both over meals – were with the aforementioned Mickey Spillane and with legendary comics artist Gil Kane. Sadly, neither of these men are with us any longer, so I'm even more grateful that I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with each of them.

I've always loved the dynamism and explosive energy in Gil Kane's work, and admired him for constantly pushing against the limitations of the medium, both creatively and commercially. Back in the Sixties, he'd attempted to break away from the children's comics market with more adult-oriented material, specifically, the sword & science epic Blackmark and the brutal espionage thriller, Savage!

Originally published in 1968 in magazine form as His Name Is... Savage!, the sole adventure of the titular tough guy, "Return of the Half-Man," introduces Savage (no first name is ever revealed) as an agent of the top secret intelligence agency known as The Committee. The Committee is described as America's "highest priority intelligence group," and is answerable only to the President.

After having Savage released from prison, the anonymous directors of The Committee inform him that his old WWII Army commander, Brigadier General Simon Mace, is (a) still alive after having been supposedly killed by Savage, (b) a cyborg, (c) the head of a group of international mercenaries and assassins, and (d) has been contracted to kill President Lyndon Johnson during an upcoming appearance before the General Assembly of the United Nations! Whew! Needless to say, our man Savage is assigned to hunt down his former commander and prevent the assassination.

In short order, Savage tracks Mace down to his New York penthouse base, is reunited and enjoys a brief tryst with Mace's beautiful daughter, and beats the living hell out of a bunch of Mace's henchmen. He also discovers that Mace has already substituted himself for the President and intends to declare war on Soviet Russia before the U.N.

Then things get interesting.

Savage! is a brutal comic, beautifully drawn by Kane at the top of his game. The action sequences are slickly cinematic and shockingly violent. Teeth are smashed with gun barrels, bullets bore through skulls with the precision of laser beams, bodies are hurled across rooms, through windows and down stairwells. The air is constantly filled with whizzing bullets or shards of shattered glass. Visually, Savage appears to be a combination of Lee Marvin and the young Kane himself; a white-haired, modern barbarian in a stylish suit.

The plot is pretty standard "Men's Adventure" stuff, with some hokey comic-book sci-fi (the cyborg Simon Mace), notable primarily for its inclusion of President Johnson as a character (and Kane nails his likeness). In an attempt to make the product seem more adult, the captions and dialogue are typeset instead of hand-lettered, and Archie Goodwin, one of the best adventure writers in the history of comics, contributes the surprisingly over-written script. Goodwin appears to be emulating – or perhaps slyly parodying? – the paperback spy novels of the era, with verbose captions like:

Savage's fingers locked over Bayard's gun hand, bending it back and up with the force of his leap. A squeal of fear was cut short by a flat, splintering crack as, like a steel-blue battering ram, the pistol barrel smashed through the Captain's teeth to slam against the roof of his mouth!

And:

His shoulder where the bullet had grazed him again began to throb and ache under the stress. The cord cut and dug through the callouses of his palms to the tender flesh beneath. Still Savage climbed with a steady, unbroken motion... Until at last one hand, then the other, clawed and gripped at the hard stone of the balcony's edge.

Wow!

The edition I'm reviewing is a 1982 reprint by Fantagraphics Books, which not only includes the entire, 40-page epic, but an introductory article by comics historian and critic R. C. Harvey, a fascinating interview with the always-thoughtful and opinionated Kane, and a reprint of a transcribed conversation between Kane and Spirit creator Will Eisner.

After that lunch I shared with Kane in '96, I told him how much I loved the book and how disappointed I was that there weren't more adventures published. He told me that the original magazine had flopped miserably due to some distribution problems, and it had cost him a lot of money. But he was, he said, planning a new Savage! project, and looking forward to updating the character for the 90's. Regrettably, aside from a single short story, he never returned to the character before passing away in 2000.

It may be dated and almost comically over-written, but Savage! is a noble attempt at pushing the boundaries of the medium, and its influence shouldn't be underestimated. If you can find a copy of either edition on eBay or at a convention, I strongly recommend picking it up.

Six Out of Six Bullets.

Criminal: Lawless

2008-01-08T12:16:00.001-05:00

Written by Ed Brubaker
Illustrated by Sean Phillips
Colors by Val Staples
Color, Trade Paperback
Marvel/Icon, 2007

The superior crime series by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips continues to chug along, courtesy of Marvel's Icon imprint. The second Criminal trade paperback, "Lawless," (collecting issues 6-10 of the ongoing series) came out just before New Years. As I'm a "wait for the trade" reader with this series, I only just got around to reading this new story arc last night.

"Lawless" appears to be Brubaker's take on the original Get Carter, with a tough, young hood – made even tougher by military stints in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan – returns to the old neighborhood to find out who killed his brother. Going AWOL, Tracy Lawless steals some cash from a mob hand-off, quickly manufactures a new identity and soon infiltrates his late brother's gang, looking for his sibling's murderer. Of course, he also finds himself sleeping with his brother's girlfriend and embroiled in a Christmas Eve heist... and the mobsters he ripped off aren't too pleased with him, either.

As with the first story arc/graphic novel, Brubaker manages to work comfortably within the conventions of the genre while managing to find new wrinkles to explore. I found this story to be somewhat more predictable than "Coward" – the final revelations weren't really all that surprising, unfortunately – but the strong characterizations and sharp dialogue more than compensated for any familiarity of plot. Once again, Brubaker proves crime fiction to be his true forte, and I'm glad he has this regular venue to work in the genre.

As before, Sean Phillips' art is note-perfect, effortlessly illustrating Brubaker's grim underworld with carefully chosen shadows, distinctive character designs, and a solid, naturalistic drawing style. The storytelling is textbook, easy to follow and cinematic. Val Staples muted color palette is a perfect complement to Phillips' gritty line art. Visually, the series remains a pleasure to behold.

As I said, I didn't find the story quite as fresh this time around, but it's still a great piece of work, and the Brubaker/Phillips team continues to do the genre proud.

Five Out of Six Bullets.

Criminal: Lawless is available from Amazon and other comics retailers.

The Complete Chester Gould's DICK TRACY Volume 1

2008-01-08T05:30:00.000-05:00

Written & Illustrated by Chester Gould
B&W, Hardcover
IDW Publishing, 2007

The fine folks at IDW Publishing have been reprinting The Complete Chester Gould's DICK TRACY for a while now. It's an ambitious program to chronologically present, in beautiful, hardbound editions, the entire run of Gould's seminal newspaper adventure strip. The first volume covers the years of 1931 to 1933, and includes nearly 600 daily and Sunday comic strips.

Now, since I love crime comics I'm automatically a Tracy fan, but I can't claim to any great authority regarding the actual strip. It never ran in any of the local Maine papers while I was growing up (still doesn't, actually), so my exposure to the character is limited to a few random comic books, home video versions of the Republic serials of the 30's and the RKO B-movies of the 40's, a couple of reprint volumes... and the Warren Beatty 1990 film (which I actually like quite a bit, despite its weaknesses). Of course, I've also read Max Allan Collins' Tracy novels, which spun out of that film's merchandising.

Therefore, this book was my first exposure to the early strips, and... wow!

No political correctness here! Heinous acts of bloody violence are carried out on almost a daily basis, frequently occurring on-panel. Even the origin story is surprisingly grim: Tracy begins his legendary law enforcement career after his girl, Tess Trueheart's, father is shot, and she is kidnapped by mob boss Big Boy's hoods. All the more shocking, Tess is then pressed into service as the gangster's reluctant moll! Tracy joins up with the police department (being immediately made a plainclothes detective!) to find his abducted girlfriend and avenge her father's death!

Great stuff, and IDW's presentation is astounding. The artwork is clear and crisp, as if shot directly from Gould's original art (and for all I know, it may have been!). There's a fine introduction by the aforementioned Max Collins, as well as a vintage interview with Gould, conducted by Collins and Matt Masterson. The book also includes Gould's original try-out strips, which he called Plainclothes Tracy. ("Dick" was the syndicate's idea.)

I believe that IDW is up to Volume 3 now, but I haven't been able to pick up anything beyond the first volume yet. Nonetheless, if you can afford it, I highly recommend these books to any and all Dick Tracy fans.

Six out of Six Bullets.

The Complete Chester Gould Dick Tracy is available from Amazon and most booksellers.

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Vol. 2

2008-01-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

Written by Max Allan Collins
Illustrated by Rick Fletcher
B&W, Trade Paperback
Checker Books, 2004

This second collection of the Max Allan Collins/ Rick Fletcher Dick Tracy newspaper strip continuities from the late 1970's maintains the generally high standards of the previous volume from Checker Books.

With this particular group of stories, both creators appear more comfortable with the material, and their already fine work continues to improve.

The first story in this volume is "The Computer Killer," a tale very much of its time, representing, as it does, the business world's increasing reliance on computer technology in the late 70's. The "Computer Killer" is a file clerk named Z.Z. Rowe, who, after a computer mix-up destroys his credit rating and costs him his job, starts blowing away computers with a shotgun. Tracy's investigation inadvertently threatens to expose a different cyber-criminal (long before such a term was conceived) and soon, computer chaos erupts!

The second continuity, "The Death of Mumbles," brings back another classic Gould villain, Mumbles, who is now posing as his own clone in a confidence game aimed at Tracy's millionaire pal, Diet Smith. This story demonstrates how good Collins was at mining both the day's headlines and the strip's colorful history for his narratives, and begins a trend toward stories with scientific themes.

Next up is "Murder: Starring Bony and Claudine," a long arc that sends Tracy and pregnant wife Tess to the state of Washington to visit daughter Bonnie Braids, who is now a teacher at an Indian school. Arriving in the Pacific Northwest, Tracy and Tess meet Bonnie's new beau (a police detective who's a dead ringer for her dad), do some sight-seeing, and become embroiled in the robbery spree of young punk rockers Bony and Claudine. The motivation for their crimes? Bony needs the money to finance a demo recording. Not the most exciting story Collins & Fletcher did, but it does introduce a new member to the Tracy clan, in the form of infant son, Joe.

Finally, "Enter Quiver," is a short, punchy tale about Tracy foiling a plane hijacking on his way home from Washington. The hijacker is "Quiver," who may or may not be related to Tracy's old foe, Shaky.

The Collins Casefiles Volume 2, is another fine collection of hardboiled adventures, with strong, witty dialogue and plotting by the always-reliable Collins, and exceptionally fine cartooning by Fletcher. Once again, it's a nicely designed book, and once again, I wish they'd put more strips on each page, shaved off a few pages, and brought the price down a few bucks. On the plus side, though, this volume includes the "Tracy's Rogues Gallery" features from the Sunday installments, collected together as a sort of "bonus feature" in the back of the book.

Now, I just have to scrape up the cash for Volume 3!

Five out of Six Bullets.

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Vol. 2 is available from Amazon and other book dealers.

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Vol. I

2008-01-07T00:51:00.001-05:00

Written by Max Allan Collins
Illustrated by Rick Fletcher
B&W, Trade Paperback
Checker Books, 2003

This handsome trade paperback collects the first three comic strip continuities written by mystery novelist Max Allan Collins when he took over the writing of the legendary Chester Gould's newspaper adventure strip, Dick Tracy, back in 1978. Although Gould was given a byline on these stories along with Collins and artist Rick Fletcher, Gould's involvement at the time was, according to Collins, only as an informal consultant.

The first story by the new creative team, "Angeltop's Last Stand" pits the intrepid homicide detective against the vengeful offspring of two of his classic villains: Angeltop Jones, the daughter of the infamous Flattop, and the son of The Brow, her lover. The two second-generation felons come very close to succeeding in rubbing Tracy out, too!

The next storyline, 'Return of Haf-and-Haf," finds Gould's acid-scarred villain (who very closely resembles Batman's nemesis, Two-Face) on parole, supposedly reformed, and with his face repaired by plastic surgery. But Tracy isn't convinced that Haf-and-Haf's gone straight, and is soon proved right in his suspicions when the creep attempts kill his ex-wife and kidnaps policewoman Lizz!

The last – and best – tale in this first volume is "Big Boy's Revenge," where Tracy's very first foe, the Al Capone-esque crimeboss Big Boy, offers, from his deathbed, a million-dollar open contract on the lantern-jawed detective! Tracy soon finds himself the target of a slew of would-be hitmen – both amateur and professional – and no one around him is safe, as Junior finds out, to his great sorrow. Collins deftly mixes violent action, unexpected plot twists, and the surprising death of an established supporting player in this uncompromising crime fiction epic.

Collins brought a fan's love and a professional's skill to his scripts, discarding most of the fantastic elements that Gould had introduced during his "Space Coupe/Moon Maid" period, while mining both the strip's rich history and the daily headlines for fresh story material. As the first writer other than Gould to tackle the strip, Collins' initial continuities are remarkably strong and faithful to the long established characterizations and milieu. And he only got better as time went by.

A former Gould assistant, the highly underrated Rick Fletcher not only grasped the proper look and feel of Tracy, he brought a sharp sense of design and clarity to the storytelling (despite the cramped newspaper strip format) that rivalled the best work of Gould in his prime. A consumate cartoonist, his work on these first strips is slick and stylish, every panel executed with crisp, clean brushwork. Amazingly, Fletcher got even better as he went along, too.

Checker's trade paperback collection is attractive, with decent reproduction of the original strips. My only complaint is that they place only three dailies on each page, when there's clearly room for more, and the the Sunday strips are chopped up. I wish they'd been able to format them as they originally ran, rather than chopping off the logo and "Rogues Gallery" headers. But those are minor complaints. Ultimately, it's just great to have these serials collected in a convenient bookshelf format, and they make a fine accompaniment to IDW's reprint collections of the original Chester Gould strips.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Vol. 1 is available from Amazon and other book dealers.

Luger

2008-01-02T00:36:00.001-05:00

Written by Bruce Jones
Illustrated by Bo Hampton & Tom Yeates
3-Issues, Color, Comics Format
Eclipse Comics, 1987

Okay, so I didn't get another review up before the end of 2007. But it's a New Year, and among my resolutions are more regular updates to this blog. Hence – this post!

Talk about a blast from the past! Frankly, I'd forgotten all about this offbeat adventure comic until I was filing away some recent comics purchases in my longboxes over the weekend. Vaguely remembering that I'd enjoyed the book back when I bought it, I dug out the three issues and gave 'em a re-read.

John Charles Luger is a 42-year-old ex-bounty hunter/soldier of fortune, who has some big problems. He's an alcoholic, his sexy, genius sister is an incurable schizophrenic who switches personas and identities at the drop of a hat, and he's missing his right hand – which was lost during his sibling's "knife thrower" phase. When he's approached by an English millionaire, Sir Wilford, who wants to hire him to find his kidnapped daughter, Luger turns him down. Unfortunately, his sister Pidge– having now assumed her brother's identity – sets out to find the girl on her own, and Luger is forced into action.

Wilford provides the soldier of fortune with a prosthetic "handgun" that fires bullets from the pointer finger, and Luger is on the case – a madcap caper that ends up involving microdots, Nazi scientists, daring escapes, killer sharks and a super bomb.

Bruce Jones' story is fun and twisty, with a genuine pulp flavor and a quirky sense of the absurd reminiscent of the early Destroyer novels by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy. Nothing here is played too seriously, but it's sure exciting and a lot of fun. Even the ludicrous "handgun" works in context – especially when it's revealled that Luger doesn't know how many bullets it holds, 'cause he never bothered to ask!

The gorgeous art by Bo Hampton and Thomas Yeates is reminiscent of the classic comic strip art of Roy Crane (Buz Sawyer), with clear storytelling, fantastic figure work, detailed backgrounds, and a deft display of duotone shading (a lost art today, sadly). The painted color by Steve Oliff nicely complements the artwork, contributing greatly to the rich atmosphere and lush backgrounds.

The story ends with a hook for sequels, but I don't believe there were any follow-ups to this miniseries, and that's a shame. I'd really enjoy reading some.

Six out of Six Bullets.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T08:19:00.000-05:00

Have a hardboiled holiday, everyone – and look for at least one new review here before the end of the month.

On my desk at the moment are Bruce Jones' Somerset Holmes and Luger miniseries from the 80s, Mike Baron & Paul Gulacy's The Grackle from the 90s, and Moonstone's The Lone Wolf one-shot.

I also just blew some Christmas dough on the new Criminal trade and a couple of Max Collins Dick Tracy collections.

Among my New Year's resolutions are reading and reviewing a lot more comic books and graphic novels for this blog, so expect at lot more activity here in 2008!

Thanks for reading!

Shut Up And Die!

2007-12-04T23:39:00.000-05:00

Written by James Hudnall
Illustrated by Kevin Stokes
B&W, Comics Format
Image Comics, 1998

Shut Up And Die! was a criminally short-lived comic series from writer James Hudnall (ESPers, Alpha Flight, The Psycho), which took a somewhat different approach to crime comics.

Instead of using professional lawmen or lawbreakers as his protagonists, each story revolved around a more-or-less "normal" person caught up in the web of violence and crime. In fact, even though the book was set in contemporary times and eschewed the usual, cliché trappings, the series was probably one of the most purely noir comics ever. By this, I mean that it really captured the essence of the best noir fiction, where the universe is a malevolent, ruthless place, and no one is immune to its corrupting influence.

Issue #1's story, "Temptation," begins when a couple of Mafia bagmen accidentally leave a briefcase containing a gun and 50 grand – down payment on a hit – in the apartment of a twenty-something, unemployed slacker. When he finds it, he sees an opportunity to escape his dead end existence (not to mention his creditors) and hits the road. Of course, once they realize the mistake, the mobsters start hunting him down, finally tracking him to Las Vegas for a violent denouement.

Issue #2, "A.W.M. (Angry White Man)," follows a middle aged office worker, who becomes homicidal after being fired by his black supervisor for a mistake made by a Hispanic co-worker. Killing the woman he blames for his misfortune, he soon finds himself on the run from the law and his actions branded by the press as a racist hate crime.

In Issue #3, "The Bad Week," money problems have a young couple's marriage on the ropes. When the wife goes into a bookstore looking for a book on credit repair and apparently never comes back out, the husband reports her missing, only to find himself under suspicion by the police.

Each issue is narrated by its respective protagonist, and Hudnall does an excellent job of finding each character's distinctive "voice." The stories are smart and well-paced, each driving relentlessly toward their inevitable, grim conclusions. Like the best noir films – Detour, Double Indemnity, Gun Crazy – the protagonists of these tales find themselves constantly betrayed by their own baser instincts.

It's really good stuff.

All three issues were illustrated by Kevin Stokes, who employed an expressive, almost cartoony (in a good way) style on the series. Apparently reproduced directly from the pencils, there's a gritty quality to his art that serves the material well. My only criticisms would be that sometimes his perspective and figure work could be kinda wonky, and I wish he had put a bit more detail into some of his backgrounds. His architectural drawings, in particular, were lacking; buildings frequently looked like shoe boxes.

It's really a shame that this book came out during one of the worst sales periods in the history of the comics direct sales market and was unable to find its audience. It's damned strong work, and unlike the many comics that ape the noir "look" without capturing the noir essence, Shut Up And Die! was the real thing.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Police Action #1

2007-12-04T03:02:00.000-05:00

Written by Jack Younger & Mike Ploog
Illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, Al McWilliams
Mike Ploog and Frank Springer
Color, Comics Format
Atlas/Seaboard, 1975

Back in the mid-1970's, the founder of Marvel Comics, Martin Goodman, decided to start a new comics company. It wasn't that he really gave much of a damn about the medium – mostly, he was just pissed at Cadence Industries. Cadence had bought Marvel and made Goodman rich(er), but had reneged on a promise to keep Goodman's son, Chip, installed as Marvel's editorial director. So, as an act of revenge, he decided to go head-to-head with Marvel with a new line of comic books.

If Marvel in the 70's was the "House of Ideas," Atlas/Seaboard was the "House of Other People's Ideas." Among their short-lived titles were a couple of barbarian books (Conan was big then), kung-fu and Dracula titles (Marvel's Master of Kung-Fu and Tomb of Dracula were popular at the time, too), comics featuring Spider-Man and Hulk imitations, Planet of the Vampires (which "borrowed" its title from a 60's Mario Bava film, and the plots of Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man), a couple of war books featuring Sgts. Stryker and Hawk, some very derivative monster titles, and Police Action, which tried to emulate the kind of story then popular on network television – i.e. Kojak, Columbo, McCloud, etc.

Each issue of the 3-issue series included installments of two crime features: Lomax, N.Y.PD. and Luke Malone, Manhunter. Issue #1 carried a February, 1975 cover date.

"Big city cops are used to violence from petty heists to wholesale slaughter! But when one of their own ends up in pieces over a hundred foot area... that's when Sam Malone gets called in! He's seen it all in his fifteen years on the force, but this case is different! Sergeant Brooks was an old friend... and that makes it personal!"

The lead Lomax story is untitled, and introduces New York police detective Sam Lomax, a Dirty harry-like cop who's quick on the draw and apparently ignorant of the Miranda warning. In this first story, a fellow police officer (and friend from Lomax's military service in Korea) is blown up by a car bomb. Investigating, Lomax discovers that his pal was working undercover infiltrating the gambling operation of a local gangster, and just may have been dirty.

Written by somebody named Jack Younger and drawn by comics vets Mike Sekowsky and Al McWilliams, this first Lomax story is pure cop melodrama, drowning in overwrought dialogue, thought balloons and captions. Younger trots out virtually every cliche of the genre in its brief ten pages, and even squeezes in a car chase! The Sekowsky-McWilliams artwork is professional and satisfactory (even with Sekowsky's trademark weird poses), but it's crushed under the weight of the overabundant text.

"It isn't paradise – but it's my city, San Francisco! From its seedy slums to Nob Hill – I love it! I'm an ex-cop whose private investigator's license reads Lucius G. Malone – but only my mother could get away with calling me that! So, cousin, if ya gotta call, call me Luke Malone, Manhunter!"

The Luke Malone story, "Requiem for a Champ," isn't much more original than the lead feature, but is far better executed. Malone is a Frisco P.I. in the classic mold; a bitter ex-cop with red hair (like Mike Shayne) and an ill-fitting trenchcoat, working out of Paddy's pub. In this debut adventure, he investigates the mob-style execution of a former prizefighter-turned-skid row bum.

Written and pencilled by Mike Ploog, a former assistant and pupil of the great Will Eisner, "Requiem" is, perhaps not surprisingly, very well written and drawn. Ploog's dialogue is fairly sharp, and his layouts and character designs are great. I don't think his art is particularly well served by Frank Springer's somewhat sketchy inking, but it's still some of the best private eye storytelling I've seen in the medium.

Reading this comic today is a real trip, man! Every sentence ends in an exclamation point, and for a Comics Code-approved book, there's a surprising amount of violence. Still, it justifies its existence with Ploog's contribution, which may be cliched, but is definitely fun.

Three out of Six Bullets.