The Comics Rack

CRIME COMICS #1

   Crime comics were once a major genre of comics publishing in America, appearing first from Lev Gleason in 1942 and only dying out as a result of the Comics Code in 1955, when the word "crime" was forbidden to appear in the title of any comic book. Small attempts have been made over the years to revive the genre, with little success. What may surprise most, is that the best crime comics were not just lurid and sensationalistic (although these aspects were one of the draws), but were human stories about people who just happened to be on the wrong side of the law. Apparently, Bill Black shares my opinions of what made crime comics work and in Crime Comics, he has gathered together some excellent examples of both art and story that show why crime comics were so popular.
   From the Gleason published Crime Does Not Pay, comes the story (the best in the book) of a murderess who remembers her life in the seven minutes it takes for her to be electrocuted in the electric chair, with art by Fred Kida and Bob Fujitani (who do a marvelous job of of drawing in the style of Jack Cole). Also from Gleason is a tale by Alex Toth about the life of an arsonist. Simon and Kirby are represented from their Crestwood/Prize period with an excellent tale of a corrupt town and, from the same period and studio, are stories from Mort Meskin and Marvin Stein. Rounding out the issue are two stories from Avon:  one by Joe Kubert and the other, uncredited, about the life of Baby Face Nelson (who is also featured on the cover in art from the poster of the film of the same name that starred Mickey Rooney).
   With nary a clinker in the bunch, Crime Comics is definitely worth your time and money. Unfortunately, it is a one-shot and Black directs readers to look for more crime stories in his ongoing series, America's Greatest Comics. SRP is $6.95 and it can be purchased at the AC Comics website, which is found on our links page.

JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN

   Currently, one of the best selling Archives editions from DC is the Plastic Man Archives, which showcases the entertaining art and stories of Jack Cole. This is not surprising, since Cole was one of the giants of the Golden Age of comics and a creator whose work is definitely worth reading and re-reading. When reading Cole's work, among others, however, I often find myself wanting more. Not more comics, although they are wonderful, but more background material. What drove Cole, or any other comic creator, to produce what they did, especially in an environment that placed the comic artist at the bottom of the food chain? Unfortunately for most creators, their stories will never be told, but, at least in regards to Cole, we have a volume at hand that attempts to go beyond the picture and words and create a portrait of the artist.
   Jack Cole and Plastic Man is the work of Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd, both creators with more credits than there is room to list here. Combining the design sense of both and the text of Spiegelman, they have produced a curious volume that goes beyond the words and pictures that we associate with Cole and gives an overview of Cole's life though the comics he produced. As a biography, the book works very well, tracing (although not too deeply) Cole's life from the early art school courses through his suicide at what some would consider the height of his career. Spiegelman's text is insightful, placing Cole's work into perspective, not only in how it differed from other comics at the time it was done, but also on the influence it has had on succeeding artists and writers. There are also numerous anecdotes within the book that show us Cole the person, and it is on this level that the book works best. By the end, there is a feeling of having gotten to know Cole, albeit briefly, and some degree of understanding as to why he may have ended his life when he did. Of course, Cole was a comic artist and the book is filled with generous helpings of complete Plastic Man stories, as well as other art samples of Cole's work from his early days to True Crime (an entire story), his later comics work and many samples of his output for Playboy.
   I found this to be a truly delightful volume and one that deserves space on your bookshelf. The only omission I can find in the entire book is in the reproduction of Cole's first professional sale, which was an article he wrote for Boy's Life about his bicycle trip from Pennsylvania to California just after he finished high school. Why the book's authors would go to the trouble of reproducing most of the article and then leave out it's conclusion is beyond me, but it is still fascinating reading, just like the rest of the book.
   Jack Cole and Plastic Man has an SRP of $19.95 and can be found for less if you shop around.

THE ESSENTIAL ANT-MAN

   Just when I thought there was nothing worth reading in the Marvel Essentials line (outside of The Essential Conan), along comes another volume that is definitely worth your attention titled, Essential Ant-Man, or Astonishing Ant-Man depending on where you look on the book. A nice, thick tradepaperback, Essential Ant-Man reprints the complete solo stories of Henry (or Hank) Pym, the Ant-Man, as originally published in Tales to Astonish #27 & 35-69.
   Ant-Man was the first successful solo character to come out of the Lee-Kirby-Ditko era of Marvel comics and these stories reflect the sense of fun and adventure that permeated that era of Marvel's output. As related in these stories, Ant-Man's main claim to fame is that he can shrink to miniature size and communicate with ants. Aside from the insect menaces he faces, he also battles Communists and some of the lamest villians ever conceived (Egghead and the Porcupine to mention two). Ant-Man is propelled to wherever he has to go by a catapult where a group of his loyal ants form a landing cushion (nothing is ever said about what happens to the ants) and later travels by flying ant (maybe the ants complained about the cushion trick). Ant-man must douse himself with the chemicals that shrink him to ant size, later develops a capsule to grow or shrink, and finally discovers that he can cybernetically grow or shrink at will. By issue 49, he has not only gained a regular sidekick/love interest in the person of the Wasp, he also decides that shrinking to ant size is a liability, so he becomes Giant-Man, the super-hero guise he keeps through the end of the series.
   What makes these stories work is the sense of fun that permeates most of the series. At their best, the Marvel stories of this era were near parodies of the super-hero genre and Ant-man is no exception. In some stories, Ant-Man spends some time escaping from his fan club. The character, and his powers, develop very rapidly and, at times, seem like they are being changed on the fly. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Ant-Man probably has gone through more changes than any other Marvel character (which is probably why Jim Shooter had him go insane in an ill-conceived Avengers continuity some years back.).
   Artwise, this volume is also a must-have, since it has a number of gems besides the large dose of Kirby pencils. Don Heck turns in a number of excellent jobs, as do Dick Ayers and Larry Lieber. The last issues of the series are by Carl Burgos (the creator of the original Human Torch) and the last five issues are beautifuly pencilled by Bob Powell, who, unfortunately, is badly inked in the last two stories.
   The art reproduction throughout the book is excellent, with only a few pages shot from comic book pages. As an added bonus, all of the covers in the book, except part of one, are by Jack Kirby. Definitely a good addition to your bookshelf.
Essential Ant-Man retails for $14.95 and can be found at the usual outlets.

BEST OF THE WEST #30 & 31

   It seems that no matter how fast I review, I keep falling behind, possibly because the comics keep coming out faster than I can read them. Fortunately for me, Wild Bill Black and the good folks at AC Comics slowed down a pace over Christmas and I can get caught up with at least one of their titles, so I am only 1 issue behind. That being said, Best of the West #30 and 31 have been out for a number of months, but are still worthy of your attention, since they are both excellent, and are also the only western book worth reading on the market. Issue 30 features the Durango Kid, the Haunted Horseman, Tim Holt, Rocky Lane and Black Diamond under a cover by (I assume) Bill Black that proclaims that the issue features "The West's Greatest Gunfighters!". Although there isn't as much gunplay as I would like, this is still an excellent issue. Joe Certa's art on The Durango Kid carries the story along well, as does Dick Ayer's on The Haunted Horseman. I must also admit that Frank Bolle's art (on Tim Holt) is slowly growing on me, although, unlike the Ayers and Certa stories, it really needs color to add definition. The Rocky Lane story is rather pedestrian and uncredited, and the Black Diamond story is another of the ME attempts to produce the 3-D affect without use of glasses:  where the panel borders are all curved. The problem here is that the artist, Ben Brown, doesn't quite understand the process and there is only one panel where anything leaps out of the panel. The stories themselves are the typical fair for westerns, with the wildest twist this issue being in the Tim Holt story where Tim is tied to the back of a buffalo that has been fed locoweed(!).
   Issue 31 features the Haunted Horseman, Black Diamond, Rocky Lane, Tim Holt, White Indian and the Durango Kid under a new cover by Ayers. The big draw in this issue is the new Haunted Horseman story done by Black and Ayers. Ayers art is more impressionistic than it used to be and his style has become more angular as a result. The heavy blacks of his 50s output are gone, but the sense of layout and storytelling are still intact and it is an enjoyable story, although I question the vampires with fangs coming up out of their lower jaw; they tend to look like some kind of demonic warthogs. In an industry that shuns the old, it is refreshing to see a story by someone who still understands how the human body is constructed.
   The rest of the issue is also good, with Frank Bolle again demonstrating how a fake 3-D story should look (he draws objects and parts of the figures outside of the panel). The Black Diamond story is also another of these fake 3-D stories, this time with the artist Bill Walton using zip-a-tone and wash to create layers of depth. The White Indian story by Fred Meagher has some fine, detailed artwork and, saving the best for last, the Durango Kid story is illustrated by Fred Guardineer, one of my favorite artists.
   As with the previous issue, the stories are interesting and prove that of the many genres that have been published in comics that westerns work very well.
Nearly all the material ever printed by AC can be purchased from them and we recommend that you do so, by heading on over to our links page.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOL. 1

   What do you get if you mix H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, H.G. Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson together with a jigger of Sax Rohmer, a dash more of Wells, and liberal pinches of Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming? Well, if you believe the hype, a major motion picture starring Sean Connery, but before the proposed movie there was the comic, later collected into a book, known as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1.
   I have long been a fan of Alan Moore and I find that I am rarely disappointed with any of his work. Of the many writers working in the comic business today, he seems to be the only one who knows how to take an stock plot, look at it from many different angles, and then twist it around so even the most jaded of readers is entertained. When he is really on top of his game, he is also the most creative writer that has been in comics in a very long time.
   In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Moore takes us on a roller coaster ride of a story that is enjoyable on multiple levels. If you don't know who all the characters are, they are pretty well fleshed out and by the end, you will have read a good adventure story. But if you are up on your genre fiction, there are in-jokes, asides, peripheral characters and references to events that make the story even that much more fun and add the level of depth that is so characteristic of Moore's work.
   The story centers a very odd group of characters, namely Alan Quatermain, Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde, Captain Nemo, Hawley Griffen (the Invisible Man) and their leader, Mina Murray (I'll leave it to you to figure out what book she comes from). These are not quite the characters we know from fiction, but the way they might have been had they been real people. They are called together by a man named Bond, who happens to work for someone named M, to rescue a substance from a certain Oriental gentleman who has taken up residence in the Limehouse district of London. From there, the story takes off in unexpected directions that keep you glued to the page and, in the way that any good book should, keeps you wondering at what will happen next.
   In the midst of all this, Kevin O'Neill does a marvelous job of drawing a Victorian England that never was, but could have been, although it is often colored too darkly for easy viewing. O'Neill also creates original looks for all the characters and his sense of layout is very strong. His drawings at times are a bit too angular, but he has come a long way from the days when his work was banned from American comic books.
   If you find that I have been rather vague in my review of this book, it is because I don't want to give any of the story away. There are unexpected plot twists that will take most anyone by surprise and I don't want to spoil these for you. Suffice to say, you need to look at all the backgrounds in the panels, read the captions under pictures and, as mentioned before, if you are up on your genre fiction, your enjoyment of the book will be that much greater.
   The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 is a trade paperback that definitely deserves a place on your bookshelf. As an added bonus, all the covers to the original series are included, as are some of the filler pages that Moore and O'Neill created for the comic. Also included is an original Alan Quartermain prose adventure, "Alan and the Sundered Veil."
   NOTE: The second volume of this series is appearing as I write this and there are hints throughout the first book, particularly on the final page, as to what it will cover.
   The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 retails for $14.95 and can be found at the usual places.