SITE NEWS: The Deafening Sound of Silence

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

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

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.

Pre-Order Now: FEMME NOIR #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.