Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here

Written by Tony Fleecs
Illustrated by Dave Wachter
Color, Comics Format
Terminal Press, 2009

I posted about this a couple of days ago, and decided to take a chance on ordering a copy. The publisher has only a very small number in print, and are offering them only at conventions and through their website. I got my copy Friday.

Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here is a very surprising comic book.

First of all, despite the source material – a series of hardcore sex films from the 1970's directed by Bob Chinn and starring John Holmes – this comic contains no graphic sexual images. There is sex, and it's erotic, but there are no drawings of Holmes' legendary weapon, nor any actual full nudity shown. Secondly, there is an actual, intelligent plot.

Thirdly, it's damned good.

Private investigator Johnny Wadd is in Mexico looking for the wife of a traffic cop friend of his, who has been missing for six weeks, and may have been kidnapped. As Wadd makes inquiries around the small town of Ensenada, he inadvertently provokes a local drug dealer, and discovers that the truth about the woman's disappearance may not be quite what he was led to believe.

Frankly, this is a great little book. It's short – only 18 pages of story, and it's a POD product, so the price is too high... but damn, it's a nice piece of work.

The story isn't 100% original – then, how many are? – and suffers a bit from the short page count, but Fleecs' dialogue is really strong. It's suitably hard-boiled and sounds quite natural. His storytelling is good, too, using the comics format well and playing to his artist's strengths masterfully.

And his artist has many strengths. The art by Dave Wachter is excellent, easily on par with most of the stuff being published by the big companies. Everything is well-drawn – characters, settings, props – and the storytelling is appropriately cinematic. The coloring by Narek Gevorgian complements his illustrations perfectly, setting the appropriate mood for this Mexican-based noir.

I recommend Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here with only a few reservations. One: the idea of using a porn film for the source is kinda weird, and considering how much new that Fleecs brought to it, I wonder if it might have worked better as an original creation, and two, the POD nature of the book, and its limited edition nature makes it a pretty steep investment for such a short story. Yes, the story's good and the art is great, but it's still too damned pricey. That's gonna cost them a Bullet.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here can be purchased directly from the publisher at Terminal Press.

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics

Written by Various
Illustrated by Various
B&W, Trade Paperback
Running Press, 2007

I first mentioned this book last October, and actually bought a copy shortly after posting that item, with the intention of reading it while on a two week vacation with my wife.

Yet, here it is, almost February, and I'm only just now finishing reading it. There's an awful lot of fine material between those covers!

I had intended to do detailed reviews of all the stories in the book, maybe a few at a time, but frankly, I don't have the time for that mammoth (pun intended) an endeavor, so I'll take the easy way out and review the book as a whole.

This weighty, 480 page tome, edited by Paul Gravett, contains twenty-four stories, ranging from Golden Age shorts, complete newspaper strip continuities, and full-length comic book issues. Creators include Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty, Dashiell Hammett, Jack Cole, Alex Raymond, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Bernie Krigstein, Will Eisner, Alex Toth, Sanchez Abuli, Jordi Bernet, Bill Everett, Paul Grist, Harry Sahle, Warren Pleece, and Johnny Craig. Surprisingly, considering the impact he's made on the genre, there's nothing here by Frank Miller.

Several familiar series characters also make appearances: Hammet & Raymond's Secret Agent X-9, Collins & Beatty's Ms. Tree, Eisner's Spirit, Spillane's Mike Lancer (nee Danger) and Mike Hammer, Abuli & Bernet's Torpedo, and Paul Grist's Kane. In fact, the only major crime comics creation conspicuous by his absence is Dick Tracy.

Most of the stories are excellent (this is a "Best" collection, after all), and there are a few bonafide classics in these pages, as well. Mickey Spillane's "Dark City," from the Mike Hammer newspaper strip is one, and Jack Cole's infamous "Murder, Morphine and Me" is another. Eisner's "The Portier Fortune" is a superior Spirit story (featuring the sultry P'Gell), while Johnny Craig's "The Sewer," from Crime Suspenstories #5, is a genuine EC masterpiece. The tales run the gamut of crime fiction sub-genres from "true crime," to private eye capers, to police procedurals and fair-play mysteries, and represent over a half-century of exceptional work by creators from all over the world.

All the stories are presented in black & white, and the art reproduction is generally excellent. It's likely that some serious restoration work was done on some of the older material, and much of it looks to have been reproduced directly from original art. The overall design of the book is quite nice, though I wish they'd found a better way to place the type on the cover, rather than obscuring the main figure's face with the title. Bernet's art deserves a bit more respect, and I doubt Luca Torelli would be amused.

If you're reading this blog, it follows that you have an interest in the crime comics genre, and if you have an interest in the crime comics genre, then this book is an essential purchase and should be in your library. It is a comprehensive overview of the history of the genre, and provides many, many hours of mystery, chills and lurid thrills.

Six out of Six Bullets.

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics can be ordered from Amazon and other booksellers.

Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective: Dark Star of Death

Written by John Wooley
Illustrated by Kevin Tuma & Gary Dumm
B&W, Comics Format
Eternity Comics, 1991

This was the first of at least four oneshots from Eternity Comics, based on the long-running pulp peeper, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, created by prolific pulpster Robert Leslie Bellem. Each issue featured an adaptation of a classic Turner pulp tale and a vintage comic reprint from the 1930's.

For the uninitiated, Turner was one of a long line of sleazy, wiseass dicks working the L.A. beat. What separated him from the crowd was the show-biz background of his stories (often using thinly-veiled shades of well-known Tinsletown celebs) and his creator's penchant for over-the-top, often bizarre, hardboiled patter, riddled with bizarre slang terms (many invented by Bellem whole-cloth).

"I shook the geraniums from my sniffer and lit out after those gams!" "All right, toots, how'd you like to be punctured a few?" "The hell you utter!"

This particular issue presents an adaptation of the Bellem story, "Dark Star of Death," originally published in Hollywood Detective, April, 1934.

Turner is hired by a has-been actor to find his "best friend," Paravox Studios bigwig, Kane Fewster. He finds the terrified Brewster hiding out from a bookie in a small cottage. While the two men talk, Turner hears a noise outside, and, investigating, finds a beautiful girl listening at the window. As he chases after her, a shot rings out inside, and returns to find Brewster murdered.

The twisty story is full of eccentric characters and wanton, willing women. There are no real surprises, but it's a fairly solid little murder mystery. Wooley's script is faithful to Bellem's prose, but suffers the fate of most prose-to-comics adaptations of private eye stories: lots of talking heads. Since most private eye tales are basically a series of interrogations, sorting through the collected data and then pulling it all together at the end, it means lots and lots of dialogue. This is, of course, no problem with a prose tale, but comics are a visual medium, and it takes a very skilled artist to make all that talking look interesting.

Unfortunately, artists Kevin Tuma and Gary Dumm, aren't the guys to do it. The layouts are straight-forward and bland, the Thirties setting is only vaguely sketched in (a couple of cars, fedoras) and there's very little in the way of atmosphere; a black & white noir comic should be loaded with black shadow, but these guys seem awful stingy on the ink. I personally find Tuma's faces and figure work atrocious, although others might argue that it's a stylistic choice. And, as mentioned above, much of the team's artwork is crammed in under bloated word balloons packed with copious text.

All that said, it's still a fairly fun comic because Dan Turner is a fun character, and Bellem's bizarre language is a kick to read (and decipher). You might still find this – and the other Eternity Comics Dan Turner specials – in the back issue bins.

Two out of Six Bullets.

NEWS: Porn's Premiere P.I.

Oh my.

Independent publisher Terminal Press is bringing the notorious Seventies hardcore porn private eye character Johnny Wadd, portrayed by the late John Holmes in a series of XXX films, to comics, with a color oneshot "adaptation" of the first in the series, Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here.

Here's the press release:

The infamous 70's film classic Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here, from Arrow Productions, is the latest to undergo the "HARD/CORE" treatment, in Terminal Press' line of limited-run comic books doing artistic takes on iconic adult cinema.

Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here takes the cult classic Johnny Wadd character made famous by John Holmes and transports him into a gritty crime drama set in present-day Mexico. For the uninitiated, the Johnny Wadd character and John Holmes himself were most recently the basis of Marc Wahlberg’s lead in Boogie Nights with Val Kilmer portraying Holmes as well in the film Wonderland.

Director Bob Chinn said that he wrote the script for the first Johnny Wadd film on the back of an envelope. So, what would’ve Holmes and Chinn come up with if they had really shot for the moon with their script? What if they had to make people pay attention without showing them Holmes’ legendary 13 inches? They’d have done a hard boiled, tough as nails crime story with twists and turns and interesting characters, tough guys and sexy dames. They’d have done on film what we’ve done in this comic.

Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here is written by Tony Fleecs (In My Lifetime, Wonderlost, Li'l FireBreather), with art by Dave Wachter (Scar Tissue, The Guns of Shadow Valley), colors by Narek Gevorgian (Silent Assassin) and Separations by Joe Frazzetta.

I'll have to admit – I'm intrigued, and that cover art is pretty decent. I'll have to order a copy and review it. If you're intrigued, you can buy your own copy from the Terminal Press website, here. I'm certain it will arrive in a plain brown envelope.

NEWS: IDW to Reprint Rip Kirby

IDW Publishing is looking to be the place for classic crime comic strips. In addition to their ongoing, beautifully-designed Dick Tracy reprint books, they'll soon be publishing high-end volumes of Alex Raymond's long-running detective strip, Rip Kirby.

I'm really beginning to wish I could find a job; there's so much awesome stuff coming out these days!

Here's the press release:

Following the Eisner-award winning Terry and the Pirates, IDW’s Library of American Comics will present Alex Raymond’s modernist classic Rip Kirby in a definitive five-volume archival hardcover series.

Edited and designed by Dean Mullaney, Rip Kirby will contain every daily from the strip’s inception in 1946 through Alex Raymond’s tragic death in 1956. “It’s going to look gorgeous,” Mullaney says. “We are reproducing the strips from pristine syndicate proofs that will allow readers to see, for the first time, the full luxurious detail of Raymond’s brushwork.”

Rip Kirby was the first hip and cool detective in newspaper comics. Created by Alex Raymond when he was deactivated from the Marines after World War II, it was a fresh approach to the genre, a departure from the prevailing hard-boiled style of detective fiction. Rip Kirby was urbane and cerebral, and used scientific methods as often as he used his fists when solving crimes and mysteries. But there was still plenty of action — Kirby was an All-American athlete and decorated war hero.

Co-written with Ward Greene, Rip Kirby often addressed contemporary issues, including trafficking in black market babies and the attempt to limit the proliferation of atomic and biological weapons. The supporting cast was comprised of Rip’s valet and assistant, Desmond, and plenty of breathtaking women, particularly Rip’s girlfriend, Honey Dorian, and the raven-haired and aptly-named Pagan Lee. Highly conscious of the fashions of the day, Raymond brought post-war and early-50s chic and fashion to the comics page, dressing his female characters in ultra-chic clothes obviously inspired by Dior’s “New Look.”

The strip also signified a grand departure, both thematically and artistically, from Raymond’s first major creation, Flash Gordon. With Rip Kirby, Raymond wedded his incomparable brushwork to a sweeping approach to storytelling and camera movement that was missing in the more static Flash. He promulgated a new art style — one of cinematic photo-realism — that influenced such artists to follow as Stan Drake, Leonard Starr, Al Williamson, and Neal Adams.

Biographical and historic essays will be written by Brian Walker, author of the best-selling Comics Before 1945 and Comics After 1945. The first volume will have an introduction by Raymond biographer and authority Tom Roberts.

I know I've mostly been running news items here lately, but I assure you that new reviews will be coming along soon.

Site News: #46 With A Bullet!

This is interesting: the e-Justice blog, just announced their Top 50 Detective Blogs, and this one made the list at #46!

Pretty cool!

I guess this means I really should update this thing more often.

First Look: The Hunter

IDW has released the cover art for Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of the first Parker novel by Richard Stark (the late Donald E. Westlake), The Hunter (a/k/a Point Blank and Payback). No surprise that it looks great! I am very much looking forward to this series of graphic novels, even though I'm not usually a fan of graphic adaptations of prose work, especially in the crime field. The Byron Preiss-edited Raymond Chandler adaptations a few years back were really disappointing, despite having some very accomplished creators involved.

I have confidence in Cooke, though.

In site news, I have several reviews in the works, including a look at the Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective adaptations (staying on topic, here) that John Wooley did for Eternity Comics back in the 90's. You probably won't see them before February, though, as I have a very heavy workload this month.

Thanks for your patience, and I'll keep trying to post here as often as possible with crime/adventure comics news and reviews.

NEWS: XIII to NBC

The long-running European graphic novel series (and popular video game franchise) XIII is coming to NBC television as a 2-part movie in February starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff.

Here's a synopsis:

The first female US President Sally Sheridan is shot dead by a sniper during her Independence Day speech. Her assassin narrowly escapes the scene with his life, national security hot on his heels - or so it seems. Three months later, an elderly couple discover the body of a wounded man washed up on a beach. The young man (Dorff) cannot remember the slightest thing about his own identity. The only clue is a tattoo on his neck, "XIII".

More details at Newsarama.

I read the first installment of Catalan's XIII back in the 90's, and it could make for a very interesting, Bourne Identity-sort of international thriller. Mark me down as curious about this new production.

Hotel Harbor View

Written by Natsuo Sekikawa
Illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi
B&W, Graphic Novel
Viz Communications, 1990

This Japanese graphic novel actually contains two stories, the titular tale and a longer story, "Brief Encounter." Both are marvelously executed examples of illustrated crime fiction.

A man sits in the lounge of the declining "Hotel Harbor View" in Hong Kong, waiting for his killer. He's been there a while – by day holding down a bar stool, drinking Scotch, then spending his nights with an attractive hooker, whom he photographs in explicit poses before having sex with her. When his beautiful female assassin finally arrives, he will finally know the truth about himself.

In Paris, the same female assassin is hired to kill a legendary hitman. This target is more than just another contract, though, as she once enjoyed a "Brief Encounter" with the man... who also first taught her how to use a gun.

Plot-wise, there's not much more to the stories than those brief synopses above. But the way those plots are related, the sheer artistry and visual poetry of their telling, is what makes Hotel Harbor View a genuine crime comics classic.

Both stories contain page after page of "silent" storytelling, without narrative captions or dialogue balloons. Sekikawa and Taniguchi brilliantly use the uniqueness of the comics medium – a series of static images in narrative sequence – to manipulate the reader's perception of the passage of time, at one point "slowing down" the action to literally follow a bullet over several panels as it travels through space, flying straight and true to its target. Characterization is built through expertly conveyed body language and facial expressions, rather than clunky expository narration. It's violence as visual poetry.

Taniguchi's art is astounding, its style owing much to European comics, while still firmly rooted in the Japanese manga traditions. It's slick and detailed, and his storytelling is extraordinary. Every page is a masterpiece, perfectly composed.

It's strictly "Adults Only," though, due to some graphic sexual scenes.

I still occasionally see this in comics shops, and if you should stumble across a copy, I highly recommend picking it up. Some online retailers carry it, as well – as far as I can tell, it's never been out of print.

Six out of Six Bullets.

Hotel Harbor View can be ordered through Amazon and other online retailers.

Falls The Gotham Rain

Written by Devin O'Leary
Illustrated by Jason Waskey
2 Color, Graphic Novel
Comico, 1992

This slender, 48-page graphic novel from '92 is a bit of an oddity. It's a 40's-styled film noir pastiche with subtle sci-fi overtones that possesses some minor similarities to Alex Proyas' 1998 motion picture, Dark City.

Trench coat-clad P.I. Vin Dressler searches for a missing girl in an unnamed city/police state divided into a red sector and a blue sector, where it "rains every day." Like the aforementioned Dark City, the town has numerous billboards scattered around, advertising luxurious, tropical vacations, but no one seems to have ever left the city, nor does there appear to be any world beyond its borders.

The plot is thin and straightforward, the script by O'Leary rife with captions and dialogue loaded with the stereotyped similes and metaphors generally associated with private eye voice-overs. So loaded, in fact, that it's almost a parody of the Raymond Chandler style, though I somehow doubt that was the intent. The writer tries for a Kafka-esque tone of surreality, but is only partially successful. It's not terrible, just kind of half-baked.

The art by Waskey, apparently rendered in black & white pastels with occasional spots of red, is nicely done, atmospheric and moody, although there's a heavy reliance on photo reference. In fact, various noir icons make appearances in the book – copied directly from classic film stills – including Peter Lorre, Ingrid Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock. Some panels (the heavily referenced ones) are nicer than others, but the overall effect is quite pleasing, and is the book's main selling point.

For fans of classic film noir, Falls The Gotham Rain is a decent homage, but offers very little in the way of anything new. Its sci-fi elements are so slight as to be easily missed, and have little effect on the story itself, effectively amounting to nothing. Still, the art is nice, it's a quick read, and its heart seems to be in the right place.

If you stumble across a copy, its worth picking up.

Three out of Six Bullets.