Pulp (Action) (Graphic Novel)

 

by Ed Brubaker  (Author), Sean Phillips (Artist)

Publisher : Image Comics; Illustrated edition (August 4, 2020)

Hardcover, 72 pages

Amazon Listing

Once again we come along to an incredible crime story by the team of Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. While this is not officially part of the series Criminal it might as well be. With the current lack of enthusiasm by most fans for the comic market, it seems this pair has gone from a recurring series, to limited series, and now seem to be attempting to adapt the European method of one-shot volumes in a series. Which may or may not be successful. The only thing that I would suggest here is that they stop putting out the book in hardcover only. A lower-cost softcover variant would probably yield more sales.

The term pulp is used in several methods here. In the book, the protagonist is a former gunslinger and train robber who, in his twilight years, began publishing fictionalized accounts of his former crimes to the pulp magazines in the late 1930s. After being mugged of all his money, he is contacted by a retired Pinkerton agent, who was part of the squad trying to bring the former gunslinger’s gang to justice. The old Pinkerton proposes a deal to rip off some new villains who have appeared on the scene, The American Bund, aka the American Nazi League.

This meta-aware book of pulp features, which also includes the sleaziness of the pulps, while incorporating nearly every old-style genre (with the exception of the Tarzan mythos) we have heist, revenge, vigilante, and westerns mixed up against the always ready go-to antagonist of the century, the Nazi. At this point it seems there have been more Nazis shot in films, TV, and literature than in real life. If you’re looking for something else besides pulpy material and a pulpy ending - spoiler alert - in a book called Pulp, you have best look elsewhere. But please don’t, you’re gonna love this book.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Food in the Gilded Age: What Ordinary Americans Ate (History)

                                          by Robert Dirks

Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (April 14, 2016)

Hardcover, 226 pages

Amazon Listing

“Italians believed that the higher prices they paid were justified because of the superior quality of their diet. In their opinion, they ate better than members of other nationalities, and generally speaking newcomers from Italy expressed very little interest in trying other people’s foods. This created the impression that Italians disliked foreign dishes. Wood circulated that they dreaded going to the hospital for medical help and that they avoided seeking employment outside of their own neighborhoods because of the unfamiliar foods they might have to eat. Regardless of whether this was true, it seems fair to say that no nationality other than the Chinese clung with greater tenacity to their native cuisine.”

This is an academic text, so don’t expect a narrative or natural flow to the text. A good deal of it for the first several chapters is dry calculation, flooded with numbers and statistics, which I’m sure proves the author’s point, but it is similar to reading a textbook - narrative be damned. It isn’t until the later chapters, where the author begins breaking down dietary habits among various immigrant groups of the late 19th and early 20th century that the book perks up.

On the positive, all of the sources are well documented and impressive. Additionally, scattered throughout the book are old school recipes culled from the cookbooks of the Gilded Age. There are twelve of them ranging from all across the United States. Most are based on the dietary habits of poor immigrants, or poor Americans in the southern USA. The book ends oddly. It just sort of stops when it runs out of information. Usually there is some sort of conclusion. It’s almost as if he had written one, and it was pulled by the publishers to cut down on costs.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

 

Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 (Art)

by Dan Nadel  (Author), et. al.

Publisher : Abrams; Illustrated edition (June 1, 2006)

Hardcover, 320 pages

Amazon Listing

“Comics come from the awkward meeting of words, pictures, and commerce. The stories encompass life and death; art and comedy; unknown worlds of the future and the prosaic present. All of these narratives exist in torn newspapers, filthy magazines, badly printed pamphlets, and exquisite editions. Within all of these formats there have been competent journeymen artists as well as those brilliant practitioners: Visionary artists whose drawings and ideas surpassed all boundaries, in a medium that - until recently -routinely ignored such talent. While some of today’s best cartoonists are recognized, their lineage remains under-explored. Art Out of Time is a book about that American lineage: dozens of artists who mixed deep talent with low-down genre to create brilliant and unusual impurities in the decades before comics became a viable medium for personal expression.”

This is indeed a collection of great material from unknown artists from the past. Some are nearly forgotten, most of their work lost except for a handful of pages, others have been re-discovered recently. Often these were regional comic strips from lesser known papers, rarely distributed by any of the cartoon syndicates, but still exceptional in their own way. The book is broken into several sections focusing on commonalities in expression rather than chronology. Exercises in Exploration where it seems the author is playing with form and function in the comic medium. Slapstick - the great use of physical humor in a static medium - the art transcending its frames. Acts of Drawing - where the expressionism of the art supersedes other parts of the narrative. Words in Drawing - Where the plot comes out leaps and bounds above the art. Finally ending with Form and Style where the sheer graphic inventiveness of the strip is celebrated.

While this is a great book in many ways, there are a few niggling detractions. Part of the problem is that several of the illustrators in this book have been “rediscovered” in recent history. The whole comic-ology of both Fletcher Hanks - head of the superhero so-bad-its-good department - and Ogden Whitney - with his immortal Herbie, the Fat Fury comic - have been reprinted over the last ten years. The same is true of much of Milt Gross. So some of these weren’t new to me. Most were, however.

The largest problem, and one noted by many besides myself, was that often the material was difficult to read. Many of these were printed originally in old time papers and given a full length newspaper page to develop. In order to reprint them, they had to be shrunk down to the books size - which in itself is not small, but still not big enough for a full reprint. This is about a third of the book. And while you can admire the art in these parts, reading them is a chore. But what there is here is a unique collection of material.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Rusty Brown (Drama)

by Chris Ware  (Author)

Publisher : Pantheon; Illustrated edition (September 24, 2019)

Hardcover, 356 pages

AmazonListing

This is Chris Ware’s book, culled from the pages of Acme Novelty Library. A series which ended ten years ago, and has now been collected into this volume. What is interesting is that the story itself is not over. The very last page ends with “Intermission”. Thus the book is meant to be part one of a however-many series. I have my doubts anymore is forthcoming. Acme Novelty Library came out only once a year -if that. So it took ten years to get this far, and another ten years to collect it. So we will probably have to deal with the material presented here as the final product.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the contents of Rusty Brown. If anything, the material is too good. The art is always crisp, precise, and meticulous. Perfect curves, immaculate edges. Nothing beats it. It sucks you in and forces the reader to admire each page for about half an hour. One minor detail is that the author often plays about with the size of the panels, and so a lot of the words are really tiny. Stick your eyeball a millimeter from the page tiny. That might have a negative impact on your enjoyment.

The story itself rambles. I’m pretty sure the author has an idea of what happens to each of the characters throughout their entire lives, but is scattered about its presentation. In the first few segments all of the character’s lives intersect together at a Catholic school in near-rural Nebraska. After these initial stories introducing the characters, the story focuses on individual characters using that time period of the late 1970s as a pivot. 

Unfortunately, the titular character Rusty Brown, fades out of the action after the first story. The action then focuses on his father and his failed writing aspirations, mostly due to fear of rejection. Jordan Lint, a boy we see bullying the titular Rusty Brown and his tumultuous life. Whether he was a good or bad man remains up in the air. I have the feeling a lot was left out of the tale. Finally, we see the life - or part of it, there’s gotta be more - of Rusty’s third grade teacher, Joanna Cole, and her lonely life in snow-bound Nebraska. The stories here are good. Damn good. Mixed with equal parts nostalgia and despair.  These aren’t triumphs of the human spirit, but they are undeniably human.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

 

Mack the Knife/ Go Man! Relax! (Superhero)

 

by Starlen Widener, Bill & Baxter (Author) Matt Wagner (Introduction)

Publisher : Caliber Press; First Edition (January 1, 1989)

Softcover, 144 pages

Amazon Listing

This book is a rarity. Not just in numbers - I dare you to find it, it will be a chore- but in style. It is an old fashioned flip book, which became a style back in the 1970s when paperback publishers would print two novellas together, but you would have to flip the book over to read each one. Thus there were two covers for each volume - as in here. From what I’ve understood, the fad started because of a printer’s mistake, but the publisher was too cheap to just toss out the bunch, so he just kept the book as is and threw a new cover on its back. Most of these were laid out like old films. You had the A story -a classic novella or a named author - and then the B story. And, of course, the regular paperback price was applied to a book which might be only half good.

This book was put out by Caliber Press (now called Caliber Comics), a variation of which has fallen and risen several times over the last four decades. It’s probably best known for its zombie comic, Dead World. This was its first incarnation in the 1980s, when the dream of the direct market was in full swing, and hadn’t yet faded off into the current nightmare we are facing. This book reprints two stories from another folded indie-publisher, Nerve Publications - which started out with the mini-comics craze, moving onto fanzines, then regular comics before folding due to lack of funds. Both of these appeared in its anthology magazine Nerve before it went out of business.

What would pass for the A story here is a series called Go-Man. Three parts to the story. I sure wish there was a lot more. It touched on tropes just coming into fashion in the superhero world. The clash between old and new values in heroes (essentially, creators trying to push the comics code authority to its absolute limits). The reality of a business-funded superhero and what the genetic manipulation of humans would ultimately result in. It’s a dense, realistic world. A story essentially ahead of its time. While the art is not the best, the writing more than makes up for it. 

The B story is “Mack the Knife” a funny animal tale of an anthropomorphic shark - the titular Mack. He is a criminal on the run who breaks down in a small town, and attracts the unwanted attention of the thugs who live there and a hot woman. Hilarity ensues, along with a fair share of sex and violence. Fun fare all around.

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Odd is Art (Art)

 

by Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (Compiler)

Publisher : Ripley Publishing (May 8, 2018)

Hardcover, 144 pages

Amazon Listing 

One of my impulse COVID buys from the Ripley’s Sealife Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC. Since most of the country was blocked off, my wife and I’s had to settle for the resort town in the off-season - a place where I notice no one was wearing a mask and no police were handing out tickets. Still the lack of activity left me with some extra cash so I picked up a copy of this book and was happy with the purchase.

The book focuses on pieces of artwork crafted from unusual substances or from unusual artists. Each work is showcased large and accompanied by an informative caption. Scattered throughout are in-depth features that go into more detail about particular artists and their work. Each time I turned a page I found something weird and unique. From coffee bean portraits, to glued ash sculptures, to whole books printed on toilet paper. It’s all a fascinating read.

I would say more, but I think the pictures speak for themselves.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Jesusfreak (Historical Fiction)

 

by Joe Casey (Author), Benjamin Marra (Artist)

Publisher : Image Comics; Illustrated edition (March 26, 2019)

Hardcover, 64 pages

Amazon Listing

As the writer Joe Casey points out, this is not a religious story, but it is the story of a religious figure. The freak in this case is Jesus himself. The book here attempts to tell an alternate story of Jesus, free of previous religious context and the tales spun in the Gospels or the Quran. The authors obviously put some research into the story, especially in terms of what else was occurring in the land at the same time and in terms of history - which is often left out of the stories presented in faith documents. Thus we have a much more historic looking and acting Jesus and Pontius Pilate.

Jesus is shown as a very tan, brown-haired Jew - as he would be. Though the only physical image we are given of him is in the Book or Mark where he is described as having curly hair - here he is shown with straight hair. He is a man wrestling with a burning desire though he doesn’t quite know what that is at first. Ultimately he finds it in religion when he hears the preaching of John the Baptist. Upon John’s execution, he takes up the mantle of preacher (or rabbi), but seeing as how John’s zealotry and calls for violence against the Herod kingship and the Empire of Rome, lead to his death and the destruction of his ministry, Jesus takes a more circumspect and peaceful attitude.

The character of Pontius Pilate is also more historically accurate. In the Biblical accounts, he seems hesitant to execute Jesus, but the historical Pilate had no such qualms. It had only been a handful of years since the Zealot uprisings and Rome was eager to squash all remnants of rebellion in Jewish territory. Thus the roman governor wasn’t hesitant to crucify anyone stirring up political trouble in the territory. He was so brutal in fact that many Romans wrote complaint letters to Emperor Tiberius - though historians have pointed out his caution may have been because his patron Sejeanus had recently been executed by Tiberius. It is interesting to note that in the Ethiopian Christian Church, Pontius Pilate became a Christian and they venerate him as a martyr and saint.

The point many readers get stuck on are the violent bits, especially where Jesus has a kung-fu battle with a reptilian demon in the courtyard of the fortress of Machaerus. If any scene were not meant to be taken literally it’s this one. It represents the protagonist’s internal struggle with doubt and fear, ultimately representing Jesus’s rejection of violence as an effective force for political or religious change - at least in his case. 

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

We Can Never Go Home (Superhero)

 

by Matthew Rosenberg, Patrick Kindlon, Josh Hood

Publisher : Black Mask Comics; Illustrated edition (December 22, 2015)

Softcover, 164 pages

Amazon Listing

This book takes elements from several standard superhero elements and mixes them together with the boy and girl on-the-run-after- committing-a-crime trope. It isn’t the most unique concept for a superhero - or, more accurately, super powered comic as there are no real heroes in this story - but it does a lot with what it has. In the short space used here, a decent universe is crafted or hinted at. There is a much more nebulous universe lurking behind the tale of two dimwit runaways.

We have Madison, who secretly has the superpower to become bulletproof and beat the crap out of people when she becomes angry. She befriends Duncan, a high school misfit who waves his father’s gun around like a cock extension. She is tired of her life where she is forced to pretend to be normal, and Duncan is tired of not being able to fit in. Madison accidentally kills Duncan’s father and the two run off together. They sustain their runaway by ripping off a local drug dealer and then fighting the police.

Each decision they make drags them further and further down a hole to what will be a bad end. It seems that whenever one of them just about claws their way to the light, the other steps in a does something stupid to keep them on the run, wounded and with no money. The smartest thing Madison does is walk away from Duncan. They are each other’s kryptonite. Alone they might survive. Together their road ends at an early grave.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

1984 Issue 4 (Science Fiction)

 

By Bill DuBey, Richard Corben, et. al.

Publisher: Warren Publishing (October, 1978)

Softcover, 92 pages

My Comic Shop listing

This is the last issue based I bought of the old “illustrated adult fantasy magazine” 1984 put out by Warren Publishing back in the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. I managed to find the first four relatively cheaply - albeit they arrived a bit musty - on eBay, but when I look at the prices for more of them, they certainly aren’t cheap. Granted, each issue is a fill 80 to 90 pages of material - just below standard for a graphic novel - so they price might be justified. But I plan to take a break from them for a while.

Issue four of this magazine contains a story which is rumored to have caused the downfall (ie bankruptcy) of Warren Publishing. The story is called “Mondo Megillah”, the third in the issue. Editor DuBey decided to adapt some classic sci-fi stories for the magazine. One writer suggested “A Boy and His Dog” by Harlen Ellison and DuBey agreed without contacting Ellison. When Ellison refused to grant permission, Dubay had an artist draw the story anyway, then provided the art to the writer to use as the basis for a new story. Ellison then sued for plagiarism and won - easily won. For if you ever read the story, you’ll see there’s no doubt the story was a rip-off, despite the gender swap of the main character. It’s said that this lawsuit drained the coffers of Warren so much, that when the market took a slight downturn, they couldn’t survive.

In this issue we are presented with the stories of “The Last War of the Worlds” which is a sequel to H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Essentially it is a miniature version of the great sci-fi graphic novel Scarlet Traces - albeit this story came out first. Next is the continuing story of Idi Amin, in “Idi and Me”. Where a former dirty tricks agent, named Dogmeat, and a gender-swapped Idi Amin must travel through a new world filled with devolved human mutants. Again my suspicions was that the art for this piece was initially written for an entirely different story altogether.

After the infamous “Mondo Megillah”, was the latest installment of Mutant World, by Jan Strnad and Richard Corben. This feature’s dimwitted character continues on his post-apocalyptic journey for food and love - with tragic results. Fifth is “The Stunning Downfall of Muhammad Reptillicus” which is a contiunation of the Sally Starslammer story from last issue. Here Sally becomes involved in the fight business, only to find it’s rigged - shocking but true. After this is another full-color entry by Richard Corben, called “Ogre”. An orge in a fantasy setting lusts after a beautiful woman. Irony and tragedy are the result. One of the highlights of the book. “Lullaby”, the next story is incredibly messed up. Very sexual, lots of nude drawings, and deals with the aristocracy is a future civilization. Eighth is “Boys Camp” about two people setting up a detention camp for human children at the behest of alien invaders.

Last, we have what will become a recurring character, “Rex Havoc, Asskicker of the Fantastic”. In a similar world to the True Blood series all of the Universal Monster species have come out of the closet and announced themselves to the world. Collectively they are called the Fantastic and are now demanding human rights and the vote, etc. Rex Havoc, a tongue-in-cheek character, and his team attempt to prove the evilness of the fantastic races.

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst