Jazz Age Chronicles: The Case of the Beguiling Baroness (Graphic Novel)

By Ted Slampyak 

Publisher: Caliber Press (1991)

Softcover 140 pages 

          Now here’s another piece of near-forgotten comic history for you 80s comic buffs, Jazz Age Chronicles. This came during the comic renaissance when many talents, who might otherwise have been unknown, found havens in smaller comic publishers. Such is the case here.

          The story set in the 1920s teams up Harvard professor Dr. Clifton Jennings and scruffy private eye Ace Mifflin in a twisty story over the sale of an evil arcane artifact that turns into a bad case of murder...and there’s a vampire. Obviously a lot of research went into making sure this comic looked and sounded right. The dialogue contained a lot of obscure slang from the era (“sheiks” for guys, “shebas” for gals) and there was not an anachronism among the dress styles, architecture, or vehicles from what I could see.

          While well put together and wonderfully illustrated, the story itself feels tired. A collection of cobbled together cliches. The university professor archaeologist, the gruff private eye, his faithful secretary who stays with him even though he’s always late with her check, the supernatural elements in the 20s ala Lovecraft. I didn’t see that much originality here. Maybe it got better as the series went on and I would definitely read more if I could find them cheap enough.

          It was originally published by E. F. Graphics, a house so small I literally cannot find any information about them except that they apparently once existed, but quickly folded. It was then picked up by Caliber Comics and ran for 9 issues. This collects the first three of them and several short stories, both illustrated and prose, starring one of the main characters. Caliber Comics (restarted in 2012 as Caliber Press) is the company who brought us Dead World - the original zombie comic book and far superior to The Walking Dead. And such classic as Baker Street, Kabuki, Renfield (Which is Dracula as told from Renfield’s point of view), Nowheresville, and Brian Michael Bendis’s first works Fire, A.K.A. Goldfish and Jinx.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.