Dotter of her Father's Eyes (Biography)

 

by Mary M. Talbot  (Author), Bryan Talbot (Artist)

Publisher: Dark Horse Books; 1St Edition edition (February 21, 2012)

Hardcover, 96 pages

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This is a fascinating juxtaposition between memoir and biography as the author tells the story of her tempestuous relationship with her father, a scholar on James Joyce's writing, while simultaneously comparing it to Joyce's own relationship with his daughter, Lucia. 

While there are a few surface similarities, such as having the standard love/hate relationship with daddy dearest, there isn't much between that is the same. The author was encouraged by her father to get a career, while Joyce barely noticed his daughters. Mary Talbot went on to have university success in the groan-inducing field of gender studies, while Lucia Joyce spent most of hers in a mental institution, dying around 1982. Perhaps that is part of the point, the shifting dynamics in women's roles in society, but it isn't really presented as such. 

As it turns out, Lucia's is much more interesting. Well her story took place mostly in Paris during the 1920s, how could it not? However not enough of Lucia's mental condition is explained. Her first commitment is almost shown as being almost arbitrary, and that she was frustrated at not pursuing a career. A deeper look shows she is repeatedly diagnosed with schizophrenia, and she was as interested in a family as any woman of her generation. Only no one could measure up to her father. Still it was an interesting read. 

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.

An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson (History)

by Andro Linklater 

Publisher: Walker Books; 1 edition (September 29, 2009)

Softcover, 400 pages

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 “For his part, Wilkinson, who never remained faithful to any other superior, was always Jefferson’s man. He gave him the army’s loyalty, Burr’s conspiracy, Louisiana’s border. Long after he had damned every other statesman to perdition, he attempted to win Jefferson’s constantly withheld friendship. And the crux of his life proved to be the moment when he sacrificed a career of treachery to be steadfast not just to his nation but to his president.” 

Name one Revolutionary War hero who essentially betrayed everything for money whose name wasn't Benedict Arnold? Can't, can you? And why not? I have no idea. It wasn't until recently I came across the name James Wilkinson, General of the United States Army under the first four Presidents, and Agent 13 under pay to the Spanish Crown.

It's an interesting look at another side of American history. The same events occur, but the country looks so much more fragile than before. Wilkinson was a pompous, histrionic, arrogant man, but he knew his business. He first became a paid agent for the Spanish government in order to convince various peoples of Kentucky and various other territories to join allegiance to Spain, who still had sizeable holdings in North America at that time.

General James Wilkinson

The gambit failed and Wilkinson spent the rest of his life defending himself - successfully that is. He went up against three official court-martials and six inquiries, always getting away with it. The Presidents put up with him, because he knew how to handle an army and was, usually, victorious. The press eventually branded him a criminal and he published two books to defend himself - the cost of which are most of his savings.

Essentially this is a profile of an arrogant, but capable man, who lived well above his means, who believed in very little beyond his own glorification. A fascinating look at how fragile our country was at its beginnings and easily it could have gone another way.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.

 

Jack Cole and Plastic Man (Biography)

by Art Spiegelman  & Chip Kidd 

Publisher: Chronicle Books; First Edition (August 1, 2001)

Softcover, 144 pages

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This is not a collection of Plastic Man comics drawn during the Golden Age by his creator Jack Cole - however there are a few included, along with the Cole story from True Crime, an infamous piece called “Murder, Morphine, and Me”. The last is a story so notorious in over-the-top violence masquerading as a morality tale, that it became exhibit number one presented by Frederick Wortham in his anti-comic book, Seduction of the Innocent, and at the Congressional hearings on comics. One panel, where the protagonist is having a needle shoved into her eye by a junkie, stood out for particular attack. In a sense, Jack Cole really did help bring down the comics industry and ushered in the creative desolation of the Comics Code Authority. 

Instead, it is a rather odd biography of the man’s albeit short life. He successfully remade his career twice over. Unable to find work in the larger magazine mediums, Cole started out in comic books - the gutter slums of the print world at the time. Unlike his counterparts however, he attacked the medium with all his skill could muster, going out of his way to refine his technique. 

He created some of the best events of the Golden Age. Specifically the multi-issue battle between the Golden Age Daredevil and The Claw - catapulting both characters to among the most popular of the 1940s. His most notable works being the creation of Plastic Man, the first super-stretching hero. And it has been pointed out that no one ever did Plastic Man as well as Cole did, or in the same vein. Mostly because he was eventually included in an expanded universe of superheroes, while he was supposed to be mostly a parody of them. 

After the comics collapse, Cole became one of the lead artists for a start-up magazine called Playboy, filling the pages with his distinct style. These are so different and iconic from his comic material that I had no idea they were from the same hand. His third successful endeavor was a unfortunately short comic strip called Betsy and Me, which would’ve been well had not Jack Cole killed himself. The reasons for this are up in the air, so I won’t even attempt to speculate why. 

The format of the book is rather odd, because most of the prose text is printed on plastic sheets and inserted with a lot of Cole’s reprinted art. Additionally, the comics sections are printed on old quality cheap brownish pulp paper, just as they were originally sold back in the forties. This was a mistake. Maybe those who were used to reading old-time comics wouldn’t have a problem, but so many of the modern reprints are much cleaner than the original printings, the revert back to the 40s style made it slightly difficult to read and thus lowered my enjoyment of the material. 

          For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.

Brain Bats of Venus: The Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton (Biography) (Graphic Novel)

by Greg Sadowski (Author),  & Basil Wolverton  

Publisher: Fantagraphics; 1 edition

Hardcover, 432 pages 

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“If the comic books are to fall under rigid the censorship of a control-mad few, who, in their questionably infinite wisdom, imagine they know what is best for all of us, so must the newspaper strip be smothered by the same censorship.  Also the newspapers, magazines, books, and all publications. Freedom of the press would soon be only a pleasant memory.  

“Mysterious indeed are the contortions of the brain impulses, if any, of those who hatefully struggle to ban a book of harmless features like Mickey Mouse, while choosing to ignore the underhanded creators and distributors of lewd cartoon booklets advertised in scores of adult magazines. But of course mud shows up much better if it is slung into clean areas.” 

 Basil Wolverton, from his forward to A Defense of Comics.  

 This rather massive tome is the second volume in the biography of Basil Wolverton, the previous one being the just as thick, CreepingDeath From Neptune. Wolverton was one of the pioneers of the comic book industry. Like many of the comic book men, he started out as a failed comic strip artist for the newspaper - back in the day the funnies were where the real money dwelled. This book covers his material from 1942 to 1952, when Wolverton left the comic industry. But still I think there is a place for a third and final volume.  

Wolverton became known mostly as a humor writer. The majority of his work was published by Timely Comics - later to become Marvel Comics - in their juvenile and teenage comics. Madcap series like Tessie the Typist, Powerhouse Pepper, and Mystic Moot and his Magical Snoot (though the later one was done as a backup feature for Zatara by DC comics) were his stock in trade, but by the 1950s, sci-fi and horror had begun to dominate the field. Thus, the end of the book is filled with wonderfully reprinted old horror material, which marked (in my opinion) the highlight of his career.  

What you really want this volume for is the art. Wolverton was a master of the comic face, but that translated very easily over into horror and science fiction stories as well. There are hundreds of pages of remarkably grotesque material. This was during the height of his fame, when Wolverton won the Lil’ Abner contest to reveal the face of Leena the Hyena, reputedly the ugliest woman in the world. Wolverton won, hands down, with a disgusting portrait and his career briefly took a bump after that.  

What drags this book down is that the man himself didn’t have a very fun fast-paced life which makes for a riveting read. There is paragraph after paragraph of Wolverton sent this idea out, only to be turned down in a letter which states blah, blah, blah. Over and over. A lot could've been left out. The interesting thing is that much of the correspondence was with Stan Lee over at Timely, but even that is mostly boilerplate business talk. I skimmed though these portions of the book, just to get back to the amazing illustrations.  

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.

Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Doing Life Sentences (True Crime) (Biography)

by Howard Zehr 

Publisher: Good Books; Original ed. edition (December 31, 1996)

Softcover, 124 pages

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“The men and women in this book are serving life sentences in Pennsylvania prisons. All have been convicted of homicide. Many have already served long sentences in prison. Most will die there. Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states that mandates life imprisonment without possibility of parole for anyone convicted of first or second degree murder. For a lifer, the only possibility of release is commutation by the governor, an exceedingly rare event. Life sentences in Pennsylvania are real life sentences.”

In this book, fifty eight lifers from the Pennsylvania correctional system give their perspective on living at the government’s pleasure for the rest of their natural existences. A page sized photo of the inmate is provided, along with a quote from them, or a short essay. Their words deal little with the day-to-day reality of living in a prison system, but more on their philosophy of life now.

A lot of it is repetitious. Many have “found God”. All talk about the struggle to keep going and not fall into a black hole of despair. The sincerity of each is nearly impossible to ascertain. Where they putting on a front in hopes of bettering their chances for commutation? Maybe. Some seemed very self-involved, which may be a by-product of the prison environment. The stories I found most believable are the ones which discussed why they were in prison in the first place. Others were just sob stories.

The photographs are somewhat candid. Prisoners are not in prison fatigues nor are they shown in prison facilities. They are deliberately placed in street clothes in order to humanize them as, the author states, many people cannot see beyond the prison fatigues. And it works. If you randomly flip through the book, you would not automatically think you were gazing at a collection of killers.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman (Biography) (Graphic Novel)

By Box Brown

Published: First Second (January, 2018)

Softcover, 272 pages

          This is another biographical treat from Box Brown who brought us the life of Andre the Giant and the surprisingly intense history of the video game Tetris (Well, surprising to me at least). Now he has tackled the life of oddball comedian Andy Kaufman, or part of it.

          This is not the definitive life of Kaufman as it mostly focuses on his fascination with wrestling, which drove him to wrestle women for money (and apparently sexual arousal), leading up into his infamous confrontation with Jerry Lawler on the David Letterman Show (the smack heard round the world). While this is probably his most famous stunt, I always felt the explosion he had on the TV show Fridays was just as good.

          In retrospect, Kaufman’s humor sliced in two different ways. He was the original troll. We know now nearly everything he did was staged beforehand and we can appreciate people’s stunned reaction to him, laughing as much at them as the man himself. But there was a special charm, an edge of uncertainty, to seeing him live for the first time and always questioning whether it was real or fake. That doubt always gave his performances an extra bite, which time unfortunately has eroded.

          Additionally, the book delves into the Jerry Lawler's entrance into wrestling and the history of old time wrestling, before Vince McMahon Jr. took it mainstream. It demonstrates, accurately in my opinion, how Kaufman was ahead of its time in seeing the mainstream celebrity potential of wrestling (and not the gay Greco-Roman kind either). Within a year after Kaufman’s death and the death of McMahon Sr. the WWF exploded all over the country.

          As you can see from the photos included the art is minimalist, direct representation of the material. One guy said to me that it looked amateurish until I told him to shut up, which started up a whole big thing of pushing and shoving and horrible words exchanged. Then I got accused of “hate speech” and I retorted with, “Well I fucking hate you, so I guess I’m guilty!” Security jumped in and started tazing everyone, so I ran off with a stolen copy of this book.

But my point was that often with biographical material a minimalist look adds to the impact of the story. Something more elaborate would draw attention away from the life of those portrayed, might prevent the reader from becoming so engrossed in the narrative. You can see this in the original drawings for Maus, which were much more detailed (and somehow not as effective) as the later style used.

Maus original art

                                                        Maus finished art

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

   

Bogie [Humphrey Bogart Graphic Novel]

by Claude Jean-Phillippe & Patrick Lesueur (Translated by Wendy Payton)

Publisher: Eclipse Books (November 1989)

Softcover 60 pages 

    Originally in written in French, this graphic biography, masquerading as an autobiography, has Humphrey DeForest (Yes, that’s his middle name.) Bogart as the narrator filling us in on the key events of his life. This book was one of series of graphic novels the authors did on old Hollywood stars. There are additional ones covering the life of the Marx Brothers, Errol Flynn, and Charlie Chaplin- though this is the only one reprinted in English. 

    The art is excellent, photo-realistic, culled from old publicity stills and candid photos. The coloring and shading gives a real gritty feel to Bogart and his permanent five o’clock shadow. It covers his upscale beginnings in the best neighborhood in Manhattan, to his early days as a bit player on the stage, to being the backup guy for George Raft, Paul Muni, and Jimmy Cagney, to his eventual rise to fame and cinematic immortality.

    While not the most exhaustive biography into Bogart's life (how could it be? It’s only 56 pages.), it covers the parts the casual reader would be interested in. It delves into some interesting detail on his four marriages, his incessant drinking, and his big break. Apparently he only got the lead in The Maltese Falcon because George Raft had little confidence in the new director John Huston. Who, of course, went on to direct some of the greatest films of all time. There are lots of fascinating tidbits like that in this book. 

    It was published by Eclipse Comics in 1989. Eclipse was one of the first direct marketing comic publishers which sprung up in 1977, after the new distribution system was set in place. It then crashed in the same direct market bust in the mid nineties- when oversaturation of material and a general decline in art and writing caused many people (including myself) to quit collecting the medium.  

    Their demise was unfortunate because they had consistently produced excellent creator owned material. Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman did Miracleman through them, an astounding comic only know being re-released after decades in legal hell. They published a lot of high quality adaptations of Clive Barker books. And they pushed out one of my favorite comics Destroyer Duck by Steve Gerber, Jack Kirby, and Buzz Dixon. Which was a comic designed to bring in money for Gerber’s ongoing legal battle with Marvel Comics over the rights to Howard the Duck. 

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.