Random Thoughts

Cases of Sherlock Holmes (1986) #1-15 by Dan Day and Arthur Conan Doyle

We’re in May 1986, a low point in American comics publishing: These are the hectic days of the dreaded Black and White Boom, when dozens and dozens of fly-by-night publishers would get their cousins to draw up something, anything that could be published in a couple months time and earn a few dollars.

And publishing public domain Sherlock Holmes stories in pamphlet form seems like the easiest money grab possible, right?

Right.

Let’s read the first few pages.

But… this looks great! Obviously a lot of work has gone into this, and this isn’t a black and white boom thing at all.

Dan Day was (at this point) quite well known for illustrating the Aztec Ace series (and doing a really good job).

I don’t like the typesetting here much: Using upper case exclusively like this is wearying to the eye, and makes it seems like the text is shouting to the reader all the time.

I think I understand why this curious choice has been made: In comics, mixed case is rarely used when doing hand lettering, but the hand lettering itself provides variation. Here, it’s just… annoying.

But looks at all those characters! Day is going way beyond the call of duty here.

And look at this climax in the story! It’s wonderful!

Anyway, I did have these comics when I was a teenager… but I stopped buying them after about half a dozen, because I figured (as much as I like Sherlock Holmes) that reading the stories with this sort of typesetting was just too much work.

Even if I did like the artwork.

And there’s a biography here by Gordon Derry.

You probably didn’t notice, but there was a ten day delay between the previous sentence and this one, because it just took me a long while to get through these issues. It’s not that each individual issue takes that long… but the more I read these Sherlock stories, the more I found myself doing something else; anything else…

And I’m not quite sure why, because… while I’m not really that much of a fan of Conan Doyle, and the stories become somewhat repetetive, they’re entertaining enough…

Uhm… back to the page above: As we can see, Day varies the approach to illustrating these stories a lot. These are unabridged versions of the stories, but sometimes Day manages to arrange the text in a more comic-bookey fashion with some panels and stuff. It’s nice.

Uhm… does that horsie have an extra joint in that leg? It looks… odd…

Yeah, I think so? Hm…

No, that pic confirms the number of joints. NEVER MIND.

The covers are all painted, and Dan is joined by his brother David Day on most of them. They’re a bit stiff, I guess?

One of the issues is written by Gordon Derry, but it’s the only non-Conan Doyle issue. Day explains later that he wanted to illustrate a story with more action.

The prose is… not up to Conan Doyle’s standards.

Day obviously wants to illustrate the more striking and interesting scenes, and presenting it this way sometimes gives away some of the plot before you get around to reading the text (since the eye will naturally scan the page a bit first). But what happens is usually so mysterious that it doesn’t really act as “spoilers”… after reading the text it becomes clearer what’s happening in the drawings.

For one issue, Day goes in a kinda Berni Wrightsonesque direction…

And! Finally! The all-caps text is gone by issue seven, and reading becomes a whole lot more pleasant.

And this is apparently something that’s been requested by a few readers.

That’s a very nice splash page!

The artwork is really way beyond the call of duty… Day doesn’t seem to skimp on anything.

It’s very nice indeed — the style kinda evokes older styles of illustration without imitating it.

All the stories are over in one issue… except this single two-parter, which allows Day to put even more illustration into it.

Well, that’s a fun style…

Here’s an example where the illustration really does give away the action — you can’t help catching that the woman killed that guy.

And then… it’s over. Renegade shut down, but there’s no chatter about the state of affairs in the book. The ad here is for the second issue of T-Minus 1 (by David Day and others) that was never published, I think…

The series continued publication over at Northstar, but shut down after five issues. Northstar then went on to publish other Sherlock Holmes books, that are apparently totally unrelated? Perhaps they were just really big Sherlock fans?

Some googling seems to indicate that these comics have never been reprinted? I’m surprised, because Day’s artwork really works, and Sherlock Holmes never goes out of style…

Oh, Northstar published one trade paperback collecting the first four issues… but nothing after that.

I’m unable to find anybody talking about this series at all on the intertubes. No, hang on; it’s just that there’s so much effluvia at the top of the Google rankings.

Uhm:

The artwork unfortunately is not quite consistent throughout the run of the series and occasionally becomes quite simplistic, which I assume was due to the pressure of looming deadlines. When it is good though, it is the most ornately rendered linework to be found anywhere within the medium. How much of it stems from Dan Day or from his brother David is impossible to tell.

I thought it was all Dan Day?

Here’s more:

These are a fun, quirky addition to my collection, and could be enjoyed by any Sherlockian who is a fan of comics or illustrated editions of the stories. They’re certainly worth keeping an eye out for at your local used books or comics store, or online.

Day is interviewed in The Comics Journal #111, page 116:

My Sherlock Holmes project is a word-
for-word printing of the Conan Doyle
stories. One short Story per book. There Will
be many illustrations integrated with blocks
of print. It’s not traditional comic art but
more like what some people would call
graphic narrative. I’ve always been intrigued
by the Holmes period and mystique. It will
not be a watered-down version of the stories
like Classics Illustrated unas.

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.

Terry Beatty’s The Phony Pages (1986) #1-2 by Terry Beatty

This is a collection of stuff Beatty had previously published here and there, mainly in the Buyers Guide for Comics Fandom, so I didn’t have high hopes for this mini-series: Especially since it’s from the height of the black and white boom. But let’s look at the first four pages:

Hey! This is funny! And it looks good! I can’t believe it!

So this starts off as a (fake) history of oldee-tymey comics, and the parodies/pastiches are pretty spot on. Beatty’s artwork on (for instance) Ms. Tree is pretty … basic, so I’m surprised that he can imitate these artists so well. Perhaps a certain amount of tracing was involved?

Some of the gags have better premises than execution, though: I find “Terry and the Pie Fights” inexplicably funny, but the Three Stooges resolution comes as a let-down. I mean, only slightly; it’s still funny.

And Prince Valium, of course, which sums up the strip in its later years very well.

The second issue mostly drops the “fake history” thing, and we instead get random parodies, like this Tintin one… which… I like the artwork, but the joke could have been elaborated upon.

I think this is pure genius. “Brooke Shields, Agent of F.U.R.Y.” is funny in itself, but then you notice the savage parody of Steranko in “pop art” mode going on here. It just gets funnier and funnier the more you look at it.

Fabulous!

And then… the issue drops even the comics parody thing, and we end with something… that I’m not sure what’s… what… but the artwork is very nice indeed.

And then Marilyn Monrobot?

Also very nice artwork, but… these were just pages Beatty scrounged up to pad out the issue?

Since this starts out with such a strong premise, it’s a bit frustrating to see it just fizzle into randomness… but: Every piece here is entertaining, so whatever.

I’m really surprised.

Russell Freund writes in The Comics Journal #110, page 59:

It was a nice idea to collect Terry Beatty’s
The Phony pages into a two-issue mini
series. These things are fun to page through,
and I loved the three-pager devoted to
‘ ‘Holiday Hal’s” vacation in Muscatine,
Iowa. The travelogue is a much-underutil-
ized comic book genre, and Beatty is its Hal
Foster.

These comics have apparently never been reprinted? And I wasn’t able to find any discussion of them on the interweb except this:

These are funny, but they all look traced, which is depressing.

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.

Cecil Kunkle (1986) #1-3 by Charles A. Wagner

I had the first issue of this series as a teenager, but never read it for some reason or other.

But some trepidation, let’s read the first three pages together:

*gulp*

The early desktop publishing lettering (I think that’s what it is? Did that exist in 1985?) doesn’t really help here.

It’s mostly just hard to tell what the jokes are supposed to be.

What. How. What.

Now, I have to mention that this was published in May 1986; they height of the black and white boom: “Investors” were snapping up all black and white comics that were shovelled into the Direct Sales Market. Renegade didn’t really participate that much — they seemed to publish oddball stuff that Deni Loubert liked. But…

Kunkle comments on both the black and white boom and Wagner’s inability to draw, which is nice, I guess.

Renegade only published a single issue of Cecil Kunkle, and then Darkline/C Minus Comics took over. Renegade isn’t mentioned at all in the second issue, but…

… the third one does, and has a huge Renegade logo on the cover.

Darkline didn’t have a long run. Looks like a black and white bust company? (I.e., started during the boom, but were too late to profit.)

I wish I could say that there was some artistic development over the three issues.

The two best jokes appeared in the final issues, so perhaps he was learning something. I mean, they’re not funny, but there’s at least something you can actually understand to be a joke here.

Russell Freund writes in The Comics Journal #110, page 59:

Cecil Kunkle, on the other hand, is
funny, in places. Charles A. Wagner can’t
touch Joe Sinardi as a cartoonist. His silly
scrawling hardly qualifies as cartooning at
all, but it does its job of setting up his ver-
bal gigs. Cecil Kunkle works much the same
way a newspaper strip like Crock tries to
work: study hall cartooning used to serve
up one-liners and tropes. The difference is
that some of Wagner’s jokes actually work.
I liked it when Cecil took a carful of camp-
ing kids into “Slugg Burger,” where they
ordered up “Lots of Sluggs,” “a slop box with
double cheese,” and other delights. Actual
laughs are sparse in Cecil Kunkle but I
can imagaine Wagner’s ticklish silliness
erupting into something really inspired one
of these days.

VIrginia Williams-Pennick writes in Amazing Heroes #158, page 83:

CECIL KUNKLE
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
Written & illustrated by CHARLES A.
WAGNER; cover by RICHARD LYNN. Pub.
lished by RENEGADE PRESS
What does this comic book and a
boxful of joy buzzers, whoopee cush-
ions and plastic vomit have in com-
mon? Nothing, but wasn’t that a great
opening line? Actually, there are
similarities. Should you toss both into
a crowded room, chances are some-
body is going to laugh.
Cecil Kunkle, the bug-eyed, hen-
pecked suburbanite, refugee of the
pages of Comics Buyer’s Guide, has
his very own Christmas special. Why?
Excuse me, but there doesn’t seem to
be enough here to justify a whole
book (and a $2 book at that). While
writer/artist Charles A. Wagner jokes
his little heart out, many of his gags
fall flat. Plus, Chuck has this really
weird fascination for beets, the humor
of which escapes me. Yet, like the
aforementioned box of revolting party
favors, readers will find something to
chuckle at here and there. Like the
Kunkle family’s panic-ridden journey
to the hospital where Mrs. K produces
another member of the cast. And how
the newest Kunkle gets his name is
good fun.
Many will identify with Cecil as he
encounters; his mother-in-law, a
demure charmer who must gargle
with battery acid considering the
venom which pours out of her big
mouth. You’ll like the antics of funny
animal Terry Turtle. The best is his
stint as a Salvation Army Santa Claus,
with beets as the punchline—again.
The stories are Shon. Just as I began
getting into a yarn, it was over. Never-
theless, if you enjoy a diet of fast food
humor, you’ll devour this holiday
offering. And me? It was okay, but I
didn’t crave any second helpings. But
then, I was never a beet person. I pre-
fer kumquats. Now there’s a hilarious
food!
GRADE: GOOD—

I guess:

The strips are, at best, really rough — Cecil is the patriarch of a small, dull family, whose adventures sometimes involve the mention of a comic book or two. This is how he gets his foot in the door at CBR, presumably. An interstitial funny animal strip, Terry Turtle, seems to poorly represent both “funny” and “animals.” I have to admire, though, the fact that Wagner apparently put his own money behind this second effort to get Cecil Klunke published, for all the good it did him.

But:

Cecil Kunkle ran in the Comic Buyer’s Guide for a while, earning itself a Slings&Arrows review which I won’t repeat here but which I admit I’ll never match for brevity and savagery.

I tried to find it, but:

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.

Ditko’s World featuring Static (1986) #1-3 by Steve Ditko

This series is sometimes referred to as Revolver #7-9 — Robin Snyder was putting together a monthly series of Ditko stuff at Renegade, but varying the title. And here they’ve kinda-sorta ditched the “Revolver” title, which is probably a good idea, since anthologies don’t sell.

Let’s read the first few pages of this series:

So this series is about Static, the character Ditko had been doing at Charlton Comics for quite a while, I think? I remember having at least one issue of the Charlton Static as a teenager…

Oh! I was wrong: There were only two Static issues before this, and Charlton then went bankrupt. (These two things are probably not cause and effect.)

There’s only one ten-page Static strip per issue here, though.

Phobic thinking.

Are the evil ones the only ones that curse in Ditko?

Anyway, Static is a super-hero, and Ditko seems like he has long range plans for him: We get a proper supporting cast (who are conflicted, to say the least, about whether super-hero stuff is ethically good), and a certain character development over these three stories. (Which is somewhat unusual for Ditko.)

I think Ditko is trying to say that he’s pro NRA.

And conflicted about fan letters.

Since there’s only ten pages of Static per issue, we get a lot of other Ditko stuff, and it’s really weird stuff. Even for Ditko.

There’s only three pages of non-Ditko stuff in here, fortunately. Unfortunately those three pages are… this. I assume that the creators are teenagers, but what’s the story behind these three pages being printed here?

T. M. Maple asks all the hard questions. And Snyder asks for our money.

There seems to be a missing page in the second Static story? Instead of the third page, we get this ad? The previous page is numbered “2” by Ditko, and then we get “4”, and this page starts rather abruptly… So was that a printing error? Ditko decided to ditch a page at the last moment?

I alluded to the non-Static stories being… odd… so here we get a story about a living, evil thunderbolt. You have to admit that that’s pretty odd.

I have absolutely no idea what the plot of this story was, for instance, but it was kinda moving, anyway. And the fight scenes are pretty entertaining.

Yes! That’s the Earth’s fighting style!

Heh. I haven’t seen that version of the Renegade ad before…

Ditko takes on the press. It turns out that the press are poopy-heads.

Anyway, that’s it. As you may have guessed, I’m not really a Ditko fan, but these stories seem better than most Ditko stories I’ve read? I.e., they’re somewhat entertaining, and it’s not just Ditko venting about whatever he’s mad about this particular morning.

Russell Freund writes in The Comics Journal #110, page 59:

A couple Of mini-series deserve comment.
The first of three issues of Ditko’s World
(actually the seventh issue Of Revoler) is out.
Static is featured. As usual with Ditko’s cur-
rent work, the stories are goofy, the art is
stilted in dialogue, brilliant in action, and
the proper names are funnier than anything
in Maxwell Mouse. Does Ditko actually com-
pose names like Zac Ager and Stac Rae, or
will any random sequence of letters do?
Would he actually want to watch a TV show
hosted by somebody named Bunny Boo?
Maybe he means Bunny Boo to be satirical,
but it’s hard to be sure in a story where the
straight characters are named Nepper and
Mell Mussy. Oh well.
Ditko’s World also contains a three-pager
from John Jacobs of Dr. Peculiar fame.
Jacobs is the Edward D Wood, Jr., of the
super-hero comic. This piece is too short to
give the full flavor of his oddly evocative
ineptitude, but here’s hoping Renegade can
provide him with the space to stretch out
in the future.

I think most of the pieces in these issues have been reprinted in other Snyder/Ditko books, but not for a couple of decades, apparently.

I was unable to find any reviews of this series on the intertubes.

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.