| Comments |
| |
|
|
| Jon Juan is a sad inevitability that dark era of 'Seduction of the Innocent'. A flirtatious adventurer made by the hands of Siegel. incredible
Perhaps at the time the comic was well naughty today gets to be silly. Have had so characters in literature, but few times in the comics, perhaps in the days that character was seen as sexist - but only if it were written by hand a bad writer, I know many girls who like men, say Jon Juan. But it is interesting to think that one of the biggest, and recent successes of 2000A.D. out Nikolai Dante, a character with many similarities to our Jon Juan, or even Casanova Fraction, Ba and Moon.
Finally, I thank the Comic Book Plus, to keep alive the memory of comics and prevent jewels like this fall in eternal limbo. |
|
| This fascinating flop feelis like an unsold newspaper strip, though there's no sign of cut and paste. Unfortunately Siegel paints himself into a corner from the start. Classic "great lovers" like Casanova and Don Juan spent their time getting into the pants of as many women as possible. Obviously this wouldn't work in a comic book. In fact, Siegel and Schomburg go out of their way to avoid prurience--the book could have passed the Comics Code with only minor changes. All Jon Juan can aspire to is a rhapsodic kiss or two. His attempts to woo and win a damsel might provide story interest, but JJ doesn't need to woo. Most women love him at first sight--which helps explain his monumental arrogance ("Smile, Jon, she can't tear her eyes off you!"). All that remains are artificial barriers preventing Jon from reaching his woman of choice ("Brothers! Every tempting beauty is engulfed by them!")
Interesting, too, that there are two versions of Jon Juan in this one book. In the first story (not counting the tacked-on teaser in the last panel) JJ seems permanently established in Hollywood Araby, complete with a comical sidekick. In the second story he's suddenly an immortal being who sits around reminiscing over three thousand years of hot babes. The immortality angle might offer drama and pathos--Jon Juan watches a procession of lovers and sidekicks wither and die while he remains forever young--but Siegel doesn't take that path. Rather he uses immortality as a convenient way to set stories anytime and anywhere, at the expense of Jon Juan having a defined personality.
Alex Schomburg seems to have been proud of this strip; he initialed almost every page. |
|
| What was Siegel thinking? Surely Jon Juan, with or without the Code, was never likely to become a lasting strip. Nice artwork though. |
|
| Incredible! A 32-page comic drawn in its entirety by the legendary Schomburg... AND of all the things he could have chosen to devote his time to lavish his attention on, he picked THIS. Not some science-fantasy or jungle girl adventure, but THIS...!
Jerry... had some strange ideas. His work at times is so phantasmagorical and has this strange, dreamlike hallucinatory quality to it ... an "anything can happen" quality (I'm thinking of some of his mid-60s post-Superman work here). One thing you can say at least, is that he realized that a true creator (as opposed to an imitator of trends) absolutely needed to "think outside the box" -- after all, it was exactly that kind of thinking that allowed him to come up with Superman. Sometimes though, as with JON JUAN and FUNNYMAN, it just didn't work. |
|
| Hmmm....in the origin story, Jon Juan has a blue outfit, a yellow belt, a red 'cape' and red boots. Where have I seen that before? |
|
| | |
| Additional Information |
| |
| Publication | Spring 1950 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 |
| |
| Featuring | Jon Juan |
| Credits | Pencils: Al Reid | Inks: Al Reid |
| |
| Foreword/Afterword | Introducing Jon Juan (1 page) |
| Credits | Script: Jerry Siegel [as The Editors] | Pencils: Al Reid | Inks: Al Reid | Letters: typeset |
| Notes | illustration: small head shot reprinted from cover |
| |
| Comic Story | Jon Juan and the Sleeping Beauty (16 pages) |
| Featuring | Jon Juan |
| Credits | Script: Jerry Siegel | Pencils: Alex Schomburg | Inks: Alex Schomburg |
| |
| Comic Story | Jon Juan the World's Greatest Lover (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Jon Juan |
| Credits | Script: Jerry Siegel | Pencils: Alex Schomburg | Inks: Alex Schomburg |
| Content | Genre: Superhero; Romance |
| Notes | origin: survivor of Atlantis, now immortal |
| |
| Comic Story | and the Lady in the Dark (10 pages) |
| Featuring | Jon Juan |
| Credits | Script: Jerry Siegel | Pencils: Alex Schomburg | Inks: Alex Schomburg |
| Content | Genre: Superhero; Romance |
| |
| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
