[MarkWarner]

The Reading Group is Back! Phew!!!

In the past few weeks we have been having "problems" with the site's machines. But as I type this I believe we are good, and back firing on all cylinders (well at least the same amount as before).

One of our advertisers pointed me to this week's book choice. It is a real life story, but how close the comic is to the truth is completely another matter. The character in question is James Reavis (aka "The Red Baron of Arizona").

His story is told in Real Life Comics #58 which can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=65065.

Finally I'd like to wish all our American readers a Great Thanksgiving !!

Here is to a quiet uneventful week. Happy reading!

[The Australian Panther]

Good to have the reading group back Mark. I'll read and respond down the track. Just wanted to point out that there are two scans of this and the second is in much better condition.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=65825

cheers

[bowers]

 I've always enjoyed true-story comics, and this one was pretty good.
James Reavis was, indeed, a rogue, con-man, thief, extortionist, etc... of truly epic proportions. This story only touched on the wide range of his lies and felonies. Found a bit more on him at http://wesclark.com/jw/baron_az.html  The Severin/Elder art was, as always, a treat for the eye.
The rest of the book couldn't match the first story, but was still a good read. Liked the pirate tale and the Moreira art, as well as the history of iron and steel again with Severin/Elder. The other features were readable if not memorable.
All-in-all, this one gets a one and a half thumbs up from me. Cheers, Bowers

[SuperScrounge]

Jim Reavis - Interesting. Odd the US government just accepted his claims without doing more research. By the way, Mark, he was the Robber Baron, not Red Baron.

Trail Drives - Interesting.

Olympic Oddities - Interesting, although the sporting outfits were wrong, but then being accurate would have gotten the publisher arrested. 

Action Over Korea - More like over and in, but not bad.

Basutoland Buckaroo - Cute.

Raveneau de Lussan - Interesting fellow.

The Story of Iron and Steel - What realistic dialogue *snicker* otherwise interesting.

Bonus Rookie... - Not bad.

[K1ngcat]

A great pity.  I'd have been more excited by a comic about the Red Baron of Arizona, the idea has far greater possibilities.   Still, it's always nice to Severin & Elder at work, either alone or together.  Sorry, I know truth is stranger than fiction, but often not quite as entertaining!

[SuperScrounge]

A great pity.  I'd have been more excited by a comic about the Red Baron of Arizona

...and the heroic beagle that tried to bring him down. 

[crashryan]

It's good to see the Reading Group back again.Thanks, Mark, for steering us through troubled seas and keeping the good ship CB+ afloat.

This proved one of the more interesting true story comics I've read. James Reavis' story was fascinating, and I followed bowers' link to learn more about him. The four-tier panel arrangement Standard used at this time cramped the artists' styles, but Severin did a fine job with historical detail and local color despite the limitation. Speaking of Severin, I prefer his own inks to Elder's. However in this story Elder suppressed his cartoony side and did the pencils justice.

"Action Over Korea" gave a different slant on war stories, emphasizing teamwork over individual heroism. John Celardo's art is good.

I liked "Ravaneau Delussan" a lot, though it's hard to believe that the guy was quite as noble as he's portrayed. Ruben Moreira's art was exceptional. Moreira's development interests me. When he started out in comics like Dynamic his drawing of individual figure parts was good but his proportions were often way off. This problem still plagued him during his Tarzan tenure. By the time he drew this story he'd finally figured things out and his art was consistently good (though hampered by the small panels). The first time I encountered Moreira was in "Roy Raymond, TV Detective." Moreira sacrificed much of his dynamism when he moved to DC, but there was no denying his excellent draughtsmanship.

"The Story of Iron and Steel" offered interesting facts but like too many true life stories it crammed so much history into a few pages that it never grabbed me. The art was good. It must have been quite a job for Severin to dig up ten thousand years' worth of reference for a six-page story!

"Bonus Rookie" had a generic feel, which makes sense given that it's not based on any particular player. $50,000 was a hell of a lot of money in 1951; did rookies really make that kind of money then? Art Saaf did his usual solid art job.

All in all a pleasant read with which to celebrate the reading group's return..

[The Australian Panther]

The Jim Reavis story. Not very many visual elements in this story. Due to the his violent acts he comes across here as a psychotic individual. Elder and Severin, to me, don't make a very good team. Elders art illustrates pyrtechnic dialogue. He could have written for TV or Film with that dialogue. His characters often do a lot of visual mugging. Severin's work is very serious and sober in comparison. As artists I dont think  that they add much to each other.
The fill-ins and one pagers are well done but nothing special.
"Action over Korea' average. 
Raveneau de Lussan - Reuben Morieta does a great job, but again, even though its an interesting character and a great story, the script doesn't give him much to work with.
The Story of Iron and Steel - Severin and Elder again. More mugging faces. An interesting story. And again, the script doesn't give the artists much leeway.   
Bonus Rookie - Art Saaf has great fun illustrating the Baseball scenes. Spectacular first panel.
Regardless, I like this series a lot, because it covers some quite obscure characters and I like finding out obscure facts. You might have noticed that from some of my posts.
I think the comic strip and book world is the poorer for the narrowing of the field of subjects that are currently illustrated in strip form. So almost no westerns, romance ,jungle and factual comics. (for example)       

[paw broon]

I don't know whether I'm just a hard-to-please, mean old sod, or whether this comic is just boring.  It didn't do much for me and I don't know enough about artists to get into conversation about their technical merits, or the lack of them.  Easier to say what sort of held my interest than go through everything.  The pirate story was good, but then, I like pirate stories. And the first cross page panel in the baseball story looked dynamic, to me. Apart from that, not a lot.  Sorry to be so negative.
To make up for the negativity, and in response to the history of iron story, the site of the Carron Ironworks is just 4 miles down the road from me, where, of course, the carronade was built.  This article might interst some of you:-
http://www.falkirklocalhistorysociety.co.uk/home/index.php?id=109

[K1ngcat]

"I don't know whether I'm just a hard-to-please, mean old sod, or whether this comic is just boring." I think I could have written that too, paw!  

It's difficult being a hard-to-please, mean old sod in the 21st century.  All the online surveys I do keep asking me why I'm not "Highly Satsified" with their products, and I have to tell them I'm rarely "highly satisfied" with anything, and ask them not to take it personally!  I tried your link but all I got was "We can

[paw broon]

At last, a kindred spirit. Sorry the link isn't working for you.  It opens fine for me.  It's a potted history of Carron Ironworks and the development of cannon, including the carronade. I'll send you the text in a pm.

[crashryan]

Paw, I followed your link and spent a fun hour learning about Falkirk. All I knew about Falkirk was that it was the site of the fair in "Lads o' the Fair," which the Battlefield Band sang when they played Pasadena a few eons ago.

I confess that cultivating a satisfactory curmudgeonry takes more energy than I've got. Guess I'll be stuck forever between "Gosh wow" and "Huh?" The only time I come close to being a mean old sod is when I discuss American politics. However I do agree with K1ngcat about online product surveys.

[Morgus]

Liked the art on the lead story, but for the life of me couldn't relate either Elder or Severin's artwork in this one to their more famous styles. The Moreira art was a joy and really should have been their lead offering. I keep waiting for somebody to publish a book of con men, scoundrels, and confidence artists from various old comics...it would be fun. But has Jim Reavis been overtaken by Clifford Irving? Now THERE would be a comic book!! And it would take a full length comic book to do it justice.

[MarkWarner]

I rather enjoyed this story, and yes I apologize, the Red Baron is certainly a very different kettle of fish, to the Robber Baron. Jim Reavis appears to be one of those characters who keep putting their necks further and further out. Me, i'd take the initial money and then quietly disappear. Hopefully into complete obscurity.

I thought I'd read up about Reavis on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Reavis and see how close to the truth the story was. BUT blimey that is one thorough article and I haven't a spare half a day to find out.

Verdict: Art was fine and story was very readable.