[MarkWarner]

Well the reading group is now officially 6 months old! And if memory serves me right, we haven't had a giveaway yet. So I picked this one up, and at first glance it looks rather interesting. All about the Railroad Police, well it's certainly different anyway!

The book can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=7807 and as there are only 16 pages and it looks a quick read we'll do all of it.

Oh  almost forgot "Happy 6 months everybody!"

PS: Please remember if anyone has any suggestions of books to look at please send me a message!

[narfstar]

This is actually two stories with no clearly delineated break. The first part is an actual story of the agents solving a case. The second part is history and information. The second part was interesting to learn things and was the better part of the book. The story was pretty lame. The art is very stiff and boring which did not help the unimaginative story. Bill Bounce did a lot of these not sure why they used him. From what I have read, giveaways often paid a good bit more than standard comics. They could have hired someone better.

[SuperScrounge]

One problem with judging a book like this is that it seems like the usual standards one would apply work against the material.

The story isn't necessarily fictional, it might be, but it has to seem real which works against overly fanciful, or clever, story-telling and seem a bit... dullish (for lack of a better word).

Same with the art. The artist can't get too wild, or fancy, for fear of overwhelming the collection of facts passing as a story.

So the end result is okay art that does it's job and writing that gets across the point it's trying to make, but both are otherwise unmemorable by themselves.

So if I were looking for reference material about railroad police, this would be good. If I were looking for a good story about railroad police... I'd have to look elsewhere.

And if you're having trouble getting through this book try to imagine the story being narrated by Jack Webb  from Dragnet.

[jarrodmon]

I should have read the comments first, I could have been reading in a Jack Webb, Dragnet voice!

Well, so that was a very wordy 16 pages, right? Good information, I'll bet this was put in a lot of railway stations to entertain bored youngsters waiting on trains. My granddad was a railway mail carrier, makes me wonder if he ever ran across this.

I had to look it up, there is actually a website for Railway Police that is pretty interesting and has some cool pictures.

[crashryan]

The word that came to mind when I read this comic was efficient. The script tells a story and imparts information efficiently and without undue excitement. The artwork is neither great nor terrible. By the end of the comic we know a few interesting things about railroad police which we're likely soon to forget.

I wonder why the Association of American Railroads commissioned this book. Similar giveaways, like the ones Al Williamson drew for the United Transportation Union, had political agendas, but this seems simply to be feel-good public relations. It was offered by AARR's "School and College Services." Maybe it was intended as something to leave behind when an officer gave a classroom safety talk. I don't picture kids passing it on to their comic-reading friends. It's more the sort of thing you'd try to dump on your clueless little brother.

I tried Googling for information about artist Bill Bounce, but was stymied by entries for W. W. Denslow's "Billy Bounce" strip, Bounce TV, and Image's "The Bounce" comic book. Numerous AARR books (especially "Rails Across America")  appear on ebay's throughout the world.

[MarkWarner]

This is going to be comparatively short from me, as there isn't too much to say about this.

As already mentioned by other members of the group the art is workman like and nothing to write home about. I am guessing this was used in recruitment, as I have a distinct feeling that this was attempting (not entirely successfully) to glamorize the job.

The stats were interesting. An annual 60,000 arrests with a 98% conviction rate. But how many arrests went to court? Also annual reported freight losses were quoted at just $650,000 down from $13 million in 1921. But could that at least in part be due to more freight being moved by road? Or securer containers?

Anyway what would be very interesting is for these figures to be fully explained and to have this book redone for today. Now that would be cool!

Verdict: As it took very little time to read, I'd certainly recommend taking a few minutes out to do so.

[narfstar]

In those days few would have gone to court. If you were caught in the act you were guilty. You took the deal rather than go to court. The idea of jury trial was designed to evaluate the veracity between disputing witnesses. The system has become completely abused today.

[paw broon]

Please excuse my being so far behind with my reading.
I love trains and railways, so this really appealed to me.  The art is workmanlike but the locomotives and cars seem quite well done to me. P.13 has a nice illo. of a lovely steam loco crossing a bridge over a line of freight cars. But it's the information that is more important to me.  For instance, the organisation of rr police depts.
I'm slightly surprised re. questions on why the AAR released this.  I thought there was a tradition of educational booklets/comics, with the Eisner ones being, arguably, the most famous.  Also, Mark could be correct and this was for recruitment purposes.   At the time, railroads (how American is that? ) surely still had a bit of romance attached? So, perhaps a wee brother might have been taken with this comic.  I would have been, but that just shows I'm a bit of a saddy.

[bowers]

Checkin' in late again! Kind of interesting to see the evolution of railroad security. Starting as little more than thugs and gunslingers enforcing the railroad barons' agenda and ending up as legitimate law enforcement officers. I wonder if this organization is still in existence or if the duties are now part of Homeland Security or other federal agency? This was a great little time capsule into a time when railroads ruled, and looked, to me, to be a recruiting tool. I checked the GCDB and it gave this booklet as Bill Bounce's only credit. Not great, but not bad. Cheers, Bowers