[MarkWarner]

Well. last week's Hercules was not exactly the showstopper that I had been promised. In fact it if we had a "meh" button, I think I would have pressed it!

Now this week, it is sort of up to us to make a good read out of.

I have had Authentic Police Cases #28 written on my list for quite sometime. In fact I have no idea who suggested it. When I went to choose a story, I saw that there were 101 pages. After looking at the GCD entry I had no idea which one of these to choose. So ... brainwave ... its a free for all week.

You choose at least one of the stories to read .. it's your choice. I normally read c2c, but I think I will just have to cherry pick a few this week.

Oh, I almost forgot the book can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=19047

[Morgus]

I was hooked after the Matt Baker "it's raining men" cover. A lot of fun, and for once I read them all. It's been cold and rainy around here lately and this was the perfect escape. BUT that 'giant beachball' verges on false adverting, even by the slack standards of comic books. Still fun to read...yeah, BE the most popular man on the beach with a three foot rubber ball. And, wow...Hitler stamps...Funny thing, I figured after the crooks got it from the other brunettes wearing red dresses in the previous stories, that the same would happen in Prince of Frisco. I kept waiting for the daughter to nail the guy, but it didn't happen that way...almost want to believe that this story really WAS true...

[crashryan]

This turned out to be a great read! I ended up reading the whole thing. I had to do it in two sessions. A hundred pages is a lot of crime to digest in one sitting.

The art (with the exception of a Bill Molno story that somehow sneaked in) is absolutely top notch. Enrico Bagnoli was one heckuva talent. He was something of a prodigy: when he started drawing Italian comics at age 15 he was already better than many 40s Italian artists. He wasn't yet thirty when he drew these St. John stories, and he continued to produce great work to the very end (he died in 2012 at age 87). I'm sorry St. John's Italian connection didn't last longer. Bagnoli and his compatriot Antonio Canale turned out some of the finest crime stories in 1950s American comics.

Speaking of Canale, there was nobody better at drawing muggs. I love his somewhat cartoony thugs with their big, bulky coats and suits. Canale, ten years older than Bagnoli, changed styles several times over the years. His 1940s work was very elaborate, with an epic Hal Foster feel. After the war he seems to have been increasingly influenced by American artists. He's best known, of course, for drawing the adventures of costumed crimefighter Amok. However Canale put a lot more work into these crime stories than he did into the "masked giant."

I find the stories surprisingly good. I like that most of the plots don't follow the standard life-story-of-a-crook formula. I would swear on a stack of Charltons that the majority were written by Joe Gill. If not, the scripter certainly has JG's narrative style down pat.

I enjoyed the Vic Flint reprint. It's too bad this strip isn't better known. The stories are solid and I really like Ralph Lane's artwork. He has that interesting blend of cartooniness and realism which typifies so many NEA artists. It's the Roy Crane legacy, I guess. Lane is tops at drawing cute teenage girls. He should have illustrated a few English schoolgirl comics. The only thing I don't like (other than Inspector Growl's name) is Flint's kid sidekick, Tacky. But I can live with it.

I don't want to forget the fine Matt Baker cover. It was a lot of reading, but to me this book was wall-to-wall dessert.

[narfstar]

I chose to read the Sea Nymph story. But darn no nymphs it was the name of the ship. Nice little story with some not too bright crooks.

[SuperScrounge]

Las Vegas Loot - I get the feeling the artist was trying to do likenesses of celebrities here: Ballard is kinda like Milton Berle, Sturgess is kinda like Bogart, Rocky was kinda like Robert Mitchum... no exact matches, but a number of similarities. Okay story.

Lou Erskine's One Man War - Not bad.

The Kidnapped Sea Nymph - Okay, but in the final panel they say the flag was upside down, but the artist drew it right side up.

The Crown Prince of Frisco - Okay.

The Case of the Jumping Beans - Enjoyable.

The Police Always Win - 60 years ago maybe, these days, I'm not so sure.

Piracy on Route One - Okay.

Easy-Money Kid - Okay

The Tailor-Made Crime Wave - Interesting.

First Offense - Okay.

The Body on Demand - Interesting story.

All the stories were readable, but the Vic Flint one was the best.

Wow! That Hitler Stamp ad... that seems really tasteless.

[MarkWarner]

Here I am  ... out of breath, horribly late and surely heading for an after school detention. But anyway on with the book  (last week's )

I have not frequented beaches for a good long time, do you still see are beach balls there? (I see that Morgus was also intrigued by this advertisement)

Las Vegas Loot: If all crime stories were like like this I'd be more of a fan of them.

Lou Erskine's One Man War: This doesn't begin well as there is a glaring typo, which had me mightily confused:
 

" ... Duke Bode, the Czar of the local gambling empire, watched Bode lose night after night until ..."

Would read a lot better like this:

" ... Duke Bode, the Czar of the local gambling empire, watched Carter Erskine lose night after night until ..."

But again, after I figured that out, we were up and running with yet another "proper story".

The Kidnapped Sea Nymph - Excellent.

The Crown Prince of Frisco -  I was tad surprised that an arch-rival called Julie was in fact a man. Maybe a contributing factor in his criminality?? Back to the story ... I can never understand why people (especially criminals) screw up a nice number by being too greedy.

The Case of the Jumping Beans: For the third time confusion reigned, and I couldn't quite figure out what was going on, and as time is short I skipped this and headed into a a really cool advertisement for popsicles starring Major Mars.

Piracy on Route One: Is this actually based on a real crime?

Easy-Money Kid: For once, I had zero sympathy for the criminal and at this point, I ran out of time ... but will return to finish this off, as  ...

Verdict:  I score it a MASSIVE HIT. It has shown me that there are actually some good readable crime comics around!

[SuperScrounge]

The Crown Prince of Frisco -  I was tad surprised that an arch-rival called Julie was in fact a man.

I thought that at first too, but it used to be common for guys named Julius to be nicknamed Julie. Editor Julius Schwartz at DC Comics, for instance.

[Morgus]

yeah, people still bring beach balls to the beach, sometimes even three feet high. I head up to the Great Lakes nearest me every summer with the kids...90 minutes away. Used to make a 90 min cassette that's now an entry on the I pod...some surf songs, some retro rock and roll, some Sun, Chess, and Motown, you get the idea...we are on volume 16 by now, so there are grandkids in the mix. You even get the pail and shovels that are so clich

[Kracalactaka]

I can't recall seeing beach balls at the beach (in California, Virginia or Florida), but I have seen them at plenty of baseball games & rock concerts. Matter of fact I was seeing Boston in concert last week and a beach ball was bouncing around. Eventually it ended up on stage, bouncing off the lead guitarist's head. the lead singer grabbed it, and set it down near the drum kit. (neither the singer or guitarist missed a note) Then when they reached a purely instrumental portion of the song the singer got a sharpie marker from a roadie, signed it and then tossed it back into the crowd. Needless to say, whoever caught it did not resume tossing it around.

[narfstar]

Cool story Krac. My main dealing with beach balls is as a teacher at graduation. They manage to sneak them in