This book series was started in 1949, when Superhero sales were flagging, and many of those series that hopped aboard that juggernaut as a copycat had fizzled out and were cancelled, and new trends, like teen comedy were in fashion. Farcical, zany comedy was one aspect of this that was exploited by a few publishers. The stories in this book remind me of some of the late 1949s U.S. films in that same genre.
The lead Torchy story had an interesting combination of the young late teenaged trio needing money, and the beloved, teen-friendly, local neighborhood, eccentric, genius inventor (straight out of The Dead-End Kids/Bowry Boys), in a combination with elements from Martin & Lewis, The Marx Brothers, Andy Hardy, and The Three Stooges.
It's a story of a type that I, myself might have written for Donald Duck, who, as is often the case, had promised to take his used to being pampered with luxury, demanding girlfriend Daisy out to a super-fancy restaurant, but hasn't come up with the money for that, and is desperate to find enough, quickly, to avoid her wrath. So he goes to his last chance, the local wacky and eccentric inventor, Gyro Gearloose, hoping he can invent something so amazingly useful that rich people would pay scads of money to possess it.
It's a very fertile premise for an interesting and satisfying story. But, for my taste, it was too cliched and derivative. Everything is almost totally expected. The characters are extremely one-dimensional, and act only in a single way in EVERY situation. There are no clever situations developed, no plot twists, and no unexpected happenings. A series full of similar stories, with the characters ALWAYS acting this same way would get old fast.
I absolutely HATE hearing the wisecracking Tess make snide remarks to what anyone says, just about any time anyone says anything. Ed being dull-witted, and downright stupid at every turn is too much, as well. In every Torchy story, the person in authority who must be coerced by The Three Teens falls for Torchy's charm without any hesitation, so easily and predictably, that she is only a farcical symbolic character, with whom no one could empathise. So, she can't be an heroic or sympathetic lead character whose adventures can be followed with any interest.
If I had been given the opportunity to write this series, I'd have made Torchy a sympathetic character, who can't help that she is beautiful physically, and has to learn to deal with both the good and the bad that comes from the advantages and burdens of that situation. We would slowly see her learn about people, and become more and more able to wend her way through the ups and downs of life, as we all do. I certainly wouldn't make her successful at every turn. What makes good protagonists is that we see all sides of them, and can identify with them from what they mirror in our own lives. It's difficult to follow the exploits of a cliche.
I'd have tried to also develop Tess into a more rounded character, showing her behaving differently in different situations based on different motivations, revealing why she and Torchy hang out together, and what they want from their relationship as friends. I'd have given Ed some positive traits, showing that he's not an idiot, but his sensibility is often blocked by his desires taking over (as is one of Donald's - and for that matter, almost all young men's, largest problems). I'd also have The Three Teens' marks (victims) sometimes play hard to get, rather than handing them the money or privileges, or keys to the city, that they are after, immediately, putting up no fight, and absolutely no effort needed on the formers' part. That makes the rich and/or influential people too ridiculous to believe, and doesn't demonstrate that Torchy is good at her craft (or that Tess is good at using Torchy's natural gifts to her or their advantage).
All in all, this is a series with no protagonist - no character with whom to identify, and whose exploits one would want to follow. This determination cannot be made after reading only the first story. But the fact that none of those aspects changed in ANY of the other Torchy stories in this book, makes me not want to bother reading the second issue, or indeed, any other Torchy book. I predict that they all will have similar stories with no character development and total predictability.
As for The one non-Torchy story - Sam Brown, The Super Salesman, I had no idea that Sam Brown was the lead character. He was a shallow, cliched side character, in a story with no protagonist. It is a tragedy about a greedy, manipulative, amoral, non-sympathetic lost soul, who gets his just desserts. It's very like one of Aesop's Fables, a moral tale, in a modern setting. It's a decent story, but totally predictable.
I have to admit that there was a nice little twist at the end of the third Torchy story, where Ed can't go on the holiday vacation trip with Torchy and Tess, because he is needed by his rich boss for doing his chauffeuring job. That, of course, is a very common, and totally acceptable twist ending in stories of this type. However, most of my editors would have wanted me to tie such a twist more closely to the specifics of this particular story (e.g. that the thread that ties the twist bad ending for Ed as punishment for his taking the job for an ulterior motive, be tied to a more specifically esoteric or highly coincidental situation, which is also tied to a general foible of Ed's, which is innocently introduced to the reader (set up) early in the story.
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Topic: Reading Group #245 - Torchy #1 (Read 1442 times)
