[professor echo]

This is truly a terrific read. I was actually surprised how much I ended up liking it after rolling my eyes during the Mickey Spillane wannabe opening. But the story starts cooking fast and from there the pacing is exceptional. The character of Steel goes from Mike Hammer lite and expands in a few directions, all pretty interesting. Some origin stories get bogged down trying to tell too much, this one using a clipped flashback mode cruises right along. The story and characters are familiar, but they nevertheless garner interest. The art is fantastic and the coloring really appropriately expressive.

I also very much appreciated that the beautiful lady was an Asian and not a stereotyped dragon lady villain, but a fairly strong person, even playing a victim. It’s interesting how 1960’s pop culture really paraded and promoted lots of gorgeous women from all over the world and it seemed a very successful trope. Sometime in the 70’s this practice faded and while there might have been more overt representation, it seemed to be segregated and with less context. Of course, the bad guys here are Communist Chinese and Vietcong, but that’s the time and historical incidents of when it was written.

Link to the book: Sarge Steel 1

[The Australian Panther]

Thank you Professor!
Serendipity at it's finest! You invoke Spillane just as the subject comes up over at the Reading Group.
Excellent succinct review of this book. And indeed, Sarge Steel can be seen as in the Private Eye tradition.
You've done what I think posts here should do, which is point me at a book that I am aware of,  and make we want to go back and take a closer look at it.
I might choose that book at a later date.
Please join us over at the reading group.
https://comicbookplus.com/forum/?board=26.0
Your input would be appreciated and worthwhile.I like your thinking!
The thread is frustrating me somewhat, as currently it tends to look like a case of 'the usual suspects' and I would like to see more members feel free to comment. It it is open for comment from each and every one of you.
Cheers!     

[professor echo]

Thank you so much for the kind words, TAP and I'm glad you enjoyed my review. This was actually a rough draft that I later went back and streamline edited a bit. I just noticed this section of the forum and discovered that comments we leave on the comics are "reprinted" here. So I'll leave my rough draft as I appreciate your reaction to it very much.

I came across the Group Read section the other day and thought how much fun it would be to join in since I'm always spouting off my thoughts on comics I read here. I promise I will check into it in greater detail and do my best to contribute. Thank you again for all your kind praise and for the invitation. Hope to see you at the Group Read very soon.