There's a lot to like in this comic, but as a package it's rather strange. I'm used to anthology titles offering several types of story. However these features are so different from one another that they don't seem to belong in the same magazine. Curious, I checked out the other Baily one-shots. All are the same: mishmashes of odd features. The overall impression is that Bailey either tossed out everything he could think of hoping something would connect; or else he had a pile of unrelated stories which he stuck into his comics at random. In a book named after the Cisco Kid I expected more of Cisco, or at least an overall western theme.
Anyway, by themselves each feature has something going for it. In the case of the Cisco Kid, it's Charles Voight. His art is almost slapdash. Yet the panels are so lively and well-drawn that I'll even forgive him the most outrageously fake guitar I've ever seen. His senoritas are lovely and his old men are bursting with character.
The story doesn't do much for me. I confess I was confused; at first I thought the old men were fighting over the girls! I haven't much patience with stories about guys who are irresistible to women (like Don Juan in an earlier group read). The concept isn't funny, just stupid.
"Killer's Nemesis" packs so much into a single page that you hardly notice the ace detective doesn't do any detecting. Because the bodyguard's hat and suit are the same colors as Darrell's it looks as if the G-man is knocked off in the splash panel.
"Super Baby" is fun. I like the character, the story and the artwork. Unfortunately the rhyming dialogue wrecks everything. If the writer had used standard technique I think Super Baby would have made a good second feature.
"Xmas in Mexico" rips off "Gift of the Magi" with Cisco and Pancho the sacrificing lovers. Weird.
"Faust" is a reasonable, if hasty, adaptation. It's well-drawn. But what the heck is it doing in this comic?
"You'll Die Laughing" and the "Funnyman" comic story both strike me the same way. What a mean-spirited piece of work! Our hero is an escaped Nazi torturer. Unlike other strips starring villains this one doesn't offer a good-guy nemesis, leaving the impression we're expected to admire this guy. Strange and nasty. John Giunta shows his strong points, especially in his use of blacks. His rendition of Funnyman's face is truly unsettling. One could compare this guy to The Joker, but he's more like the present-day joker, a complete psychopath. Not a typical 1944 character.
The confusing story doesn't work at all. All the action turns out to be a fairy tale Funnyman tells to some guys hanging out at his barber shop. Why is he running the shop and not his criminal empire? The opening lines suggest he's been a barber for some time. Did he really set himself up in the job because he was sure someday the feds would come to ask him about Funnyman? I'm not quite sure how Funnyman's true face is revealed. I guess he is wearing makeup which the kid scrapes off with his razor. Giunta further confuses things by not showing clearly that "Dead Pan" has fallen asleep in a barber chair. Even so, would the criminal mastermind really sleep through the kid draping him and lathering his face?
The bad taste "Funnyman" left made me forget the better stuff in the issue. I can't imagine a greater contrast than that between this guy and Jerry Siegel's "Funnyman" from a couple of years later.
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Topic: Week 95 - Cisco Kid Comics #1 (Read 3137 times)
