I just chose this book for The Reading Group to review, not knowing that it had been reviewed 5 years ago. I'd like to add my 2 Euro Cents worth, if you all don't mind, given that this is such a weird book.
This was a very interesting book choice for me, given that (1) I was a very-soon-after World War II baby; (2) my father and uncle(next door neighbour), both with whom I grew up with every day of my young life, stormed Juno Beach at Normandy fighting The Nazis in June 1944, when fully half of their division was wiped out; and (3) the fact that our family is Jewish, and fully half of them (most of whom didn't escape from Holland to Canada before that war), were murdered by The Nazis in death camps (mostly Auschwitz). And, (4) my father was wounded fighting The Germans. So, I was intrigued to see how The War would be handled in this book.
This book is also interesting to me because it is a Human character story, drawn in a realistic, rather than cartoony style, and being somewhat written in an historical novel style; but yet, in an unusual situation, has one, single, solitary "funny animal" character, as well. It is a strange mixture of an espionage story, science fiction, a moral tale, and a public service national morale booster.
It seems, that this book was produced by a special publisher (Great American Comics), set up by Robert Farrell Publishing (Four Star Publications), to take on a World War II (War Propaganda) job from a US Government public service programme (whose distribution arm was American Features Syndicate).
I think it still should have had interesting relevance to today, given the recent rise in extreme nationalism, national narcissism, and racial hatred in many countries.
Unfortunately, the editor and story writer didn?t have a clear picture of what they wanted to do with the assignment, to meet the public service programme?s needs of boosting national morale during the latter part of the war effort, and getting The American People solidly behind The US Government?s actions taken during the war. It?s a hodgepodge mess, with no real direction.
Did the author want to show proof that The Allies had the moral high ground, and The Axis Powers were the villains? They didn?t show that. Showing Nazi and Japanese atrocities would have made that point. But, I think the editors felt that showing such things would be too gruesome for the little kiddies, and too political, given that The American, British, and French governments wanted a strong Germany,friendly to all of them after the war, to also help Germany withstand the threat of Russian Communism. So, the representatives of the public service programme who gave out the contract, probably stated something to that effect before Four Stars writers even started writing a story scenario.
The only other major thrust of the story is the part played by Little Cosmo, The Secret Voice. Is this ?Voice of Right Thinking?, a surrogate for The Creator God of Western Religion? If so, that couldn?t really be shown in such a comic book - especially one that is a propaganda tool funded by The US Government. I think the writers of this story really put themselves in a no-win situation by using this insect as the holder of moral high ground, rather than just stating that The Allies were ?The Good Guys? because they are only reacting to The Axis Powers? aggression of invading other countries, and simply trying to save the latter, implying that The Axis powers are ?The Bad Guys?. As ?right thinking? is never really defined, the reader doesn?t know why USA and its allies were ?in the right?, and ?The Axis Powers? were in the wrong, and why it is such a good thing that Hitler?s Germany was defeated, and why Americans should continue to gather scrap metal, paper, and other used sources of supplies for the war effort, and not have loose tongues, saying where their military family members are and what their military units are doing, to make sure The Japanese don?t get any extra help, until after they are defeated, and the war is over. It seemed that not only did Four Star?s editors do a poor job of meeting the original intent of the contract, but probably the government programme interface person did a lousy job of communicating what his organisation (department) wanted as a product.
The fact that CB+ and DCM don?t have scanned versions of this book?s advertised sequel, ?Little Cosmo - Plan For The Future?, and that I?ve never seen a copy of it in almost 70 years of rummaging through used comic books, and no one else on this thread has ever seen it, means that it seems likely that it was never issued, and the story could well never have even had a scenario written - especially if the US Government programme that was sponsoring the first book, ?The Secret Voice?, didn?t like how that one ended up as a finished product. I doubt that it sold much, and I?ll bet few people who read it would have been ready to mail away 25 cents to get an even more dull one-story book without even any war action scenes - only about plans to rebuild destroyed towns and cities, get food to a lot of hungry people, and build up new international trade systems.
The colouring is interesting, given that orange, cyan, yellow, and green are used. That means that Red was available (therefor 4-colour process). So, it seems that they didn?t colour it this way to save money, but seemingly, rather for mood effect.
The artwork (by Ronald Marcus) is also very interesting. I can't remember coming across Marcus' name as an animation artist. But, I assume that he must have drawn at least some other Human character semi-realistic comic book stories for US publishers during The Golden Age. As stated above, some of the artwork is reasonably good, while other panels are amateurish. I wonder if Marcus worked on other comic books. I don?t believe I?ve ever seen his name connected with comic book art before this. Has anyone else here?
Bottom line: This book was a failure in my estimation, and I wouldn?t have bought it. It was laborious to read, and very likely didn?t meet the purpose for its funding. But, as an historian, I am glad I know about it. It helps me get a better feeling for the state of the publishing industry just before I entered The World.
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Topic: Week 131 - The Secret Voice #1 (Read 3218 times)
