Hi everyone
Thanks for all of the interaction in the last couple of weeks. I've learned a lot from you all and have wandered down some interesting side roads. So here are some of my thoughts about the selections. I'll do the Woolrich stories first and then the rest of Police Comics separately.
THE WINDOW AND KISS OF THE COBRAI hadn't read the originals for either of these, and I haven't seen the movie of
The Window, apart from the few film clips I found on YouTube. I really liked
The Window. It was good to read a full-length story so that the characters and plot had time to develop. I think whoever wrote the adaptation did a pretty good job in building the tension. I felt like yelling 'No' when the mother took the boy upstairs to apologise to the killers. As the comic seems to be based on the movie, rather than the original story, they may well have used some of the actual dialogue from the movie. Without having read the original, it's hard to know what may have been changed. I thought the art was also pretty good, though as someone else mentioned, the colour scheme didn't quite give that noir feel.
The panels in the taxi scene were interesting. The bad guy clearly punches the boy to keep him quiet, and although the wife obscures him a little, you can still see his fist suspended in the air. The bad guy then tells the taxi driver he’s fallen asleep. The taxi driver replies with, ‘ Yeah … ain’t that just like a kid?’ So was the taxi driver deaf as well as blind? In the film clip I found on YouTube, the boy is dealt with much more quietly and out of view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntoZsumz1ggI also liked the fact that the story was in chapters, like a regular book. The whole thing was short enough to read in one sitting, but you could also dip in and out if you wanted to. All in all, I did enjoy this comic and it made me want to watch the movie.
The Kiss of the Cobra is an interesting idea, but suffers from the short length. The detective's reveal at the end was good, but it was a bit of an information dump. The art is okay, but the ‘young’ Peter Kane certainly looks old. Has anyone read the original story? It would be interesting to know how much was changed for this outing. Also a shame that original writers weren't credited for stories like this back in the day, though I guess the pulps were probably used for a lot of the crime comics, either as adaptations or just as springboards for ideas.
The stories as a whole did inspire me to look into some of Woolrich's original stories.
POLICE COMICSThe FirebrandA fun romp, with an interesting superhero and sidekicks. The action kept it pumping. Though I did wonder how he suddenly produced a flaming torch after pushing the hospital trolley. I’m not familiar with Firebrand. Can he produce fire? And what’s with the see-through shirt? Nearly as good as Colin Firth’s wet shirt in
Pride and Prejudice.
711Lots of plot holes for me in this one. If 711 is in jail, how does he manage to keep his costume and boat secret??
Dewey Drip
Well, the humour in this one has certainly dated. But would it have even been funny back in the day?
Eagle EvansNot the kind of story that appeals to me, but it had some good art, especially regarding the technical aspects of the aircraft and the fight scenes. And Snap sure managed to develop that film quickly.
Plastic ManWell, that was interesting. I’ve never read a Plastic Man comic before. It was sort of funny, but also kind of macabre with the “crook’ being the cursed severed hands of some poor guy chained up in a cellar. Plastic Man freed him from the curse by throwing the hands into a furnace, but the poor guy was still left handless. On another note, it was interesting having Plastic Man turn to the readers to ask for help in increasing the length of the feature. I looked at a later copy and saw that they did increase the length of the Plastic Man stories, so I guess it worked.
Super SnooperFunny one-page gag that still kind of works, though pretty corny.
Steele KerriganFairly standard tale with an innocent ex-inmate helping police round up some crooks. I liked the way Anne got in on the action too, but how did Steele know that tank contained acetylene and that shooting it would have the desired effect without endangering him too? Probably not something to try at home. Also a subtle (or not so subtle?) billboard ad in one of the panels encouraging readers to buy defense bonds and stamps. Well, it was 1942!
The MouthpieceA District Attorney in a domino mask? As SuperScrounge said, it’s not much of a disguise, especially as he’s wearing exactly the same clothes he was wearing at the office. At least Barbara Gordon changed into her Batgirl outfit before being called the Domino Doll. I liked the way he tricked the rats into chewing through his ropes, though the bad guy accidentally hacking another crim with an axe was a bit on the bloodthirsty side. Okay, but not the most riveting of stories or heroes.
Blood Will Tell Short-story about the power of auto-suggestion. I must admit, I got a bit confused by this one. When I got to the end, I had to skim back over the story to see if I missed something. I’m not sure auto-suggestion works quite that well, and if it did, would confessions gained that way be admissible in court?
There were some inaccuracies regarding the Australian aspects of the story, but I’ve already mentioned those in another post.
Phantom LadyIn the first panel, it says ‘Phantom Lady is never suspected of being Senator Knight’s daughter Sandra, even when she fights before his eyes’. I take it he’s blind then, especially as she doesn’t even wear a mask!!
I’ve read a couple of the other Phantom Lady comics on this site from a later period, and I like the art on those ones better. The cheekbone lines in this one make her look like she’s sucking lemons. That aside, what a gal. Not only can she kick butt and do wonders with her black light, but she can fly an autogiro. I’m glad she had another life beyond this comic.
Burp the TwerpNot a bad one-page gag for the time, but it's pretty corny now.
The Human BombI haven’t come across this hero before and I enjoyed it. Interesting superpower. At the end, his alter-ego Roy persuades Jean that she wouldn’t have a future with the human bomb because if he touched her, she’d explode. But how does Roy stop from hurting her? Does he always have his hands covered? And how come he doesn’t blow himself up? Maybe this is explained in other stories.
Overall, I liked some of the stories in this comic, and would probably try more of these. Though there are so many comics I want to read on this site, that it would be lower down on my list.
Cheers
QQ