Comic book time capsule -- acknowledging racism in 1942

Sadly, it is not difficult to find ugly racial caricatures in Golden Age comics. If anything the depiction of any non-WASP was even more crude than what you routinely found in the rest of the popular media. Largely unrestrained by the shackles of respectability, comics went wherever they had to for a cheap laugh or an easy dramatic effect.

But there was more complexity here. As with poverty and corruption, the artists and writers of comic books could show some surprisingly progressive views about racism. As previously noted, the Green Lama confronted racism in the army during World War II. This Midnight story (Smash #33) by Jack Cole takes an even more interesting view. It starts out as a fairly standard comic book fantasy about finding a lost African tribe in the Florida swamps (complete with white queen adorned with decorative breast plates), but them it takes an interesting turn...


The introduction of slavery adds a certain weight to the story and gives the antagonist a just if misguided cause.

What really struck me, though, was the ending.


If nothing else this is a testament to the amazing impact of Joe Louis, not just as an incredible athlete but as an honest man in what had been considered a corrupt business. More than that, though, the strip reminds us that people in this country were aware of and felt guilty about the treatment of the Black Man in America for a long time, long before anything was done about it.

Sometimes we like to think that recognizing a problem brings the nation close to a solution. History does not support that assumption.

With a talking monkey, Jack Cole comes into his own

From the first L-shaped panel to the ironic return of the clock tower on the last page, this may be the first fully realized Jack Cole story. The art may not be as polished as his comics of the late Forties or his Playboy cartoons of the Fifties but in terms of visual ideas and using the medium, this is a stunning piece of work.

To illustrate my point, I had intended to pull some panels but it just didn't work. Not that some of the individual panels aren't good enough to stand on their own, they certainly are, but all lose something when excerpted. You can only fully appreciate what Cole is doing in context. I suspect that, at the time, only Eisner had a better grasp of sequential art as a story-telling medium.








From Smash Comics #21

Update: Click here for Paul Tumey's loving detailed analysis of this story.

Graft, orphans and a glimpse of great things yet to come

It would take another story or two for Jack Cole to hit his stride and for Midnight to become one of the great series of the Golden Age, but there is is still plenty to appreciate here, from striking composition and use of perspective to explosive and sometimes rather gruesome action to an almost Capraesque tale of social injustice.






for Smash Comics #19

Attentive. Sympathetic. Still.

What makes a good comic book artist?

Economy. A strong sense of composition. An understanding of body language. Inventiveness. The ability to suggest motion. A feel for evocative images. A knack for visual storytelling.

Which brings us to Jack Cole. Cole is best known for his over-the-top, often grotesque images and explosive scenes of mayhem...

but the natural complement of the ability to suggest motion is the ability to suggest stillness. Take a good look at the second of these two panels. It's a beautifully composed shot that perfectly captures the sad, quiet moment. Check out how Cole depicts each characters' attitude. (and keep in mind this is the same artist who gave us the image of a hypodermic about to puncture an eyeball.)


Of course, like all good comic art, this is best appreciated in context...

Bulls and bears in love -- a Jack Cole Golden Age classic

Normally being considered a potential substitute is not all that flattering, but when a Golden Age publisher looked at a young cartoonist as a potential substitute for Will Eisner, the artist should indeed be flattered.

That was the situation that Jack Cole found himself in and history has born out that publisher's opinion. Cole is now one of the unquestioned geniuses of the medium for his inventiveness, his humor, his extraordinary sense of composition, his expressiveness and his ability to pack explosive energy into a cheaply printed image.

All of these talents are on display in this story from 1947...