Sunday, March 26, 2017

Say It Ain't Cole

Friday Comic Book Day.

In the mid to late forties Plastic Man creator reinvested his commitment to his publisher Quality comics. Before that he had given more and more parts of the creation of his strips to other hand, possibly in an effort to produce as many stories as possible. But at a certain point, you can see him returning to Plastic Man, introducing new characters and helping out others to do the same.

Here are two stories I sent to Jack Cole expert Paul Tumey with the question if I was right to see Cole hand in these two stories. Paul replied that he saw why I would say that, but he feels it might just as well have been the work of Cole previous collaborators and style imitators, like Alex Kotzky. Main thing I see it that neither of these stories is by their regular creator. Her Highness, about an old lady running a group of gangsters, was usually done by Gill Fox. here the style is to wild and to lively to be by Fox. The characters expressions, the look of the ladies and the use of oddly shaped panels all remind me of Cole. The second story, Bob and Swab (named for a navy slang expression for a certain sexual combo delivered by some of the ladies they met on their travels) usually is by Klaus Nordling, although Cole is known to do a couple as well. Here we are left inbetween. The figures have Nordling's touches, but the layout and the action is more Cole style.

Either way they are fun stories.

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