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(aka FICTION ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 3)
By Steranko (Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc/Pyramid Books)
ISBN: 0-515-04241-2
Steranko is an artist with many strings to his bow. Whether as publisher, typographer, graphic designer, artist, storyteller, historian, or musical performer he has excelled. As a magician and escapologist he found celebrity and even inspired Jack Kirby to create the Super Escape Artist Mister Miracle, but it’s as a comics creator that he has most memorably succeeded.
With Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. he revolutionised the telling of graphic stories. His retro-revisionist take on Captain America is reverently remembered nearly forty years later and his experimental forays in Marvel’s horror and romance titles were high-points in style, and cinematic design.
He left Marvel to pursue his other interests and began the publication Mediascene Prevue but has returned occasionally to the comic medium. In partnership with Byron Preiss he created this experimental form of the graphic novel that is a vivid tribute to the hard-boiled detective and film noir genres, if not altogether to the tastes of the contemporary comics consumer.
Chandler is a private eye, in the iconic myth-country of 1940’s New York City, where one night a desperate man comes looking for someone to find his killer. Bramson Todd saw a mob hit and has somehow been poisoned because of it. With seventy-two hours to live he wants proactive revenge, and as well as a vast amount of money he offers Chandler the chance to save the other three witnesses from the same fate or worse.
The familiar iconography of the seedy, noble gumshoe is augmented by two-fisted action, flying bullets, sundry thugs and scoundrels, memorable, glamorous women and a ticking clock in this loving and effective pastiche, but the stumbling block for many readers will be the unconventional format of this book.
Each page is divided into two columns – in the manner of the classic pulps – with each column comprising an illustration above a block of accompanying text. Despite Steranko’s superb draughtsmanship and design skill (some spreads form extended visual continuities with four single pictures becoming one large illustration) there is an element of separation between prose and picture that can take a little adapting to. Nevertheless even after three decades this is still a powerful tale, well told and worth any extra effort necessary to enjoy it. Another contender for immediate reissue, I think…
This book was released in both full-sized graphic novel and pocket digest editions.
© 1976 Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc.
The character Chandler © 1976 James Steranko.
A classic piece of work from one of my favourite artists. Jim Steranko, a true Renaissance man.
This is yet another candidate for first graphic novel, though it clearly wasn’t, being number 3 in a series…
Interesting factoid: the art in this book is actually shot from Steranko’s pencil artwork, though it looks inked.
The book was earmarked for reprinting, and actually solicited several times under the new title Red Tide, back in the late-90s. Steranko just wanted “to do a little work on it”. And, y’know, being Steranko, I guess it’ll show up one of these decades. Alongside History of Comics, Volume 3, no doubt.
You’re younger than me so you might live to see it.
I’ll just take each day as it comes and see what transpires…
I’ve been thinking about reviewing both ‘Shlomo Raven’ and ‘Starfawn’ (volumes #1 and #2) but my first cursory glances didn’t encourage me… they look a lot like long comic books not ‘Graphic Novels’.
More Steranko stuff to come too…
This knocked my socks off when first published! The stark chiaroscuro art was/is superb! And I was a great Marlowe fan as a teenager, so how could I NOT buy this!
In the 90s when I saw it advertised again as Red Tide, I emailed Dark Horse and was told, as Allan says above, Mr. S. was “working on revisions”. As Alan says, I’ll add that to the list of Steranko’s almost-rans!
Jim, we would love to see this done again!