By Jack Herman, Dan Tolentino & Danny Taver (Blackthorne Publishing)
ISBN: 0-932629-15-6
Sometimes I just get a devil in me…
Although I review a broad spectrum of illustrated narratives and comics related books, I generally stick to the rule of thumb that the selection has to have some intrinsic quality or merit. Occasionally however there comes an item that I just can’t rationally recommend but still just… sends me…
As the first contraction of the 1980s independent comics boom began to cut down the plethora of small publishers, Blackthorne moved from canny licensed properties such as California Raisins and Rocky and Bullwinkle, 3-D titles and classic reprints like Tarzan, Dick Tracy and Betty Boop into a line of all-new characters, which might well have hastened their demise.
They also brought out many early graphic novels and Operative: Scorpio might well rank amongst their oddest.
In blocky black and white the confused but compellingly enthusiastic caper details the story of ambitious young thug Carl Manara who takes sole proprietorship of PMD, a new super-addictive drug hitting the streets of a peculiarly Latino Los Angeles, consequently falling foul of the criminal overlord Monticello, whose cabal Blackleague runs the entire country’s illegal enterprises.
Monticello has other problems; specifically a crazy masked martial artist roaming the streets and hitting all his organisations rackets. Scorpio’s campaign is costing him money and the cops – bought or honest – can’t catch the mysterious vigilante…
‘Breaking and Entering’ introduces Police Detective Morgan Pierce, tasked with stopping Manara’s super-drug from causing a bloody turf war. He has no interest in catching Scorpio: in fact he thinks the guy’s a hoax or urban legend…
Pierce has some odd friends he seems embarrassed by: fly-by-night playboy nightclub owner Aristotle, whose clientele ranges from the social elite to the dregs of the city, and disgraced competition martial artist Jay-Daniel Cobra, who only seem to meet with him at the oddest times – whenever no body’s watching…
After some beat cops are killed and civilians come under fire Scorpio gets involved, but Manara has a secret weapon. The designer of the new drug is a highly respected college professor and the only one who knows the formula, protected by a lethal hand-to-hand fighter. When the masked man raids the chemist’s fortress home Scorpio barely survives the encounter.
With war brewing between Manara and Monticello, the upstart’s gang begins selling the new dope out of their car and soon civilians are caught in gang crossfires. The cops won’t touch the dealers – after all they are Homicide Detectives too…
And that’s when the enigmatic Scorpio decides on drastic action: all three of him…
Muddled, manic and utterly mad, this yarn is full of brutal, pell-mell action and short on characterisation but that really doesn’t matter as the drama barrels along, reaching a climax but no real conclusion.
Clearly the opening shot in a longer epic, this dark yarn, with echoes of 1970’s exploitation cinema and Grindhouse movies, was written by Jack Herman, with art by the clearly Latin American or Filipino team of Dan Tolentino & Danny Taver – possibly pseudonyms for three or four different artists in a shared studio.
Even in 1989 the book looked and felt a decade older and I have a sneaking suspicion that it might even be a Mexican digest-comics story surreptitiously picked up and translated: no proof to support the idea but it just has that unshakeable feel to it…
Inexplicably compelling and splendidly fun, this is another guilty pleasure retro-read, best absorbed whilst listening to “Sabotage†by the Beastie Boys… but only at maximum volume.
© 1988 Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.