{"id":30857,"date":"2024-11-03T15:34:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30857"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:34:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:34:46","slug":"buz-sawyer-volume-1-the-war-in-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/11\/03\/buz-sawyer-volume-1-the-war-in-the-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Buz Sawyer volume 1: The War in the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Roy Crane<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-362-0 (HB)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect Comics with Timeless Punch… 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Modern comics evolved from newspaper comic strips. Until relatively recently these pictorial features were utterly ubiquitous, hugely popular with the public and valued by publishers who used them as a sales weapon to guarantee and increase circulation and profits.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s virtually impossible for us to today to understand the overwhelming power of the comic strip in America (and the wider world) from the Great Depression to the end of World War II. With no television, broadcast radio far from universal and movie shows at best a weekly treat for most folk, household entertainment was mostly derived from the comic sections of daily and especially Sunday Newspapers. The Funnies were the most common recreation for millions: well served by a fantastic variety and incredible quality. From the very start humour was paramount; hence the actual terms \u201cFunnies\u201d and \u201cComics\u201d, and from these gag and stunt beginnings – a blend of silent movie slapstick, outrageous fantasy and the vaudeville shows – came a thoroughly entertaining mutant hybrid: Roy Crane\u2019s Wash Tubbs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Debuting on April 21st<\/sup> 1924,Washington Tubbs II<\/strong> was a breezily comedic gag-a-day strip that evolved into a globe-girdling adventure serial. Crane crafted pages of stunning, addictive quality yarn-spinning whilst his introduction of moody swashbuckler Captain Easy<\/strong> in the landmark episode for 6th<\/sup> May, 1929 led to a Sunday colour page that was arguably the most compelling and visually impressive of the entire Golden Age of Newspaper strips (as seen in Roy Crane\u2019s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips <\/strong>volumes 1-4).<\/p>\n

Improving almost minute by minute, Crane\u2019s imagination and his fabulous visual set pieces achieved a timeless immediacy that made each page a unified piece of sequential art. The influence of those pages can be seen ever since in the works of near-contemporaries such as Herg\u00e9, giants-in-waiting like Charles Schulz and comics creators including Alex Toth and John Severin.<\/p>\n

The work was obviously as much fun to create as to read. In fact, the cited reason for Crane surrendering the Sunday strip to his assistant Les Turner in 1937 was NEA\/United Features Syndicate\u2019s abrupt and arbitrary demand that all its strips must be henceforward produced in a rigid panel-structure to facilitate their being cut up and re-pasted as local editors dictated – although the compelling text features in this book dedicated to his second masterpiece reveal a few more commercial and professional reasons for the jump from the small and provincial syndicate to the monolithic King Features outfit. At the height of his powers Crane just walked away from the astounding Captain Easy page, concentrating on the daily feature, and when his contract expired in 1943 he left United Features to create the World War II aviation strip Buz Sawyer<\/strong>; lured away by the grandee of strip poachers William Randolph Hearst.<\/p>\n

The result is still one of the freshest and most engaging comics strips of all time…<\/p>\n

Where Wash Tubbs was a brave but comedic Lothario and Easy a surly, tight-lipped he-man, John Singer<\/em> \u201cBuz\u201d Sawyer <\/em>was a happy amalgam of the two: a plain & simple, good-looking popular country-boy who went to war because his country needed him.<\/p>\n

After the gripping and informative text feature \u2018Crane\u2019s Great Gamble\u2019 <\/em>by Jeet Heer, the strip explodes into action on Christmas Eve 1942, as new Essex Class Aircraft Carrier USS Tippecanoe steams for the Pacific Theatre of Operation carrying 100 fighter-bombers and an extremely keen pair of cartoon paladins.<\/p>\n

Buz Sawyer<\/strong> is a fun-loving, skirt-chasing, musically-inclined pilot and his devoted gunner Rosco Sweeney<\/em>, a bluff, simple ordinary guy – as well as one of the best comedy foils ever created.<\/p>\n

The strip is a marvel of authenticity: picturing not just the action and drama of the locale and situation, but more importantly capturing the quiet, dull hours of training, routine and desperate larks between the serious business of killing whilst staying alive. Like contemporaries Bill Mauldin and Milton Caniff, Crane was acutely aware that all his readers had someone involved in the action and therefore felt a duty to inform and enlighten as well as entertain. Spectacular as the adventure was, the truly magical moments focus on the off-duty camaraderie and candid personal interactions that pepper the daily drama.<\/p>\n

This beautiful archival hardback covers the entire war years of the strip from November 1st<\/sup> 1943 to October 5th<\/sup> 1945, wherein the inspired artist perfected his masterly skill with Craftint (a mechanical monochrome patterning effect used to add greys and halftones which Crane employed to add miraculous depths and moods to his superb drawing) and opens with the lovable lads shot down whilst tackling a Japanese carrier.<\/p>\n

Marooned, their life raft washes up on a desolate desert island where they\u2019re hunted by enemy troops and discover a marooned German farmer and his beautiful daughter. At first hostile, lovely fr\u00e4ulein April<\/em> soon succumbs to Buz\u2019s boyish charm. Helping Buz and Roscoe escape, the trio only make it as far as the next islet, where fellow pilot and friendly rival Chili Harrison<\/em> has also been stranded since his plane went down.<\/p>\n

Eventually rescued, the Navy fliers return to \u201cthe Tip\u201d for training on new planes (sublimely detailed and delineated Curtiss SB2C Helldivers; in case you were wondering) in preparation for the push to Japan. Amidst spectacular action sequences, shipboard life goes on, but during a raid on an occupied island Buz and Sweeney are once more shot down. In the middle of a fire-fight they effect repairs and head back to the Tippecanoe, but not without cost. Rosco has been hit…<\/p>\n

Sawyer\u2019s exemplary exploits haven\u2019t gone unnoticed and, whilst Sweeney is recovering from wounds, the titular hero is selected for a secret mission deep into enemy territory; ferrying an intelligence agent to a meeting with enigmatic underground leader the Cobra<\/em>. It all goes tragically wrong and the US agent is captured. With the enemy hunting high and low for the pilot, Buz then falls back on his most infuriating ability: dropping into the willing laps of beautiful women…<\/p>\n

\u2018Sultry\u2019<\/em> is a gorgeous collaborator high in the favour of the occupying Japanese, but she too finds the corn-fed aviator irresistible. Of course, it might simply be that she\u2019s also Cobra…<\/p>\n

This extended epic is a brilliant, breathtaking romp blending action, suspense, romance and tragedy into a compelling thriller that carries Buz all the way to December 1944. As a result of his trials, the hero is sent back to America on a 30-day leave – enabling Crane to reveal some enticing background and invoke all the passions, joys and heartbreaks of the Home Front.<\/p>\n

Buz doesn\u2019t want to go, but orders are orders, so to make things a little more bearable he takes still-recuperating Sweeney with him. It isn\u2019t that the young flier despises his origins – indeed, his civilian life is a purely idyllic American Dream – it\u2019s simply that he wants to get the job done against the enemy. Nevertheless, with a warrior\u2019s grace under pressure, he resigns himself to peace and enjoyment whilst his comrades soldier on. If he knew the foe he would face in his little hometown, Buz would probably have gone AWOL…<\/p>\n

Crane\u2019s inspirational use of the War at Home was a masterstroke: it\u2019s not a world of spies and insidious Bundists, but just an appetising little burg filled with home comforts and proud people: the kind of place soldiers were fighting to preserve and a powerful tool in the morale-builder\u2019s arsenal. It\u2019s also a place of completely different dangers…<\/p>\n

Buz is the son of the town\u2019s doctor; plain, simple and good-hearted. In that egalitarian environment, the kid was sweetheart to the richest girl in town, and when Tot Winter<\/em>\u2018s upstart, nouveau riche parents hear of the decorated hero\u2019s return they hijack the homecoming and turn it into a self-serving publicity carnival.<\/p>\n

Moreover, ghastly, snobbish Mrs. Winter<\/em> conspires with her daughter to trap the lad into a quick and newsworthy marriage. Class, prejudice, financial greed and social climbing are enemies Buz and Sweeney are ill-equipped to fight, but luckily that annoying tomboy-brat Christy Jameson<\/em> has blossomed into a sensible, down-to-earth, practical and clever young woman. She\u2019s scrubs up real pretty too…<\/p>\n

After a staggeringly smart and compelling soap opera sequence that would do Eastenders <\/strong>or Coronation Street<\/strong> proud, Buz ends up (accidentally) engaged to Tot after all. Mercifully, his leave ends and he and Sweeney must return to the war – but even then, they are disappointed to discover that they won\u2019t immediately be fighting again.<\/p>\n

Posted to Monterey, California, they are to be retrained for new planes and a new squadron, reuniting with rowdy rival Chili Harrison. Even so, Mrs Winter is determined to have a war hero in the clan and pursues them with Tot in tow, determined to get Buz married before he returns to the Pacific. Insights into another aspect of the military experience (Crane had almost unfettered access, consultation privileges and the grateful willing cooperation of the US Navy) are revealed to readers as the whiz-kid is suddenly back in school again; and usually in the dog-house because of his hot-dogging.<\/p>\n

Dramatic tension divides evenly between Buz\u2019s apparent inability to be a team-player and the increasingly insistent and insidious ploys of Mrs. Winter. Moreover, the squadron\u2019s training commander has an uncanny ability to predict which pilots will die in training or combat and Buz\u2019s name is high on that list…<\/p>\n

At last the training concludes and – miraculously alive and unmarried – Buz & Sweeney ship out to the Pacific and the relatively easy task of ending the war. Part of a vast fleet mopping up island fortresses en route to Tokyo, they are soon flying combat missions, and before long, shot down once more. This time they are taken prisoner aboard an enemy submarine…<\/p>\n

After more incredible escapes and rousing triumph, the war finishes, but Crane actually ratcheted up the tension by covering the period of American consolidation and occupation as Buz & Sweeney await demobilisation. Whilst posted to a medical facility in Melatonga, the lads and Chili meet a woman from Buz\u2019s chequered past they had all believed long dead…<\/p>\n

When discharge papers finally arrive (in the episode for September 9th<\/sup> 1945) an era of desperate struggle closes. However, with such a popular and pivotal strip as Buz Sawyer<\/strong>, that only means that the era of globe-girdling adventure is about to begin…<\/p>\n

This superb monochrome hardback also offers a selection of Sunday strips in full colour. The eternal dichotomy and difficulty of producing Sunday Pages (many client papers would only buy either dailies or Sunday strips, not both) meant that some strip creators produced different story-lines for each feature – Milt Caniff\u2019s Steve Canyon <\/strong>being one of the few notable exceptions. Crane handled the problem with typical aplomb: using the Sundays to tell completely unrelated stories. For Wash Tubbs<\/strong> he created a prequel series starring Captain Easy<\/strong> in exploits set before the mismatched pair had met; with Buz Sawyer<\/strong> he turned over the Sabbath slot to Rosco Sweeney<\/strong> for lavish gag-a-day romps, big on laughs and situation comedy.<\/p>\n

Set among the common \u201cswabbies\u201d aboard ship, it was a lighter family-oriented feature and probably far more welcome among the weekend crowd of parents and children than the often chilling or disturbing realistically and sophisticated saga that unfolded Mondays to Saturdays.<\/p>\n

Also included here – and spanning November 28th<\/sup> 1943 to 25th<\/sup> February 1945 in delicious full-page fold outs – are 15 of the best (many with appearances by Buz): a cheerily tantalising bonus which will hopefully one day materialise as an archival collection of their own. Whilst not as innovative or groundbreaking as Captain Easy<\/strong>, they\u2019re still superb works by one of the grand masters of our art-form.<\/p>\n

This initial collection is the perfect means of discovering or rediscovering Crane\u2019s second magnum opus – spectacular, enthralling, exotically immediate adventures that influenced generations of modern cartoonists, illustrators, comics creators and storytellers. Buz Sawyer: War in the Pacific<\/strong> ranks as one the greatest strip sequences and best war stories ever crafted: thrilling, rousing, funny, moving yarn-spinning that is unforgettable, unmissable and utterly irresistible.
\nStrips \u00a9 2010 King Features Syndicate, Inc. This edition \u00a9 2011 Fantagraphics Books, all other material \u00a9 the respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy Crane (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-60699-362-0 (HB) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect Comics with Timeless Punch… 10\/10 This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Modern comics evolved from newspaper comic strips. Until relatively recently these pictorial features were utterly ubiquitous, hugely popular with the public and valued by publishers who used … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Buz Sawyer volume 1: The War in the Pacific”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,113,78,122,125,127,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comedy","category-comic-strip-classics","category-historical","category-humour","category-nostalgia","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-81H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30860,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857\/revisions\/30860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}