Death Patrol 7 –Courage, Craziness, and Cannibalism

Story this post:
”Out of Gas!”
Story, art, lettering by Jack Cole
Military Comics #30
July, 1944
Quality Comics Group




A shy, gentle man by all accounts, Jack Cole as a creator was a bold extremist.
 
For all the grimness of the concept of a heroic team that regularly loses members to terrible deaths, Jack Cole’s DEATH PATROL is astonishingly cartoony. Most of Cole’s work is a big, rich mix of the horrible and the hilarious. Next to PLASTIC MAN, the eight stories Cole made in the DEATH PATROL series rank among the craziest blends of death and comedy available in comics, or any other art form.

After creating the series in Military Comics #1, Cole returned to the series in March, 1944 with Military #27. Now the stories were four pages in length, instead of six. In all, Cole did 8 DEATH PATROL stories, in Military Comics #1, 2, 3, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

In this breathless story from Cole’s second  run on the series, we are treated to a delightful episode of hen-pecking and cannibalism. It would be absurd to attempt to make sense of this nutty story that seems to stream directly from Cole's subconscious. However, it is worth noting that Cole slipped in some memorable zingers in this 4-page wonder:

“Ah’m sorry boys, but the little woman jus' craves white meat!” 

Egads!

Apologies must be made for the racist content of this story. It's rather startling to encounter undeniably thick veins of racism in the work of an otherwise good-natured (if dark) humorist. Compare this 1944 story to Cole's 1950's CHOP CHOP stories featuring the Blackhawks' own racist portrayal. It helps to bear in mind that Cole's portrayals of non-white people are more or less in line with the culture of his time and were certainly far from the only instances of such treatments in 1940's comic books. For example, consider the well-known comic and racist black boy character, Ebony White, from Will Eisner's SPIRIT series (a character Cole developed in the unknown and under-appreciated FANNIE OGRE story he ghosted in the SPIRIT dailies).

The splash-dash splash page features a roulette wheel of death, an echo of the first story in Plastic Man #1 (June, 1943) from about a year earlier. One cannot help but wonder where the green demon addressing the reader came from -- it's a rare instance of Cole depicting a non-human, imaginary form.

 


Thus the pedal-to-the-metal story skids to an abrupt halt. Even if Hank's explanation is too hastily accepted, the story still works. Aside from Milt Gross, has there ever been another master of the sequential narrative who naturally worked with such breakneck, helter-skelter pacing?

Other DEATH PATROL stories published in this blog (so far):

Military Comics #1
Military Comics #3
Military Comics #28
Military Comics #31

The Pirate Prince – Cole’s first sexual politics story, and his 24-hour comic?

In January, 1940 Silver Streak Comics #7 hit the stands and featured a whopping 38 pages of story and art by Jack Cole. For good measure, Cole also did the cover for this issue, one of the great iconic covers of the early Golden Age of comics.

Buried among the famous Claw, Daredevil, and Silver Streak stories was a little treasure – a  battle-of-the-sexes story disguised as a pirate yarn. Due to the large amount of pages that Cole created in this issue (which he also edited, by the way… which suggests why Cole was never an editor at Quality – because he probably would have written and drawn most of the books he edited!), the story is clearly tossed off, possibly in a single day.

If so, this would make The Pirate Prince perhaps Cole’s only 24-hour comic book story. Like 24-hour comics, this story (even sloppily signed by Cole in a signature that looks very similar to the signature he would use almost 15 years later in his Playboy cartoons)  is loose, revealing, and has an immediacy in both the art and storytelling.

 

 

Given how largely women would figure in Cole’s later work, this story is significant in that Cole has clearly tossed aside the tropes of pirate stories to unreel his own battle-of-the-sexes.

True to form, even in this rush job, Cole packs in a wealth if ideas, including the wonderful concept of a pirate that preys on pirates, setting free slaves…. Robin Hood on the seas.

Cole was fond of creating new series that he then left to others (Daredevil, Silver Streak, The Barker, Death Patrol, Midnight, etc.).  He only made one episode of The Pirate Prince before turning it over to  another great writer-artist, Dick Briefer, who would continue the series for several years.

Here’s Briefer’s first entry in the series, which appeared in Silver Streak #8:

 

Note Briefer has seized on Cole’s “good pirate” concept and totally abandoned the sexual tension Cole set up. The stories didn’t amount to much, but they were entertaining for the liveliness of Briefer’s line and compositions. Here’s one from a few issues later, in Silver Streak #12:

 

Briefer’s art soon coalesced into a wonderful, tight cartoony style. Check this post at the fun Mippyville blog for a nice later-period Briefer Pirate Prince story.

BURP THE TWERP – Jack Cole’s Other Comic Book Superhero Satire – The first 20 episodes

Sometime in 1941, Jack Cole had the brilliant and visionary idea to make fun of comic book superheroes, a genre not even 5 years old at the time.

All at once, three mind-blowing series exploring this idea of this idea sprang from Cole’s mind into existence, beginning an arc of invention that would peak about 10 years later with Harvey Kurtzman’s MAD parodies. The three series were PLASTIC MAN, DEATH PATROL, and the almost unknown BURP THE TWERP.

Here’s the amazing first appearance of BURP THE TWERP:

Episode 1 - Police Comics #2 (Sept. 1941)

 

There’s more entertainment in this single page than in most of the 5-7 page Quality filler stories. I count no less than 13 jokes in this one page alone. As if the creation of a new anti-hero and a bushel of jokes wasn’t enough, Cole also throws in one of his many self-portraits – this time as “Ralph Johns,” a pen name he frequently used for his one-page stories. (Cole’s middle name was Ralph, and Jack is a version of the name “John”)

As a kind of carry-over from the earliest comic books, which were collections of 1- and 2-page shorts, Quality’s comics usually included a couple of one pagers. During the 1940’s Cole wrote and drew hundreds of these (see my earlier postings on WINDY BREEZE).

Except for a handful of episodes, Burp’s one-page stories all appeared in the back pages of Police Comics. He functioned as a kind of counter-weight to the PLASTIC MAN stories that appeared in the front of the book.

While Plastic Man could shape his body into any object or person, Burp had an infinite number of wacky super-powers. Sporting the same red/black/yellow costume colors as Plastic Man, Burp’s physique was anything but heroic: bulging stomach, spindly legs, gray mustache, and bald head.

At a time when the comic book superhero was almost a religious icon, Cole’s parody was outrageous.

Cole filled the early E.C.Segar inspired BURP pages with loose, crazy drawings, wild puns, surreal/stream-of-consciousness gags (another connection to MAD and Will Elder), and satirical wackiness surpassed only by his PLASTIC MAN stories.

From September, 1941 to April, 1949 Cole published a total of 59 one-page BURP THE TWERP episodes. Each one was touched with brilliance. Here’s a run-down of the BURP pages:

September, 1941 – July, 1946: 
Police Comics #2-55 (Episodes 1-54)

Winter, 1946:
The Barker #2 (Episode 55)

Winter, 1946:
Blackhawk #13 (Episode 56)

Autumn 1947:
Blackhawk #16 (Episode 57)

April, 1948:
National Comics #65 (Episode 58)

April, 1949:
Blackhawk #24 (Episode 59)

June, 1949:
Blackhawk #25 (reprint of episode 55 from The Barker #2)

The last 3 BURP episodes were re-published earlier in this blog here, to celebrate the publication of THE TOON TREASURY a massive, hallucinogenic tome of comic book work, compiled and beautifully shaped by Art Spiegelman and Francois Mouly, which reprints 3 BURP pages.

Here are the rest of the first 20 episodes of BURP THE TWERP, with occasional notes.

Episode 2 - Police Comics #3 (Oct. 1941)

It was (and is) common practice to draw the title art of a series once and then paste in photostats of it in each new story. Cole drew the titles of this and all his other stories fresh and different every time!

Episode 3 - Police Comics #4 (Nov. 1941)

First known “photograph” of an instinct! To my eye, it resembles E.C. Segar’s Jeep, from POPEYE. How interesting that Cole said “photograph,” and not “drawing.” In his mind, these were little films more than static drawings…

 

Episode 4 - Police Comics #5 (Dec. 1941)

Comedic prizefighting, another Segar/POPEYE staple.

 

Episode 5 - Police Comics #6 (Jan. 1942)

Cole echoes American tall tales such as Paul Bunyan here.

 

Episode 6 - Police Comics #7 (Feb. 1942)

The ridiculous fight between two super strong men… yet another common set up from Segar’s POPEYE.

 

Episode 7 - Police Comics #8 (March, 1942)

Jack Cole presents a lexicon of men/women relationships here. The short man’s name, “Digest,” cracked me up.

 

Episode 8 - Police Comics #9 (April, 1942)

When he flies, Superman kind of dive swims through the air in graceful arcs. Burp flies by way of an ungainly propeller that comes out of his head.

 

Episode 9 - Police Comics #10 (May, 1942)

 

Episode 10 - Police Comics #11 (June, 1942)

Gruesome comedy. Think I’ll eat vegan today.

 

Episode 11 - Police Comics #12 (July, 1942)

None of Cole’s characters fought in WWII, which Cole also sat out. In the early 1950’s, in one of his last stories, Cole brought Plastic Man and Woozy to the Korean War.

 

Episode 12 - Police Comics #13 (August, 1942)

Cole’s depiction of people from Japan in his comics was virulently racist and, sadly, typical. This time, Burp’s propeller comes out of his butt,which also has a target painted on it.

 

Episode 13 - Police Comics #14 (Sept, 1942)

The character in panel 7 looks a lot like one of the characters in Harvey Kurtzman’s HEY LOOK 1-pagers. Was Kurtzman influenced by Cole’s BURP pages?

 

Episode 14 - Police Comics #15 (Oct, 1942)

Five-letter word for Jack Cole: genius.

 

Episode 15 - Police Comics #16 (Nov, 1942)

In BURP’s world, realty twists itself to conform to puns. Burp is also, in a way, Cole’s ultimate creator of crazy inventions, although they seem to be less inventions and more organic extensions of himself (such as super ear wax!).

 

Episode 16 - Police Comics #17 (Dec, 1942)

Bizarre and unsuccessful. Also, have you noticed how loose the drawing has become? COLE’s PLASTIC MAN had become a huge success by time, and must have been making larger and larger demands on his time.

 

Episode 17 - Police Comics #18 (Jan, 1943)

Cole re-shapes his character… literally! A terrifically inventive way to draw a gag out of a change in direction.

 

Episode 18 - Police Comics #19 (Feb, 1943)

Cole loved volcanoes. See Coleism #3 in my article on some of Cole’s recurring story devices here.

 

Episode 19 - Police Comics #20 (March, 1943)

Superman is vulnerable to Kryptonite; Burp the Twerp is vulnerable to… tickling! A throwback to the earlier character design… probably published out of sequence.

Episode 20 - Police Comics #21 (April, 1943)

Cole draws FDR and Churchill. For some reason, they are at the North Pole. Cole appears to have been anti-war, and this strip certainly shows the absurdity of war in no uncertain terms. See also his anti-war story, “A Machine to End War,” (Dickie Dean in Silver Streak #4, May 1940)

Want more? Leave a comment or drop me a line if you’d like me to share the remaining 39 Burp the Twerp episodes!

Text copyright 2010 Paul Tumey

Jack Cole’s Comic Book Career – A Study

 Overview
Over the course of his 16-year career creating comic book stories, Jack Cole was astonishingly productive. I decided to make a stab at seeing just how productive one of the major creators in comics history actually was.
According to my findings, Jack Cole published approximately 3,600 comic book pages in 16 years, (give or take a couple hundred pages).
These are mostly pages that Cole:

• Wrote
• Penciled
• Lettered
• Inked
• Colored (on occasion)

In a word: wow. This output rivals anyone working in the same period in comics, including Simon and Kirby -- and there were TWO of them, or Will Eisner… and he had a whole shop of assistants (including Jack Cole for a brief stint).
The Impact of Plastic Man on Cole’s Career

Jack Cole will always be best known for Plastic Man, and that is where roughly two-thirds of his career output in comics lies. Out of a total of approximately 3,681 published pages of comics, 2,404 pages are Plastic Man stories.
However, that leaves  an impressive 1,277 pages of other work including:

• Crime on the Run (1939)
• Manhunters (1940)
• The Comet (1940)
• Dickie Dean – Boy Inventor (1940)
• The Silver Streak/Claw stories
• Midnight (1941-42, 1946-49)
• Death Patrol (1941, 1944)
• Angles O’Day (1951-53)
• Web of Evil stories (1952-54)

… and hundreds of funny and graphically inventive 1-pagers throughout the 1940’s, such as Windy Breeze.
Jack Cole’s work in comics is much more than just Plastic Man, as this blog attempts to show by exploring his lesser-known work.
Methodology
Mind you, these are all very rough numbers.
I arrived at this number by downloading the latest collection of listings of Jack Cole credits by year from the amazing and invaluable resource, the Grand Comics Database.
Next, I scoured each month of every year and listed Cole’s published pages by month and year. For all it’s merit, the Grand Comics Database listing has several errors, which I corrected.
Eventually, I arrived at a rough total for each year. Here’s a chart that illustrates my findings:

This chart omits 1 known page published in 1937 (Funny Pages Vol2, #1) and lops off Cole’s final 7-page comic book story published in Web of Evil #11 in February, 1954, The Monster They Couldn’t Kill.
After 1946, some of the Plastic Man stories that were published were NOT by Jack Cole at all. Therefore, to determine Cole’s actual page count on the Plastic man material, I referenced Ron Goulart’s book, Focus on Jack Cole (Fantagraphics Books, 1986), which contains a detailed checklist of Police Comics and Plastic Man. In many cases, my own conclusions, based on study of the actual stories, do not agree with Goulart’s, and so I also made adjustments to the page count, using my own findings.
The numbers were harder to estimate in Cole’s final years, because his visual style shifted and it’s my own conclusion that several of the last original stories in the Plastic Man title were written, penciled, and often inked by Cole. Also, after 1947, Cole’s pages were often inked by others. This chart does not distinguish between pages Jack Cole totally created, and ones that others inked. It also counts covers as single pages of comic book art.
The 1943-44 numbers do not take into account Jack Cole’s work ghosting the Spirit stories. This part of Cole’s career is, as of yet, not defined, and therefore could not be included. It would likely add 50-100 pages to the overall numbers to include the Spirit stories Cole wrote and penciled.
It must be stressed that my numbers are not definitive or exact. However, I do think they are within a 10% percent range and therefore can provide useful insight into Cole’s career.
The Peak Years: 1943-47
In looking at a monthly breakdowns of 1943-47, Jack Cole’s peak years of production, we can see what an impact the introduction of a Plastic Man comic book made on Cole’s career.
The first issue of Plastic Man was published in June, 1944. This chart effectively shows Cole’s published page count for that month effectively doubles to an astonishing 56 pages!
Plastic Man #1 is pure Jack Cole, cover to cover, and represents one of the crowning achievements of his entire career. The creation of this comic book must have been a huge effort for Cole, and represents his development into a mature, established professional at the top of his form. It certainly put Cole into an even higher level of production and opportunity.
The following year, in 1944, Jack Cole produced 354 pages … an average of almost a page a day!

Once again, we can see what a huge impact the Plastic Man title made on Cole’s career. This second issue, also the loving work of work Cole cover-to-cover, was even better than the first! During 1944, Cole also created 12 Plastic Man stories in Police Comics that were 15 pages each (an unusually large number of pages given to a comic feature – by comparison, Superman and Batman lead stories ran 10-12 pages).
In this same year, Cole also created the brilliant second run of Death Patrol stories, some Spirit stories ( a probable example of which can be read here), some back-up filler stories (Blimpy and Inkie), the origin and first two adventures of The Barker, and about 45 great one-pagers. Whew! In 1944, Cole was on fire!
Somewhere, it’s been suggested that Cole took on extra work in 1943-7 because many of the top cartoonists (such as Will Eisner) were serving the war effort. It’s also thought that Cole was anticipating getting the call to serve himself (he didn’t) and so wanted to build up a cash reserve for his wife, Dorothy, in case he would be unable to earn for a year or more.
In 1945, Cole’s production dropped down a little as he settled into steady production of the 15-page Plastic Man stories in Police Comics and his regular run of 1-pagers that appeared throughout the Quality titles.

In 1946, the Plastic Man title went quarterly. Although issue #4 had to be created by other writers and artists, Cole managed to double his feat of previous years by producing two complete issues (#3 and #5) in one year!

Cole’s published work was a mixture of pages in which he did everything, and pages to which he only contributed writing and pencils. Therefore, even though the number is high, Cole’s overall involvement is not as intense. Nonetheless, he produced many brilliant stories in this year. The work in which he was fully involved ranks among some of best comic ever done.
The Thinking Machine (Police Comics 54, May 1946) was the first Plastic Man story to appear in Police Comics that has no involvement from Cole at all. The story, a disappointing effort, was likely drawn by Andre LeBlanc. In 1998, when I thought Cole had written and drawn every Plastic Man story, I won a copy of this comic on eBay. I was quite let down and puzzled by how dull it was. Quite likely, astute Plastic Man readers in 1947 felt the same way.

In 1947, Cole duplicated his heroic 1946 feat with two issues of Plastic Man, and bettered it by creating a whole new comic book title featuring his writing and art (with help from Alex Kotzky) called True Crime Comics #2 (there was no number 1).
In looking at the production of 1943-47, we see Cole achieving success with Plastic Man and then, almost as quickly, losing control of his creation and being forced to allow others to create less inspired copies of his work. Perhaps this is one reason Cole took on the creation of a new magazine for a different publisher (Magazine Village).
In any case, the statistics show Cole was at his peak when he made the True Crime stories. In the May, 1947 issue the infamous Murder, Morphine, and Me appeared. One panel from this story was used by the infamous Dr. Fredric Wertham in his scathing attack on comic books, Seduction of the Innocent.

In his book (co-authored by Chip Kidd), Forms Stretched to Their Limits: Jack Cole and Plastic Man, Art Spiegelman astutely writes of this story: “It is also among the most formally sophisticated comics stories I’ve ever seen; all the elements, including the panel shapes and the lettering, are deployed for narrative effect.”
The same could be said of much of Cole’s best work in his peak years. For example, the “trembling” panel effect was used several times in other stories.
However, there can be no doubt that Cole’s work reached a lofty, near superhuman peak with Murder, Morphine and Me. Although the rest of the stories in the book were inked by Alex Kotzky, Cole did everything on this one story… no doubt a pet project.
Certainly this feverish, intense story ranks among the ten most important works in Cole’s career, and one of the stand-out comic book stories of all time. In this story, the unique graphic storytelling vernacular Cole had developed up to this point crystallizes into a thing of beauty. All of his major themes are present in this story: the slippery-ness of identity, the potential for abuse and cruelty that exists, and horrific retribution.
Here then, to close out this article and provide you with something fun to read, is the complete story, in all it’s astonishing glory (thanks to Cole’s Comics supporter Daryl Aylward for the scans).
Murder, Morphine, and Me True Crime Comics Vol.1 #2 (May, 1947)
Writing, pencils, inks, and lettering by Jack Cole