Military Madness (1944)

Story presented in this entry:
Military Comics #28 (April 1944) - Death Patrol (Story and art by Jack Cole)

Here is a delightful little gem from Jack Cole's second run on the Death Patrol series he created in 1941. Note the continued use of the theme of face-changing and identity shifting (see the earlier entry in this blog, 'The Eel-Like Slipperiness of Indentity") with the Japanese woman disguised in make-up. When she kisses a man, her false face transfers to his... so two people are altered, with one kiss.

One big difference between 1941 Cole and 1944 Cole is well-displayed here: sex has entered the scene.

The pace flies by and even President Franklin D. Roosevelt appears as a character. It's as though Cole wrote an 8-page story and eliminated every other panel to get it down to four pages. Enjoy!

Military Madness (1941)

Story presented in this entry:

Military Comics #1 (August 1941) - "Death Patrol" Story and Art by Jack Cole

The first appearances of BLACKHAWK and the DEATH PATROL were in Military Comics#1. It is sometimes said that Death Patrol was a parody of Blackhawk, as Cole's MIDNIGHT (Smash Comics) was a parody of THE SPIRIT, and as PLASTIC MAN was a parody of all superheroes. This is actually not the case.

At the 1999 San Diego Comic-Con, Will Eisner was asked which came first, BLACKHAWK or DEATH PATROL. He replied, "If my memory serves me, Death Patrol was first. It was not as well-done. [Jack] Cole couldn't draw realistic figures the way Chuck Cuidera could and it was half-humor and half-satire. Blackhawk began as a serious adventure."

A subsequent conversation between Eisner and the panel attendees stated that publisher "Busy" Arnold got a look at Cole's Death Patrol and decided it was a good enough idea to render straight. So, in a way, Jack Cole set out to satirize miltary stories, but it was not at Blackhawk that he took aim.

Blackhawk won the cover and the lead-off position in Mikitary #1, and kept both through the comic's run. At issue 44, the title was changed to "Modern Comics," because the war had ended.

One of the more striking themes in Cole's work is a pre-occupation with death and morbidity. The grim premise of his new series was that one of the members of the team would die each story. Cole stayed with the series for 3 episodes, through Military #3.

Perhaps this is because in August 1941, both Death Patrol and Plastic Man made their debuts, and Cole may have decided to focus more on Plas, which seemed more likely to win him the cover and lead spot in Police Comics.

Like Plastic Man, Jack Cole's Death Patrol is a breathless wonder of genuine boyish exuberance, Fleischer-studio subterranean sub-subconscious symbolism, and humor worthy of Harvey Kurtzman. In fact, Kurtzman's Mad parody of Blackhawk has always reminded me of Jack Cole's Death Patrol stories.

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 #1, 2, 3, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

Here is the first story. It's quite brilliant... full of camraderie, zany humor, and appeallingly eccentric characters, and Cole's trademark mastery of comic book design. Note how he uses the bottom half of page 1 and the top half of page 2 to show twin stories happening simultaneously.

Jack Cole has a field day with the black-and-white stripes of the escaped prisoner's uniforms, creating some very pleasing op-art effects as they group together and run around on the pages. Amusingly, the new uniforms they demand and are given at the end of this first story are revealed in the second story to be just like the striped prisoner suits, only they are tailored, with colllars. It's my guess Cole knew a good thing when he saw it and was reluctant to let go of such a great visual device.

Mantoka - Cole's Indian Shaman Hero (1940)

Story featured in this entry:

Funny Pages #34 (Vol. 4 #1) Jan 1940 - Mantoka Maker of Indian Magic!

Early in his career, Jack Cole did a lot of work for a company loosely known as Centaur. In 1940, he wrote and drew two stories under the pen name "Richard Bruce," featuring an all-powerful Indian shaman called MANTOKA.

The first of the two stories, from Funny Pages #34 (January 1940) is presented here. The second story appeared three issues later, in Funny Pages #37 (April 1940). If anyone out there has scans of this story, please send and we'll post them on this blog!

The current issue of Roy Thomas' excellent comics fanzine, Alter Ego (#85, May 2009) features the first part of a detailed study of Centaur comics, including some great reproductions and information about Jack Cole and his contemporaries. I reccomend it. You can order it here. See also issue 25, which is dedicated to Jack Cole (and fandom giant Jerry Bails).The author of the Centaur survey, Lee Boyette, called Cole's MANTOKA series "crude, but engaging." I agree.

The art and story feel hastily composed. However, there are some nice touches, such as the dynamically laid-out title box, with the fun lettering. One can imagine Jack Cole sitting down to create this story from scratch, and revving himself up with this amazingly lively title splash.

The strong horizontal image of Mantoka holding the snake of knowledge is wonderfully set off by the tilted red rectangle behind him. The snake's rattle shakes just outside the framing rectangle, emphasizing it's power. The text dovetails perfectly into this layout, with the title of the exclamation point perfectly directing the eye down to the next panel below. Nice job, Jack!

Also of interest is page 4, panel 5... in which Manatoka pre-figures Plastic Man by zooming headfirst out of a cave.

All the slap-dash aside, we in are Cole territory. Manatoka gets his powers from a bite of the "snake of knowledge." He turns evil men into rats, and in the story's end, opens the earth into a vast canyon to swallow up yet more evilness. This is one guy you don't mess around with!