A Moment Frozen in Time - Jack Cole Begins A New Career with Stunning Playboy Magazine Art (1954)

From the renowned Heritage Auction Galleries website comes the original art for this stunning monochromatic ink and watercolor cartoon that originally appeared in Playboy Magazine, August, 1954, page 29. The art measures 15.5 inches by 13 inches.

 

The auction for this gorgeous piece of art commences February 6, 2010 and ends February 27, 2010. If you'd like to bid on this artwork, you can visit the Heritage page here (as of Feb. 7, the bidding is up to $550.00).

Cole had become a virtuoso of technique by 1954, and this art demonstrates that without question. Look at how the people are clearly Jack Cole characters. In the early 1950's, Cole had begun to inject more realism into his comic book stories. In series like Angles O'Day and the Web of Evil stories, while still flights (or perhaps "plumments" is a more suitable word) of fancy, Cole's figures become less plastic, more solid and subject to the physical laws of a three dimensional world.

Here’s the published cartoon. The caption reads: “There’s a nice, shady spot.”

Cole left comics in 1954, never to return. The artwork we see here, with an unknown caption, is one of his earliest Playboy cartoons. His later Playboy cartoons (some of which are here) would be less tight than this, looser and impressionistic, and perhaps less personally invested.

Incidentally, Cole was also given a big plug in the opening pages of the August, 1954 issue, in which the cartoon above appeared:

Here, Jack Cole is at the start of an exciting new business relationship with the charismatic cartoon aficionado and soon-to-be magazine millionaire, Hugh Hefner. You can feel his enthusiasm and hope in how much careful detail he's invested into what is, after, supposed to be a simple gag cartoon. Click on the art and look at the folds on the woman's dress. The detailing on the man’s belt. The lace frills of the woman’s slip as it's blown up by a slight breeze. The criss-cross pattern (Cole loved patterns) on the man's tie, also caught in the breeze.

This is a moment frozen in time. The couple is happy, going on a picnic in the woods on a spring day. Jack Cole has left the grind of the declining comics industry and has a promising new life as the premier cartoonist of a very promising new magazine. This cartoon captures both the couple and Cole at a peak moment.

Did you notice, though, he has put a gnarled, ancient root across the happy couple's path? The phallic symbolism aside, it’s an obstacle. Tragically, in a few short years, Cole would trip up on the gnarled roots of his own life.

Jack Cole Rediscovers His Muse – The Beginning of the Last “Cartoony” Period of His Comic Book Work

 

Story this post:
”A Hard Guy Called Concrete”
Story and pencils by Jack Cole
Inks/Finishes by Alex Kotzky
Plastic Man #14 (Nov. 1948 – Quality)

 

May 1948 saw a big shift in Jack Cole’s involvement with his premier character, Plastic Man. About a year later, something happened, and Jack Cole rediscovered his muse.

After creating the breakthrough PLASTIC MAN comic book story “The Dictator of Dreams” (see here to read) for Police Comics #78 (May 1948), Jack Cole left the title to focus on creating four PLASTIC MAN stories every other month for the Plastic Man comic book. It was a period of lackluster, watered-down work.

Cole returned to Police Comics about a year and a half later, with a darker sensibility. We’ve presented two of these stories in this blog here (“Plastic Man Goes to the Gas Chamber”), and here (“Plastic Man Wanted: Dead or Alive”).

When Cole made the move over to Plastic Man (which had mostly been the work of others from issue 3 on), the title shifted from a quarterly (four issues per year) to a bi-monthly schedule (6 issues per year).

For about a year, Cole wrote and penciled most of the stories published in Plastic Man #12 -17 while others inked them. Starting with issue 17, Cole began to ink some of his own stories and there followed a golden period in which he reached new heights, working in an over-the-top dense cartoony style that pre-figured the classic MAD stories that would be created in a few years by Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder and Wally Wood.

After studying the “cartoony” Plastic Man comic book stories of 1949-51, I have come to feel more strongly than ever that the influence of Jack Cole on the look of the MAD comic book stories was much greater than has previously been understood or acknowledged. If nothing else, he was the first to pave the way for hip satire in comic books. As further posts will show, there is a direct genetic link between the styles of the works.

In 1951, Jack Cole’s comic book stories shifted from the wild cartoony style to a darker, more realistic phase, and then finally a strange, shadowy last period. For now, here’s an early sign of Cole’s re-emergence, from Plastic Man #14.

With finishing inks by the great Alex Kotzky, this story shows signs of Jack Cole re-discovering some of the inspirations of the early, enthusiastic, no-holds-barred work of his early years as a comic book storyteller.  Just the splash page alone shows that Cole has decided to try harder.

Although he never really left his theme of crazy inventions, Cole breathes new life into it in this story. He’s combined the crazy invention theme with his other recurring theme, shapeshifting, or face and identity change. With a simple hypodermic injection a man becomes as hard as concrete, a perfect foil for the rubbery PLASTIC MAN. But, as Cole so often shows us, it is far better to be able to change and adapt than to be strong but inflexible.

Featuring wonderful art and some stand-out sequences, such as when Plas uncoils in a dark room to locate a hiding killer, here is “A Hard Guy Called Concrete,” from Plastic Man #14 (Nov. 1948):

 

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Is This Cole? – Will Bragg (1949) – A Rare Portrayal of A Woman Pilot in Early Comic Books

Story this post:
”Will Bragg – Air Circus”
Story – unknown
Pencils (and inks?) – Jack Cole
Modern Comics #101 (Sept. 1950-Quality)

 

Here’s a neat find by comic book artist, writer, and fellow comic book archeologist Frank Young. Unlike the character featured in this article, WILL BRAGG, Frank WON’T brag, so pardon me if I do a little braggin’ on him, here.

Frank just caused a splash in the comic book world with his discovery of two heretofore unknown Fletcher Hanks stories. Frank also is creating with the talented and inspired David Lasky one of the richest, most entertaining historical graphic novels I have ever seen, Carter Family Comics: Don’t Forget This Song. As if this weren’t enough, Frank is THE scholar on Little Lulu writer/artist John Stanley, with an extensive blog called Stanley Stories. Thanks for this gem, Frank (and the unknown scanner)!

Jack Cole had trouble single-handedly keeping up with the demand for PLASTIC MAN stories and was forced to work with assistants. It’s interesting, and even a bit of a paradox, that he also created a fair number of comic book stories that appeared in the back pages of various Quality Comics titles. I see this as the result of his restless nature and up-and-down energy. I think new projects held a great deal of appeal to this inventive, ever-growing artist.

Take a look at the following story and see if you agree with Frank Young and myself that Jack Cole drew it. Just look at the curl of smoke in the last panel on page one… nice, huh?

 

WILL BRAGG began as a back-up feature in Modern Comics #47 (March, 1946). Quality staffer Paul Gustavson created the series, writing and drawing most of the stories.

However, it appears to be none other than Jack Cole who delivered pencils and inks on the Will Bragg stories in the last four issues of Modern Comics, issues 99 to 102.

In the story above, from Modern #101, the most obvious Jack Cole touch is the woman pilot. In fact, she stands as one of the more appealing of women in Cole’s stories, being a very upbeat tomboy who is generous of heart and easy on the eyes. It’s easy to see why Will Bragg makes a fool of himself over her!

The “regulars” character design in this series (not the woman pilot) is very UN-like Jack Cole, but he was forced to work with the cartoony, almost ugly figures as originally designed by Gustavson, for continuity. It’s too bad he couldn’t have known in advance the series was ending with these stories and really cut loose. Even so, there are moments which are satisfying, and it’s cool to see Jack Cole’s graceful drawings of a cool old biplane in flight.

Perhaps Cole got this series because of his years one-page stories that featured another boastful blowhard, WINDY BREEZE. (To read the WINDY BREEZE stories, click here). In any case, the stories do not seem to be written by Cole, as they lack his breakneck pacing, satire, and darkness. However, the artwork – to my eye – certainly does look like his work, and there are some nice examples in the WILL BRAGG stories.

This was some of Cole’s last cartoony work. In short order, he would shift his style into a more sober, realistic, and shadowy world, as seen in the Angles O’Day  and Web of Evil stories.

What do you think, dear readers… IS THIS COLE? Your comments are welcome and add much to this blog.

To help you decide for yourself, here are the other Cole-ish WILL BRAGG comic book stories, from Modern Comics 99, 100, and 102. Alas, these available only in microfiche scans which, at their best, are pretty muddy and washed out. Even so, it is possible (and fascinating) to see the hand of Jack Cole all over these pages.