Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Boys from Derby: "The Informer!" by Gill and PAM

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Cop and detective shows were big in the 1970s (as they still are), but for some reason, comics rarely tried their hands at the crime-drama genre. Yeah, the easy answer is, "They all flopped, Groove," but if they'd been given a chance, some of 'em might have caught on. Take Charlton's Vengeance Squad. Yeah, the real "star" of the mag was Nick Cuti and Joe Staton's brilliant back-up strip, Michael Mauser (which you can dig on if you'll take the time to look up those sensational strips in our index), but Vengeance Squad, especially beginning with ish #2 (June 1975), was a really cool strip in its own right. Why "beginning with ish #2"? 'Cause writer/creator Joe Gill was joined by the immensely talented and criminally underrated (ironic considering he was a cop moonlighting in comics) Pet Morisi aka PAM on the art. PAM's style was perfect for the strip. Ol' Groove sees a unique mix of Alex Toth and George Tuska in a slick newspaper strip style that really brought the cool to Eric Redd and his aides Candy Orr and Tulsa Coyle's adventures. Here's there story from that far-out second ish, "The Informer!"

















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3 comments:

  1. keythd23June 23, 2016 at 10:33 AM

    PAM manages to weld a 50s hard boiled edge to 70s sensibilities in this issue.

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  2. Rip JaggerJune 24, 2016 at 3:35 AM

    Pete Morisi was ideal for this woefully overlooked comic book series. E-Man I love, Doomsday +1 was awesome, but this series had a special panache that gets ignored. People talk about the Mauser back up (rightfully) but ignore the great stuff up front.

    Rip Off

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    Replies
    1. keythd23June 25, 2016 at 9:42 AM

      The 2 series mutually reinforced each other.

      Delete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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