I got this in the mail yesterday and I read it last night:
It's glorious!
I'm not sure where I first heard of Lady Cop. It's something I've been curious about for quite a while. I must have read an Internet summary with quite a bit of art because I recognized the plot and several of the panels.
I Googled "Lady Cop" and I discovered that the blog Seven Hells devoted a whole week to First Issue Special #4 back in 2006! Here's a link to
Day One of Lady Cop Week for anybody who's interested. I don't know if this is what got me curious about Lady Cop, but I used to read Seven Hells from time to time, so it's possible.
I was curious about it for a while but I never bought it because I never saw it for a low price on eBay. I wanted a beat-up copy for a few bucks. But it seems to be a rare book and there doesn't seem to be enough demand for dealers to make an effort to make it available. A few weeks ago, I looked at eBay and there was a V/VF copy for about $10. And also a really beat-up copy for $7. (I think this went to $6 later on.)
My desire for this book seems to have grown over the years. Robert Kanigher! A 1975 comic book called "Lady Cop"! I realized I'm not just curious about it anymore. I really want it!
I decided to get myself something special for my birthday. I thought about those comics that I really want to see, comics that I can never find at the right price, special books, or books that seem special to me, anyway. I decided that every year on my birthday, I would get one of these books (within reason, of course!) and not worry about a price that's too high. There are some books that I've been wanting to see for years that I can never find at the right price.
I immediately thought of First Issue Special #4. I also thought of Lois Lane #106, the infamous story where Lois Lane becomes black for an issue.
And this would be a candidate (though I didn't think of it until later):
Lois Lane Annual #1 contains the "Lois, Leopard Girl" story from Lois Lane #11. I read the story in a Showcase volume, but I'd love to see it in color and I want my own copy! (And I'm assuming Lois Lane #11 is too expensive.)
So I searched eBay for Lois Lane #106 (I've been wanting to read that one for decades!) but I couldn't find anything on eBay that was in the same neighborhood as my price range! There must be a weird demand for this story. And why not? Lois gets in a machine that turns her black!
So I went ahead and paid ten bucks for a nice copy of First Issue Special #4. (The price on First Issue Special #4 may be on the verge of going through the roof!)
And I'm glad I did! It's awesome!
It opens with young and pretty Liza Warner under the bed peeping out as a serial killer wearing distinctive cowboy boots murders her two roommates. WOW! That first page is pretty intense. Then she spends a few pages at the police academy becoming a lady cop because she wants to find the guy who killed her roommates. Also, to help people. But mostly to find the guy who killed her roommates.
She becomes a lady cop and gets assigned to the toughest beat in the city. (Seven Hells says the city isn't identified, but I thought it was Los Angeles. I'm not sure why I thought that. I'll have to read it again.) So Liza spends the rest of the issue buying ice cream for poor children, counseling a teen about venereal disease and beating off rapists, including a determined fellow that is trying to rape her despite her police outfit! It's a tough part of town!
Her boyfriend is a total douchecanoe who wants her to resign from the force because the guys are making fun of him for having a cop girlfriend. Not because it's dangerous. No. Because his friends are making wisecracks.
And it ends with Liza Warner looking at the skyline and wondering if she'll ever find the guy in the cowboy boots who killed her roommates.
Written by Robert Kanigher (creator of Sgt. Rock and The Metal Men, writer of bunches of war stories and longtime editor of Wonder Woman when it was really weird). Art by John Rosenberger and Vince Colletta. (I think Colletta does an excellent job here.)
As far as I know, Liza Warner's story and the hunt for the killer with the cowboy boots was never resolved. (Although the Comic Book Database says she was in a few issues of Power of the Atom in 2007 to 2009.)
DC should do something with this! Somebody could be re-creating the "cowboy-boots killer" murders. And somebody could be trying to stop the new series of murders. I could see it in Batgirl the way Batgirl was being written a few years ago, but it's probably not a good fit with the current direction of the series. They could bring back Birds of Prey. Or it could be in Catwoman's current series maybe? The copycat killer is terrorizing her neighborhood so Catwoman decides to put a stop to it. She finds out about the original "cowboy-boots killer" and she searches out Liza Warner, the lady cop who broke the case forty years ago. (Maybe she didn't break the case! Maybe it was never solved!) Warner's retired but she comes back to work with Catwoman on stopping the copycat cowboy-boots klller.
If I was writing it, I'd figure out a way to use Patrolwoman Diane Meade as well.