Assignment #5...

"I Was a Pick-p"- cautionary tale about being a "bad girl," by getting into cars with strange men...



Toni's mother was a bad girl and her grandmother doesn't want her to end up like her. She discovers her mothers red dress and goes out and gets in a car with the scion of a wealthy family. Grandma ain't happy and the guy doesn't go into the house with Toni. he takes Toni to a bar, where there is gambling and a gangster objects. The cops raid the place and the guy abandons her and the gangster gets her out. However, being seen with him further damages her reputation. he leaves town to spare her. Eventually they meet again and he now owns a gas station. It ends happily.

Nice little tale that really rings true, about how reputations can define you in small towns. This is a relatively realistic tale, though it skirts some of the more adult elements, like what they really mean, by "reputation."

"I Was a Farmer's Wife"-a nurse falls for an older soldier who was a farmer. After he is discharged, he asks her to marry him and she agrees; but, on the condition he work in the Dept of Agriculture, not farming, as she feels it isn't up to his talents. He agrees, but he is too tired from his work to go out much and she comes to hate him. he leaves her to spare her further misery and she follows him and finds life on the farm to be blissful, because he is happy and it makes them happy together.

This is another one that is a more adult subject and one that somewhat rings true. The war was a transitional period for family farms, as many farmboys-turned-GIs left the military with the GI Bill and could go to college and do something other than work the family farm. More and more generations left farming behind. Here, the age difference is also a factor, but in the nurse's mind. She tries to change the farmer into somone he is not, rather than accepting who he is, which is the real problem, not the age difference. Once she accepts it, they have a happy life.

The art is not quite as lively as Simon & Kirby but is good and expressive.

"Misguided Heart"-more Simon & Kirby-a factory worker dates the boss and ignores a co-worker. The boss's son is an ass, but the girl is smitten. He's a poor leader and dad finally makes him work on the factory floor, to better understand the workers. he decides to date the girl, but still acts above her and makes a nasty remark to the guy that;s in love with her and he decks the jerk. The boss rewards him with a promotion and he gets the girl.

Here, Simon and Kirby illustrate how bad leadership can affect an organization, while also focusing on class distinctions. Advantaged birth doesn't necessarily translate to manners and ability, as the male factory worker demonstrates both leadership and manners and his truer self wins the day. Good morality tale.

"Plight of the Suspicious Bridegroom"-an elevator operator has a hobby of collecting engagement announcements and then busting up the engagement with phony letters and sowing seeds of doubt. He tells of one of his operations, only to learn that his audience is the man he wronged and gets his but kicked.

The story uses a technique that Will Eisner employed in the spirit, as the unseen audience provides the perspective for the story, as we look through his eye sockets onto the world outside. It works a bit better in a horror tale; but, this kind of is a horror tale, as an evil man gets joy by causing others misery. It's different, if rather far-fetched, though it kind of reminds me of the Michael Keaton film, Pacific Heights.

"Summer Song"-Jenny is a local at a seaside resort town. She wants to go to the swanky yacht club dance, but needs to trap a rich guy to ask her, even though local boy Chuck asks her. She blows off Chuck at the beach, meets a lady swell, her fiancee turns up and likes the look of Jenny and asks her to the dance, ditching his fiancee. She forces him to take her and Jenny goes with Chuck. The swell maneuvers in to sweep Jenny away and the fiancee concocts a plan with Chuck. Rich boy takes her back to his place and Chuck alerts his rich pop. He also sticks a "just married" sign on the back of the car. Pop comes home to find junior and the sign, yells, and rich boy says "How absurd, she's just a townie." She squirts him with seltzer and runs off with Chuck.

Kind of corny and it has the feel of an Archie tale; but, nice Simon and Kirby art, once again promoting the virtues of being middle class over spoiled rich folk.

There is definitely for a more mature audience, though ads for how to get girls and Charles Atlas suggest they hadn't quite worked out that most boys didn't were not going to read romance comics. Some did; but, they skewed mostly female, which makes me wonder how long it took for the ads to reflect this?

This is good stuff and you can see why it became such a hit.

Thoughts on "I Was A Pick-Up"

Maybe it isn't fair to praise a romance story for its originality when there were no cliches yet, but this story sure seems more deliciously complex than it needed to be. What could have been a simple cautionary tale is full of strong writing, deep characterization, and tremendous sincere-seeming sympathy for our characters. I really cared about how this one turned out, which I absolutely did not expect:



However, after checking out some of the strong art that surfaced in our first four reading assignments, I'm a bit disappointed by Simon and Kirby, here. The art here does not strike me as particularly memorable:



However, the uncredited colorist does a phenomenal job of strengthening the expressive quality of the artwork, and even using contrast to better direct the reader's primary and secondary focus:



A very strong first feature, but not for the reasons I expected! Kirby never made any suggestion as to who might have written these stories for this first memorable outing into a brand new genre?

Well, the history of a lot of comics is "find out what works, then do it again... and again... and again..."

Or, "find out the absolute minimum level of quality needed to generate revenue, and do that again...and again...and again..."

Thoughts on "Diary of a Doubtful Damsel"

Well that was obnoxious. The entire appeal of this two pager relies on it being written like a journal that withholds literally ALL of the information about what is going on until very late, and even then, it turns out the writer was wrong about one key detail that gets revealed at the end.

A cheap stunt, and it didn't work at all for me.

Thoughts on "The Plight of the Suspicious Bridegroom"

Once again, the non-Simon/Kirby stories are winning me over with art far more than the rest. What an unusual visual concept for this story:



Who would have expected a romance tale to borrow its atmosphere from the horror genre, but that's exactly what Bill Draught is doing here, and he makes that narrator SO creepy, almost as if he doesn't make sense in the real world -- only in his private world of the elevator:



To be fair, the art does fall apart a bit at the end, right around the same time the story goes for its big final plot twist and takes the most predictable route possible:



But I still found it more memorable than anything Simon and Kirby did for this issue.