Got a collection of cool comics, this time:
Guns of the Dragon #1-4
Creative Team: Tim Truman-story & art, Ken Lopez-letters, Jamison & John Kalisz-colors, Pete Tomasi-editor
Anyone who has followed my review threads should recognize my love of the work of Tim Truman. Hell,
I did a whole thread, devoted to his work at Eclipse. The man knows the real "grim & gritty," but he has a sense of humor and is a much better artist than most who plied their trade in the world of two-fisted adventure, in the 80s and early 90s. Tim is what you get when you grow up with a steady diet of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Fess Parker, Clayton Moore, Duncan Renaldo, Louis LaMour, John Ford, Sergio Leonne, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Republic Studios, Humphrey Bogart, and a whole lot of love for the real history of it all. The man knows the pulp origins of comic book adventure and revels in it and excels at it. Guns of the Dragon is like a love letter to the adventure pulps, using a bunch of DC Comics (and a couple inherited from Quality Comics) characters to liven up and pretty ugly and lazy 1990s comic book world. While artists were drawing pouches and gear all over bloated steroid freaks and giving them improbable weapons, seeming formed out of lego sets and industrial tubing, he drew accurate firearms and load bearing gear and made it look waaaay deadlier. He could also draw a dinosaur that looked like it should (mostly), rather than a refugee from a bad 70s Godzilla movie (or a Gamera one).
Synopsis: The year is 1927 and the place is Shanghai. China is a land torn asunder, split by factions, exploited by Europeans and the United States, filled with corrupt government officials, warlords, and political enemies. Japan and China fought the First Sino-Japanese Warr, in 1894 and 95, when Japan defeated the Qing army and secured Taiwan and Korea, for themselves. Further clashes erupted in 1915 and tensions are still building.
It is not a happy place for many, as a rickshaw, carrying a white man, passes a park reserved for the British enclave, with signs that say "No Dogs of Chinese." In China.
Yeah.
We then see a saloon, called "You Rascal, You," Saloon and Emporium. The sign advertise Gambling, Girls, Good Food, Kentucky Bourbon, and Foreigners Welcome. We see soldiers of various foreign armies and enclaves, plus prostitutes, waitresses and a tough looking barman, with a small Chinese assistant, decked out like a doll, with head shaved, except for a top knot, bound in a ribbon, old fashioned peasant clothes...looking rather like a Chinese kewpie doll, with yellow skin to match. We also see the owner, an older man, dressed in a white suit, sipping bourbon and watching from a balcony office, a deck of cards in his hand....
"Corto Maltese" Cute.
His interest is on a tall man, with a long hooked nose, a handsome if stony face, and a German flying coat and uniform. A soldier at a table next to the man is more interested in the young waitress, wanting more than is on the menu, but not wanting it from one of the professional women employed there. They won't take "no" for an answer and the girl is forced to defend herself, with a knife on the table. She skillfully draws blood and the soldier gets angry, when the German intercedes. He decks the British soldier, knocking him into a table with a pair of French opium dealers, who take offense. Things get ugly and the barman hops over the counter and lays out another soldier, sneaking up on the German, with a knife. He insults the Frenchmen, who attack, until the German draws and fires a Luger and points the smoking barrel into the Frenchman's forehead. The French depart and the German introduces himself to the American barman. The German is Hans Von Hammer, formerly Rittmeister of Jagdstaffel 17, of the Imperial German Flying Corps. The American is Biff Bradley, of Brooklyn, who then decks him and starts to drag him out of the bar, when the man in white stops him and tells him to bring him to the office.
The man in white knows all about Von Hammer and his war record, and the ghosts that are said to haunt him. He knows he was there as part of the group withdrawing personnel from the German Airfield. He introduces himself, Bat Lash, from America.
He has a job offer for Von Hammer, though he isn't interested. Bat suggests cutting cards, in a game of chance, to see if luck suggests he should hear their contact out. Von Hammer agrees and loses. They part and the young waitress, who has been watching them, leaves the saloon. A dark haired and dark faced man, with glowing eyes watches them and seems to disappear in a mist.
Bat, Von Hammer and Biff meet up, but they are followed, by a Japanese soldier, and someone dressed in black clothing, like in a kabuki play. The soldier is with the darkman, and the Japanese displays long taloned claws, on his hand. The dark man calls the soldier Major Kung, of the Dobutsu Ninja clan.
Bat and his group are led inside a building, where they meet General Chiang Kai-Shek, generalissimo of the ruling Kuomintang Nationalist Party, and General Joseph W Stilwell, US Army. Stilwell is the Army's man in China, helping to prop up Chaing and the Kuomintang, against the warlords and the Communists, as well as keep tabs on Japanese expansionism. They present an ancient story of dragons and two fabled swords, with which China was strong and powerful, ruling Asia. Treachery brought them low and lost them the swords and the dragons. They believe that the swords ended up on an island. A missionary, who escaped an island, on a raft, presented them with proof that dragons exist.....
The serving girl watches through a skylight and is attacked by one of the nijas, but she defends herself and tosses the man through the skylight and he crashes below. She disappears from sight. Bat kills the ninja, who is revealed to have the head of a jungle cat, when his mask is removed.
Von Hammer joins Bat and Biff on the SS Schoedsack, as they follow the missionary's map. The serving girl is seen in the company of the dark man and some Chinese, including one in a uniform of the Communist People's Army, named Mao Tse Tung. The woman is called Miss Fear and she is loyal to Mao and Chou En Lai. The dark man is loyal to himself and the others are pawns in his game, just as Major Kung is.
The Schoedsack ends up lodged on a reef, as breakers crash and then learn, "Here be dragons!"
The men fire at the dinosaur, but it is the automatic fire of the young bar assistant, called "Chop-Chop," that drives off the dinosaur. The mist parts and they get their first glimpse of Dragon Island. They prepare Von Hammers Fokker DR7 Triplane, and the floating runway that Stilwell's engineers concocted, with planks, oil drums and a take-off ramp. Von Hammer doesn't trust it, but starts his plane and rumbles down it and is able to get airborne.....barely. He and Bat, as passenger, fly around the island and spots a large cave opening, with statues outside. They also find a flock of pterodactyls and Bat fires his Colts at them. he yells for Von Hammer to fire his twin Spandaus; but, he informs Bat that he has no ammo. The crew on the beach, unloading supplies, sees the plane being attacked and Biff grabs some ammo belts and grenades and climbs onto some crates, then leaps up and grabs onto the landing gear of the plane and hauls himself up to the wing. He passes the ammo to Von Hammer and then fires his tommygun at the dinosaurs. Von Hammer chambers his guns and adds his own firepower. They are observed by the Japanese ninja, from below, who slaughter the crew on the beach, though Chop-Chop survives, barely.
Von Hammer lands and Biff sees to Chop-Cho, when they are confronted by the ninja and see Major Kung, with a cat head and fangs. They are interrupted by another group: Miss Fear and the hulking Communist soldier, The Thunderer, and their men.
There is a standoff and Kung demonstrates an ability to shift between human and cat form, but the standoff is interrupted by a T-Rex, which kills many of the ninja. Bat and his group head for the cave they spotted from the air and Miss fear and her band pursue. They corner them and Thunderer orders their deaths, despite Miss Fear's commands, He swats her aside and calls her a traitor, for considering joining Bat and his group, against the Japanese. Biff tackles the Thunderer and they fight, until Miss Fear knocks the Thunderer out, by shattering a tree limb, against the back of his head. the rest of the Communists open fire, and Miss Fear goes with the Americans and the German. They head off into the jungle, while Von Hammer goes for his plane. M
Bat and his group are trapped near a gorge, with triceratops below. Biff leads a counter-attack against the Thunderer and thetumble over the side, to the horned beasts below. The rest cross the tree bridge and climb to the cave. they find the entrance and enter it, to find the dark man, sitting on a throne, holding the two legendary swords.
The dark man introduces himself; he is Vandal Savage, immortal agent of Chaos....
Savage has been manipulating all sides, to push them into armed conflict and furthering his anarchic aims. He is there to ensure neither side gets the swords and the dinosaurs and neither side can bring order to their world. He orders their deaths, but Major Kung puts a crimp in things, feeling betrayed. Chop-Chop gets one of the swords and passes it to Bat, who battles against Savage.
Major Kung leaps onto Von Hammer's plane, when he comes around and attacks him, and Von Hammer ejects him with a faceful of dead pterodactyl, after gunning one down. Kung becomes pterodactyl food. Miss Fear holds off and Bat holds his own with Savage, for a while. Biff reappears, riding a triceratops, which gores Savage....
Biff dies of his wounds and Miss Fear takes the swords, vowing to destroy them, until Bat convinces her that it would play into Savage's hands. She hands them over to him and he delivers them to Chiang, who chucks them into the water and we see Stilwell disappear and Savage appear next to Chiang. His war is still looming. However, Bat and Von Hammer delivered not a dinosaur, but a komodo dragon, claiming that's where the missionary was and that Dragon Island is a myth. It doesn't matter, in the end, since Savage was manipulating Chiang, and China will be weak, as war build in the next couple of years.
Why it is cool: Are you kidding? Dinosaurs! Lost treasure! Bat Lash! Enemy Ace! Biff Bradley! Vandal Savage! 1920s China! It's got homages to Terry & the Pirates (Miss Fear was a Dragon Lady clone, appearing in Blackhawk's series, as an enemy, and Chop-Chop fulfils the role of Connie, from the strip, while Biff is Pat Ryan).There is a nod to Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese, a classic of adventure, from the 1910s and after WW1. Von Hammer fills the role of former aviator pulp heroes, like The Spider's Richard Wentworth and the Shadow's Kent Allard (aka the false Lamont Cranston). Chop-Chop further draws the Blackhawks into this; but, this throws Chop-Chp's age off and it has been suggested that this is not Wen Chang, the Blackhawk Chop-Chop, but a relative, though he is decked out in Chop-Chop's stereotyped outfit and appearance, complete with yellow skin. However, at one point, Biff tells him to drop the "coolie act" and he stops speaking pigeon English and uses more complete contemporary English, including slang.
The SS Schoedstack is a reference to the Venture, the ship that brings the party of explorers to Skull Island, in King Kong and is named for Ernst B Schoedsack, the cinematographer of the film. The first glimpses of Dinosaur Island matches shots from King Kong.
Dragon Island, or, more correctly, Dinosaur Island, was first seen in The War That Time Forgot, as American GIs end up on the island, fighting the Japanese and the saurians. It has cropped up since, including in Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier.
This is such a cool comic, with everything you could want in an adventure story, and nary a superhero poking around. It also makes good use of the actual history of Chinam, prior to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and WW2.
Savage gets used ina couple of other favorites, that may pop up here, so stay tuned.
DC launched this with little fanfare or marketing support. I'm amazed it got published. It is dedicated to Archie Goodwin, who died the year it came out. The editor is Peter Tomasi, who was Archie's assistant and who took over editing his titles. It leaves me to wonder if Archie greenlit the project, but Cancer prevented him from seeing it. It is the kind of thing he would champion and Truman was his kind of writer and artist, one willing to take chances with something different and one who could tell a good yarn.
It feltlike I was the sole audience for this; certainly in my locale, though I have seen signs of a few other fans of it.
The series has never been collected and isn't likely to be so, especially since it is only 4 issues. I suggest seeking out the original issues, as it is a tremendously fun read. There are negative stereotypes; but, to point out such tropes and undermine those ideas, with reality, like Chop-Chop "breaking character." There is still the problem of his skin color, which isn't explained, as the other Chinese, like Miss Fear, The Thunderer and Chaing Kai-Shek and Mao Tse Tung are not depicted that way. I cannot find any reference of Truman discussing the project; so, other than depicting Chop-Chop as he was, in Blackhawk, in the 40s, I have no idea why he went that route, unless it was also to homage the character Connie, from Terry & the Pirates. Maybe a little from Column A and a little from Column B.
Anyway...helluva a read!
