Strongmen of America

art by Chris Sprouse and Al Gordon

Let me take you back to my life before I had internet access. As a ten year old boy most of what I knew about comics I learned from, well, actually reading comics. My father told me a lot about comics history but he didn't really know about anything that came after Barry Smith drawing Conan the Barbarian. My sister read comics too but her knowledge was limited to X-Men and a few of the then current Vertigo comics that her friends would have read. In those dark pre-internet days I had to turn to a dark place to learn more about comics. Yes dear friends, I read Wizard The Comics Magazine. I was a child! Forgive me!

I did not yet appreciate who made the comics I read but Wizard drilled some names into my head. I knew that Alan Moore was important. I knew that Watchmen was important. Still, thanks to Wizard my first exposure to Alan Moore's writing was Tom Strong from Moore's America's Best Comics line.

I remember the article about the new ABC line with it's black and white character sketches. The description of Tom Strong really struck a chord with me. He was described as a Reed Richards-like super genius with other qualities reminiscent of classic pulp heroes like Doc Savage and Tarzan. I obviously knew who Tarzan was but after inheriting much of my grandfather's book collection I was now reading the stories that Tarzan appeared in before he was the famous caricature we all know today. Unfortunately, at ten years old I didn't have access to a comic book store and the local Optimo Tobacco Shop I bought my comics at never got any issues of Tom Strong.

One year later I was already a different comics reader. I got a copy of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns on a trip to Barnes and Noble and it changed how I read comics. I wanted to read all of the Frank Miller I could. I discovered a comic book store that was a thirty minute walk from my house and started seeking out things I never would have found at that old Tobacco shop. I bought a lot of comics there and one of them was Tom Strong #11. I remembered the character from that Wizard article and I knew that Alan Moore was important. Kinda like that Frank Miller guy I was crazy about.

I followed the series sporadically for a bit and I remember it fondly in spite of the issues I missed. It mined some material that was familiar to me but also spun those ideas in ways that appeared unique to me at the time. I had forgotten about the series until I was eighteen years old and working at my first job on the Upper West Side. I noticed a Fifty Cent comics box at Westsider Used Books and checked it regularly. I found a few issues of Tom Strong in there and decided to pick them up because I was pretty sure they were ones I never read. Among them was the thirteenth issue featuring the combined artistic talents of main series artist Chris Sprouse with guests Russ Heath, Kyle Baker, and Pete Poplaski. I was hooked in a way I had not been as a kid. It took a few years but I tracked down a complete run of the issues written by Moore. It was a cheap endeavor as well thanks to the bottom falling out of the back issue market. Now these comics occupy an important role to me as my rainy day reading material. From Hell and Watchmen may be greater works of comic art but Tom Strong is my favorite work that Alan Moore ever produced. There's so much fun to be had in these comics and the creators show a lot of affection for goofy shit that entertained me as a kid.

Tom Strong #1
Tom Strong #2 
Tom Strong #3 
Tom Strong #4 
Tom Strong #5 
Tom Strong #6