Escape From Eden (Tom Strong #5)

Cover art by Jerry Ordway, Tad Ehrlich, and Todd Klein

Art by Jerry Ordway, Al Gordon, Tad Ehrlich, and Todd Klein

A picture or a story can project the idea that it's old without being old at all. That's a big part of the appeal of Tom Strong. It's a work that uses the tropes of old comics and pulp adventures to suggest that these characters have a history. The Untold Tale of Tom Strong in the series' fifth issue creates an air of familiarity but without being a direct homage to one style. The most obvious effect is the EC Comics style lettering. Todd Klein actually replicates the machine-like lettering of those comics (Todd wrote about that process on his blog here). It's not my preferred aesthetic for comics lettering but it's novel in the context of a story set in the 1950's. Jerry Ordway recalls bits and pieces of  Wood and Williamson's EC science fiction stories but there are adventure tropes there as well. I see Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and even lurid B science fiction movies. The story may be dominated by wordy Feldstein-like exposition but it comes out of the character's mouths rather than an unseen narrator.

Tom Strong himself would appear out of place in those traditions. Instead of a rugged all-American, Strong is above average, almost superhuman in terms of his strength and his intelligence. Both are idealized but Tom Strong is closer to Superman's godly presence in the world of men.

Art by Sprouse, Gordon, Ehrlich, and Klein

Much as I love Ordway, Chris Sprouse is actually the standout artist in this issue. He excels at showing the scale of the mysteriousancient continent of Pangaea and the intelligent slime-mold entity that lives there. Much of his art in this issue is made up of drawings of Tom just walking around by himself but they still manage to be arresting.

This issue also expands on the theme of this arc, which is the danger of nostalgia. The pulp trappings, and retro-futuristic designs of this series are obviously steeped in nostalgia but Moore appears to be cautious about wallowing in it too much. The modern science these characters discuss and general optimism they represent make the series feel progressive, rather than feeling like an excuse for navel-gazing. As for how that's suggested in this story, the Pangaean slime sees the uninhabitable past he lives in as a model of what the future should look like. That's not too dissimilar from how Ingrid Weiss sees the Third Reich and Nazi ideology that created her. Strong is pretty upfront about the Earth's past being a record of mistakes that we'll hopefully learn from. It's not exactly subtle, but the message is wrapped in a nice looking package.

Art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, and Tad Ehrlich

Tom Strong #5 (December 1999) was written by Alan Moore with art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, and Tad Ehrlich as well as lettering by Todd Klein. The Untold Tale of Tom Strong features additional art by Jerry Ordway.

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