Do You Remember When We Were Boys? (Tom Strong #6)

Cover by Dave Gibbons and Todd Klein

This issue focuses on Tom Strong's archenemy Paul Saveen. This is the part where a writer starts listing legendary enemies like Holmes and Moriarty, Dracula and Van Helsing, Lawler and Dundee, etc.

The whole archenemy thing is one of those tropes that is so easy to fuck up, with many of them just being completely contrived. I was kind of over the Batman/Joker relationship when I was a kid but from what I hear it's even more heavy handed these days. I try to be patient with the people who find out I like comics and then want to do nothing but talk about Batman. When those same folks start talking about the "depth" of his relationship with the Joker they are making it even more difficult for me.

I suppose classic archenemies are appropriate material for a comic like Tom Strong to mine. We've been hearing about Saveen since the first issue so it was obvious he'd show up, even if he's been thought dead for years. Tom spends most of the issue wandering through Saveen's museum-like lair. Saveen, for now, appears to be a frail old man clinging to the souvenirs of his past, juts like the Nazis and Pangaea in the last few issues.

This issue's Untold Tale depicts an earlier meeting between Tom and Paul. Dave Gibbons renders it in a straight forward fashion as you might expect from him. It looks nice but it's a bit on the unremarkable side. In general this story arc is not holding up the way I remember it.

The rest of the issue consists of Saveen trying to convince Tom how important they are to each other. Tom Strong isn't impressed and neither am I. Tom's reaction is probably supposed to subvert the trope of fated enemies but it rings hollow. Saveen is going for the hard sell and even if his voice is not the author's voice, it's still very loud.

It's tempting to say that this is forced because the history of these characters didn't exist until they told us it did. That said, Batman and the Joker developed naturally and I still can't stand them. Joker became THE villain thanks to a long history, visibility in other media, and fan consensus. Perhaps it's the harping on how they define each other that bothers me. Tom Strong and Paul Saveen don't have a toxic fanbase but this issue echoes the tedium of Batfans.

Tom Strong #6 (February 2000) was written by Alan Moore with art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, and Mike Garcia as well as lettering by Todd Klein. The Untold Tale of Tom Strong contains additional art by Dave Gibbons

Strongmen of America - Revisiting Tom Strong 

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.

Strongmen of America - Revisiting Tom Strong

Won't You Come Out Tonight? (Tom Strong #4)

Cover art by Arthur Adams, Tad Ehrlich, and Todd Klein

The last time I regularly bought an ongoing superhero comic it was when Grant Morrison was writing New X-Men. I was already familiar with the characters but it was the art by Frank Quitely (below left) that drew me in. Quitely had a style of storytelling that mixed an incredible amount of forward momentum with the sort of solidly rendered characters and environments that made you want to stop and appreciate the drawing itself. The closest comparison I can think of is Katsuhiro Otomo's art on Akira. Unfortunately Quitely didn't draw every issue. Those drawn by Ethan Van Sciver (below center) featured the kind of generic art that some comics fans think of as "realism" and the ones drawn by Igor Kordey ( below right) were simply utilitarian, probably due to how rushed they were. Other artists drew fill-ins but none of them matched the fine detail that Quitely used to elevate the book.

That's when I realized that deadlines were more important to big comics publishers than consistent art and that writers were thought of as more of a draw than the artists that attracted me to the books I liked. At that time I was seeking out something new as a comic book reader. I wasn't happy with what I saw happening at DC and Marvel and I was growing out of most of the material they published.

Initially the superhero comics I bought every month were replaced by Japanese comics and trade paperbacks collecting old North American comics. Manga satisfied my craving for consistent art over the course of long serialized stories but I struggled to find American adventure comics that satisfied the same desire. One of the handful of series that captivated me was Saga of the Swamp Thing. Those six paperbacks collected a long run of stories by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben, Rick Veitch, and Alfredo Alcala along with a number of other guest artists. I was confronted with the same situation, one writer and a revolving series of artists but it never bothered me.

There are a few reasons why those comics worked for me. Bissette, Totleben, Veitch, and Alcala may have had styles that could easily be distinguished from one another but there were qualities that unified them. All four artists employed similar storytelling devices and placed a lot of emphasis on texture. There were also plenty of issues where some combination of those creators collaborated on the art, resulting in a unified look for the series. Then there are the guest artists. Many of them were able to seamlessly blend in thanks to inks provided by Totleben or Alcala but even when they didn't blend in, like Shawn McManus, Moore played to these artist's strengths in the stories that were provided to them. I actually decided to revisit this series recently and there are a few of issues where a guest artist looks out of place but they are an infrequent enough occurrence that I'm still comfortable rating that whole run pretty highly, at least within it's niche.

Tom Strong features another smart solution to the problem of a large number of collaborators. Chris Sprouse continues to be the lead artist, rendering the present day adventures of our titular hero but starting with issue number 4, we start to see back-up features drawn by guest artists. These so-called Untold Tales of Tom Strong illuminate the history of the characters and settings of the main plot. The different art styles serve as a visual cue that we are seeing events from another time.

Chris Sprouse and Art Adams side by side with assistance from Al Gordon, Tad Ehrlich, and Todd Klein

This issue features an Untold Tale drawn by Art Adams. I'm a fan of Adams' detailed art though this issue isn't the best display of it. I have no problem with Al Gordon's inks over Sprouse's pencils but I'm not sure how well he meshes with Adams. Adams has a pretty distinct line but I don't feel like I'm seeing it in this story. This issue is a solid if unspectacular read, probably because the introduction of Nazi villainess Ingrid Weiss is merely a setup for the first multi-issue story in this series. This issue ends with Weiss luring Tom Strong into a Tachyon Accumulator (Moore using Warren Ellis-ish buzzwords again!) and sending him back in time. Her parting words mention the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea, hinting at the setting of the next issue.

Tom Strong #4 (October 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 contains additional art by Arthur Adams

Strongmen of America - Revisiting Tom Strong