Comics reviewed in this post:
(Brackets indicate original printings)
Sherlock Holmes of the ‘30s, 7 issues, 1990
(Bell Syndicate 1930-32)
Sherlock Holmes, 23 issues, 1988-90
(New York Herald Tribune 01/03/54-17/11/56)
Sherlock Holmes Casebook, 2 issues, 1989
(Four Color 1169 & 1245)
It’s taken quite a while to complete this little collection, the complete Sherlock Holmes reprints from Eternity. Mostly they weren’t particularly expensive, but some of the issues are difficult to get hold of, having said that, it’s not cheap to buy just one or two issues from a seller when you have to factor in the P&P costs from multiple U.S. based dealers. Anyway, I’m there now, and I offer you 32 issues of Sherlockiana for your perusal.
Eternity was one of many imprints run by the Malibu Graphics studio who were very successful with their super-hero line in the 90’s, creating the Malibu Ultraverse. In 1994
Malibu was purchased by Marvel, not however to incorporate the Ultraverse into the Marvel Universe, but apparently because the
Malibu in-house colouring studio was considered very desirable by Marvel.
I’m not sure what the Eternity imprint’s focus was, but a good deal of their output tended toward reprints of older newspaper and comic strips, which included Buck Rogers in Cosmic Heroes, The Shadow in Crime Classics and, of course, Sherlock Holmes in his eponymous title.
This post will cover all of Eternity’s reprints of Sherlock Holmes, but completists beware, there were several original limited series featuring Holmes written for Eternity, most, but not all of these have since been collected into two editions (Sherlock Holmes Mysteries Vols. 1 & 2) published by Moonstone.
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First up (in chronological order of the original print date, rather than the reprint date) is Sherlock Holmes of the ‘30s. The seven issues collect the complete run of the newspaper strips drawn by Lee O’Mealia (sometimes credited as Leo, but I’m reasonably certain that his name was Lee.)
The strip ran from 1930-1932 and as far as I’m aware, it was the first strip adaptation of Mr. Holmes. Well, sort of. It’s not a strip as most readers would expect. There are no speech bubbles, nor narrative boxes within the panels as such. In a manner that would be more familiar to British readers than American, each panel is really just an accompanying illustration to the prose text that is set underneath. (Yes, just like those Rupert the Bear stories in the Daily Mail.)
The text itself is, for the most part, lifted directly from the original Doyle stories. There are, I’m sure some minimal edits for the purpose of pacing and space and the stories are shortened, but there is nothing in these pages that isn’t presented in the original stories by Doyle. Except the wonderful illustrations of Mr. O’Mealia of course.
I imagine that O’Mealia was influenced by the great Holmes illustrator Sidney Paget (who wasn’t?) as there is a definite similarity of style and composition. The art suffers from the quality of paper on which it’s printed due to ink spread, but the quality of the draughtsmanship is still evident. The art style is a homage to the traditional Victorian style and O’Mealia’s output in general has been compared to woodcut, which I can understand to a degree.
Adaptations in these issues are:
Gloria Scott
Silver Blaze
Musgrave Ritual
Greek Interpreter
Naval Treaty
Stockbroker’s Clerk
Crooked Man
I think the most fitting description of these stories is a heavily illustrated prose story, rather than a comic strip. Which is no bad thing in this case. Worth a read.
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Next up is the 23 issue run of Sherlock Holmes, credited to Edith Meiser & Frank Giacoia (more on the credits later). The 23 issues in this run reprint the entirety of the newspaper strip (dailies and Sundays) that ran in the New York Herald Tribune from 1st March 1954 to 17th November 1956.
I don’t know anything about the original newspaper printing, but it appears that at least some of the Sunday strips were in colour as some of them are printed with grey tones. My guess would be that, when possible, Eternity have used the original, un-coloured art for the black & white reprints, but when that wasn’t available they have reprinted the finished, colourised art in grey tones. No big deal to me, but it might be worth mentioning to other potential collectors.
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| Typical Giacoia un-coloured Sunday strip |
In terms of the credited artist for these strips, Frank Giacoia (who was a notable inker for Marvel during the Silver Age, working under the name of Frankie Ray) was the officially credited artist, however Mike Sekowsky is said to have drawn a considerable quantity of the strips as Giacoia’s ghost artist, which Giacoia then inked. I really don’t know any more than that and I can’t personally provide any facts either way. (To keep it simple, my own catalogue lists Giacoia as the artist as it’s his name in the credits for the issues I own.)
The strip was indisputably written by Edith Meiser. Meiser was one of the writers that scripted the Sherlock Holmes radio shows, so she certainly has a pedigree, so to speak.
The stories themselves are a mix of original plots, which is how the strip began, but reader feedback prompted Meiser to adapt some of the Doyle stories to the comic format. Rather than do straight adaptations of the Holmes cannon, Meiser chose to play around with them, adding or changing scenes and in some cases altering the outcome of cases. I have to say that I enjoyed this immensely. I’m not a Holmes purist, I do consider Doyle’s stories to be the definitive Holmes, but Holmes is a strong enough character that he can weather a little bit of literary jiggery-pokery by a seasoned professional quite well. Should I wish to submerge myself in the Holmes cannon, I can always re-read the original Doyle stories, but Meiser offers us an alternative take on the adventures, and when the reader realises that not everything will conclude as expected, the excitement is raised and tension mounts.
As is quite common for newspaper strips, the endings can read as very abrupt, seeming to change from mid-story to final solution in six panels or less. The pacing is always quick and there is little extraneous dialogue or characterisation. Again, this is all common for newspaper strips. It does mean that the stories themselves roar along at top speed and what they lack in subtlety, they make up for in energy.
Part way through the reprints there is one incredibly annoying phenomenon that crops up every few pages which is distracting and really ruins the pacing of the whole strip. At the start of the strips run, the Sunday strips are an integral part of the overall story, but as the strip progresses, the Sunday instalments are used to re-tell the previous six days worth of strips without adding anything new at all. Should you wish to, one could read either just the dailies or just the Sunday’s and still have a satisfying series. In fact, I would go as far as recommending that, when this practice starts, you should do exactly that, because, as I mentioned earlier, to read both is detrimental to the flow of the story.
The art for these strips is perfectly passable and of a professional quality. The artist certainly manages to capture Holmes Holmesianess, but due to the limitations of a newspaper strip, much of the Victoriana that most readers would relish in the backgrounds, is not as evident as one would wish. Some of the backgrounds are quite stark, perhaps this is more noticeable due to the strip being reprinted at a larger size than the original newspaper printing.
Another comic that is far from perfect, but I would suggest that with this one, most of the faults are due to the limitations of the original medium, rather than the creators. I still found the stories very enjoyable, particularly those little tweaks and changes that Meiser throws in for us.
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The final reprint from Eternity is Sherlock Holmes Casebook, issues 1 & 2, reprinted from Dell Four Color Comics 1169 & 1245 respectively. The first issue contains stories titled The Deadly Inheritance & The Tunnel Scheme, the second issue The Derelict Ship, The Safe Robber & The Cunning Assassin, all of which were original stories rather than adaptations.
I found these to be the least satisfying of the three sets of reprints. I do reserve the right to change my judgement at a later date, as I had been on Holmes Overload when I read these two comics. The stories were shorter than any stories in the previously mentioned series and frankly, even though they were the last issues I read, they are the ones that I remember least about. There are no creator credits for these, but it’s generally agreed that the art was provided by Frank Giacoia, an assumption that I would agree with when I compared these comics to the other 23 comics in the previous run.
The most interesting aspect of these is the comparison of Giacoia’s art to his earlier Holmes strips. All of the criticisms in regard to his newspaper strips are non-issues in these comics. Pacing, background and overall level of detail are far superior in these panels when compared to the newspaper dailies. Granted, he did have a few more years of experience under his belt, but I believe that the ability to lay out the page in a more fluid and adaptable range made the most difference to the artists success.
These are still enjoyable tales, with odd and quirky mysteries and I’m more than happy to count them as part of my collection. I do think that each story would have benefitted from a higher page count, but I’m willing to accept that the previous thirty issues that I’d read had spoilt me with too much of a good thing.
Mad Thinker Reads……….
Curious Incidents of Dogs In the Night.
