This is the final issue to this interesting little series, which was part of the Charlton Explosion (ok, that may be overstating things) circa 1975. It's an decent, if unoriginal, concept (private investigators + martial arts) and it's executed fairly well. The real problem for me has always been the members of the V-Squad. We've got the leader with a chip on his shoulder because he serve time without doing a crime, the jaded female cop and the rough and tumble Vietnam vet. Stereotypes can be ok if the characters are likable - but these people don't even seem to like each other. That being said, there is a lot to like here. All but one of the issues features great art by Pete 'PAM' Morisi in full photo-realism mode here. I've read somewhere that Morisi wrote some of these stories, but I would have thought that the scripts were by Joe Gill. This issue is fairly standard for the series - lots of action, some stilted dialogue and a nice Staton/Cuti Michael Mauser back-up. It's nothing brilliant, but a must-have for any Morisi fan (like me).Monday, December 08, 2008
Charlton Notebook: Vengeance Squad #6
This is the final issue to this interesting little series, which was part of the Charlton Explosion (ok, that may be overstating things) circa 1975. It's an decent, if unoriginal, concept (private investigators + martial arts) and it's executed fairly well. The real problem for me has always been the members of the V-Squad. We've got the leader with a chip on his shoulder because he serve time without doing a crime, the jaded female cop and the rough and tumble Vietnam vet. Stereotypes can be ok if the characters are likable - but these people don't even seem to like each other. That being said, there is a lot to like here. All but one of the issues features great art by Pete 'PAM' Morisi in full photo-realism mode here. I've read somewhere that Morisi wrote some of these stories, but I would have thought that the scripts were by Joe Gill. This issue is fairly standard for the series - lots of action, some stilted dialogue and a nice Staton/Cuti Michael Mauser back-up. It's nothing brilliant, but a must-have for any Morisi fan (like me).
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4 comments:
Loved this comic as a kid. A department store at my local mall had this one and VS #5 as a Modern Comics reprint. They must have ordered thousands of them, because the comics were stashed in their toy department literally for years. Morisi's art was sensational and I thought - even as a kid - that the fact that the charcaters didn't get along made it even more interesting.
Sometimes I still see those Modern Comics books in bulk. A shop near me has a various scattered comisc, but they must have at least a half dozen copies of the Modern Comics Many Ghosts of Dr. Grave #12. I've read that the Modern books were distributed mostly in the southern US - but I used to see them all the time as a kid up here in the Great White North.
I'd love to read a comprehensive article about these oddities.
Scott....PAM did not write any of the Vengeance Squad stories.
I really want to like Pete Morisi's art. I just po not enjoy it. I have read interviews with the artist and about the artist and he sounds like a great , interesting guy, but his art drives me to the next comic in the pile.
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