Jet Scott Volume 1

Dark Horse

Written by Sheldon Stark; Art by Jerry Robinson

Mar 29, 2010 By Kyle Lemmon Web Exclusive

It’s well known that U.S. comic strips, films, and TV shows from the height of the Cold War stripped away several of the fantastical elements from 1930s and 1940 space opera. Before the Soviet Union launched their first satellite into orbit in October of 1957, heady science-fiction was a household commodity as essential as electricity. Its new fans desired smarter and more socially aware narratives, that mirrored the dramatic tensions of the real world. One of the genre’s worthy and long-lost entries to this literary legacy, is New York Herald Tribune’s Jet Scott. The “near-future” comic strip, was created by revered sci-fi illustrator Jerry Robinson (Detective Comics, Moon Trip, Starship Troopers’ book cover) and late television screenwriter Sheldon Stark (Batman, Quincy, M.E., The Roaring Twenties, Straight Arrow, Too Many Sinners), and ran from 1953 to 1955.

The pair’s smart take on sci-fi gets its debut in the graphic novel format from Dark Horse. Several “lost gems” are incorporated into the first volume’s seven action/adventure strips. It’s mostly clean, black and white work from Robinson, but the Sunday strips are shown in watercolor-esque four-color. Stark’s fairly rudimentary yarns revolve around the Jet Scott of the Office of Scientifact unraveling mysteries around the globe and grabbing the girl. Some have aged quite a bit and the endings can be quite predictable. Others stand up to modern scrutiny quite well. The through-lines may be conventional, but the characterizations remain sophisticated. That fact should be applauded two times during this abysmal drought of entertaining newspaper strips.

Stark’s best character sketch is of course Scott. Think of the suave precursor to James Bond or Indiana Jones, but with less gadgets and more brainpower. (Of course there’s a steady stream of beautiful women for Scott to fraternize with too.) His Dick Tracy-like punches and witty one-liners are mirrored by his jawline and permanently furrowed brow. There aren’t too many comic book teams that can capture the drama of a brazen CIA operative quite like Robinson and Stark.

The Scientifact agent’s tales are all quite different. He disposes of lethal germs in the slightly prophetic “The Banthrax Incident;” braves deep-sea diving in “The Pacific Paradox;” foils an old lady and her trained chimpanzee from toppling skyscrapers with sound waves in “The Curious Case of Mother Makrae;” battles army ants and a tarantula in New Zealand for “The Creeping Death;” and uncovers the cause of spontaneously exploding pipelines in Saudi Arabia for “The Sheik of Wadani.” Through it all, the globe-trotting adventurer is memorably rendered by Robinson. His painterly, yet clean style is no doubt the hallmark of this series. His masterful use of shading is truly admirable in the precognitive caper, “The Trial of Elmer Steck.”

It’s not a big surprise coming from Robinson, the man who created or co-created such beloved Batman characters as Robin, Two-Face, the Joker, the Penguin, and Alfred Pennyworth. He has a scholarly knowledge of the business—as evidenced by his definitive study of the genre, The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. He also has a firm grasp of comic art in practice. Even a fairly ho-hum story about a mysterious fog called “The Shadow over Stone Bay” becomes interesting with his experimental artwork. For that strip he uses duotone paper and special chemicals to give the effect of shades of gray. His use of orange to convey drama in Sunday strips is one of his particularly striking trademarks. He melded the flashy comic book style of his roots and the almost surreal art of Rex Morgan for the Sunday strips. (It’s not a surprise to find the genre alchemist is now a creative consultant to DC Comics.)

Dark Horse is planning a second Jet Scott volume for June of this year and I’ll be sure to put it on my pull-list. If you can excuse some of the gimmicky plots or dated premises, this just might be for you. The book’s landscape format also adds to its appeal. Despite some disappointing faults, this serial set the bar high for genre strips. It’s also a complete nostalgic trip, that even readers that didn’t grow up during the ‘50s can appreciate. (www.darkhorse.com)

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