|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Mammoth Book Of BEST CRIME COMICS |
|
Available from: |
|
| Edited by Paul Gravett and designed by Peter Stanbury Softcover, 480 pages UK: £12.99 from Robinson Publishing USA: $17.95 from Running Press ISBN-13: 978-1845297107 Release Date: 18 July 2008 The line-up includes: Dashiell Hammett & Alex Raymond, Will Eisner, Johnny Craig, Mickey Spillane, Bernie Krigstein, Alan Moore, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Neil Gaiman, Alex Toth, Jacques Tardi, Jordi Bernet, Paul Grist, Jack Cole, Charles Burns, Max Allan Collins, and José Muñoz & Carlos Sampayo. Highlights include the first comic book appearance by Mike Hammer's prototype written by Spillane and shot from the original comic book artwork, and the never-before-reprinted last ever comic book by EC genius Bernie Krigstein, a bizarre 87th Precinct tie-in to Ed McBain's famous characters. Paul Gravett discusses The Mammoth Book Of Best Crime Comics: "My new book, once again sharply designed, by Peter Stanbury is The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, officially out July 18. You may have seen their previous fine comics anthologies, clocking in at around 500 pages, like Best New Manga 1 & 2 (the all-colour third volume is coming this autumn), or Best War Comics and Best Horror Comics. When Constable approached me to do a Crime collection, they were still looking at doing this book, as well as War and Horror, in the same smaller manga format, which would have seriously shrunk the comics pages down way too small. Thanks to our insistence, they enlarged the format of this series, and in fact for Crime Comics, expanded it a little further still, letting the pages breathe and fill the page area far better. Stories by Alan Moore top and tail the book perfectly and other contributors include Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Will Eisner, Jack Cole, Jack Kirby, Jacques Tardi, Muñoz & Sampayo, Neil Gaiman and more. Another distinction is in Peter's exemplary graphic design, which lends the whole 480-page compendium class and atmosphere. Peter also put in amazing effort to restore and refurbish the comics pages, which appear mainly in crisp black and white with no murky greys, to suit the strong, black-and-white noir style. And the contents really are some of the very best, no padding, no also-rans, but two dozen of the cream of crime comics, first-class throughout." |
|
| Crime Comics: The Many Colours Of Noir Charles Burns: Body Horror In Black Ink Bernie Krigstein: The Right To Silence José Muñoz: 2007 Angoulême Grand Prix Winner Warren Pleece: Profile & Interview |
|
| Audio: Alan Moore Alan Moore and The Sinister Ducks perform Old Gangsters Never Die. More... Panel Borders: |
|
| Page 45 | Down The Tubes | The Burley Observer | Broken Frontier | Steve Holland | Gosh! Comics | Crime Time | |
| Stephen L. Holland is the co-founder, with Mark Simpson (1968-2005), of the Nottingham-based Page 45, one of the UK's leading comic retail outlets. I think we can now safely say that the Mammoth Book Of Crime Comics has been the hit of the series so far, and by a very wide margin. Anthologies are a difficult sell unless you're McSweeneys - or, it now transpires, edited by Paul Gravett. After just two weeks it's already sold five times as many copies here as the last three Mammoth Books combined. |
|
| Down The Tubes
is a British comics news site maintained by John Freeman whose past credits include editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine and more. He is also currently Managing Editor of ROK Comics, a comics to mobile service. The following review appeared on the Down The Tubes Blog on July 25, 2008:
Considering crime comics as featured in this collection span some 80 years of the medium's history, I can't begin to imagine how hard it must have been for Paul Gravett, editor of The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, to whittle his choices down to the excellent selection featured in this book. |
|
| The following review appeared on The Burley Observer review site on June 18, 2008.
I don't do 'bedside books' because I'm always far too busy having sex, but let's pretend for a moment that I was like you poor fellows who lead a life of solitary vice and, most likely, wear pyjamas and comfy tartan slippers; then I'd have no hesitation in snuggling up in bed with a steaming hot cup of cocoa and a copy of The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics because it's epic! Only intended to flick through it for the time being but I wasn't reckoning with the irresistible pull of Jack Cole's drug soaked Murder, Morphine And Me (True Crimes, 1948), masked wrestler El Bordah (reluctantly dragging himself away from his copy of Bongo Butt magazine to investigate a bad show at the Sperm Bank in Charles Burns' Love In Vein, 1987) and the squelchy horrors of Johnny Craig's suitably malodorous The Sewer (William M. Gaines' Crime Suspense Stories, 1951). Ruthless Mr. Big's, ultra-violent hoods, double-dealing dames, unscrupulous PI's, cops of all stripe, stacked broads, the occasional juvenile delinquent - they're all present and up to no good. I've not spotted any blackmailer's or fat guys called 'Mo' yet, but chances are they're in here. When I get time, I'll try and give you the full table of contents for this and the companion volume of sorts - Mammoth Horror Comics - but hopefully this taster will at least give you some idea of the sickly treats in store. |
|
| The following review appeared on the Broken Frontier website on July 30, 2008.
Crimes & Crooks on the Comic Page: Oh, how I envy Paul Gravett... and how I pity him at the same time. To dive into the world's cellars of crime comics, reading, dissecting and selecting a worthy crop of steel hard tales that have been produced over the ages to show the general public all those international hidden gems. To spend years on that selection, ever cropping, ever choosing the finest weeds over the gmo's. Oh, how I envy him. And how I pity him. Those dank cellars full of moldy tales with their never ending descriptive captions, explaining what we see in the art in excruciatingly flowery detail. Oh, how horrible those captions must have seen to him before the assassination of captions and thought balloons in more later years. The never ending barrage of true crime stories in the fifties, formulaic written and abysmally drawn. The horrendous downpour of the worst humanity has to offer and having to read it all. But Paul Gravett seems to be a proud man. Proud enough to never give up and rise from that dank cellar, covered in dust, face and hands smudged in printing ink; holding just one magnificent monstrous tomb off 480 pages! The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics. Truly an explorer's treasure. Let me run off a list of names here: Alan Moore, Bernie Krigstein, Neil Gaiman, Jack Kirby, Jordi Bernet, Johnny Craig, Bill Everett, Alex Toth, Dashiell Hammett, Alex Raymond, Jose Munoz and I'm not even half yet. From the thirties to nineties, from crime to cop drama, from the mystery twist to the detective. This is a pretty thorough sampling of the crime genre. Paul Gravett is one of the great comic historians of not only American but also European comics (and other continents too no doubt, wait until you see him perform next to Stan Lee in "Who wants to be a comic historian?"). And he has a good eye for a good moody crime story. The tales are presented in... well not chronologically or alphabetically... I have to guess that they are presented in an order which makes them a joy to read, therefore making the book a nightmare for an anal retentive list person. But the system works. It was a smart move to alternate modern and old tales, I found myself reading through it in almost one go, not an easy feat for someone who reads four books intermingled during different hours of the day. There's a hypnotic rhythm involved in reading Jordin Bernet followed by Simon and Kirby followed by Krigstein or Jose Munoz followed by Bill Everett followed by Paul Grist and so on. I can't even begin to pick a few of them out to be honest, they're all that good. Jack Cole's infamous Fredric Wertham's fetish 'needle to the eye'-tale is in there, Krigstein's last comic story ever, Alex Raymond's Agent X-9 tales impossible to find in reprint, Alan Moore's The Sinister Ducks' record sleeve comic and so on. Going from hyper realistic to cartoon, all drawing genres are present but all filtered through either the noir twist or the criminal reflection in a sharp knife. If I have to hold one thing against this book, it is that some of the art reproduction is either of a low quality or the paper just isn't intended to reproduce fine lines on. I get it, grainy paper reminds us of the pulp tales of yesteryear we all so love but that's trash paper if you're going to celebrate the artistic achievements made in the crime genre. Alex Raymond's lines seem to have suffered the most due to his fine rendering but looking at it from the other end of the spectrum, thicker line work like Johnny Craig also suffers a bit because of the tendency of the paper to bleed a bit when dealing with large gobs of ink. Paul Gravett is a career criminal comics historian. He is known for picking the difficult jobs and getting it done. He expertly dissects a comic story in 6.6 seconds, judging it's worth based on dialogue, plot and drawing skills. Though he is known for his dusty cellars holding hostage immens volumes of obscure comics, his one flaw is that he also likes to showcase his 'loot' in affordable books, presenting only the best and brightest of whatever genre he has focused on in his genius mind, his latest being The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Stories. Highly recommended. |
|
| Steve Holland is a leading authority on British comics and has written many soft-cover books on both Fleetway and D.C. Thomson publications. He maintains his regular blog about British comics at Bear Alley.
Anthology collections of comics have been appearing from Mammoth for the past couple of years, amongst them the very successful, Ilya-edited Mammoth Book of Best New Manga series which has seen two titles in print and a third due in November 2008. David Kendall has edited The Mammoth Book of Best War Comics and the upcoming Mammoth Books of Zombie Comics and, to hand, we've perhaps the best of the bunch, Paul Gravett's Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics. |
|
| Gosh! Comics is one of the best comic shops in London and the following review appeared in the June edition of their newsletter, How Late?.
One of the finest books on sale at the moment, and one of the best bargains in the shop, is the Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, edited by comics historian Paul Gravett, and showing the extent of his knowledge and research. It's 24 of the best thrillers in comics history, containing an extended Spirit story from Will Eisner, Jordi Bernet's Torpedo, a story written by Dashiell Hammett and drawn by Alex Raymond (I know, right?), and a couple of out-of-print yarns from comics grandmaster Alan Moore. There's even more than that, but if I went through them you'd never believe it's only £12.99! Which it is. Pick one up and while you're there, check out the rest of our Crime Comics Spotlight display, showcasing what we reckon is the best in police procedurals, heist thrillers and car chases. |
|
| Barry Forshaw is the editor of Crime Time, the UK magazine devoted to crime fiction. This review first appeared on the Crime Time web site.
What a rich and loamy mix is here! Comics authority Paul Gravett is the perfect guide for the reader through one of the richest and most subversive genres of comics, taking us from the hyper-violent American crime comics of the 1950s (the very tales that brought the wrath of the moral guardians of the day down on the industry) right up to modern-day masters such as Brits Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Despite an interesting selection of material, the last book in this series (devoted to horror comics) was compromised by the reduced format and artwork that suffered when shrunk to the smaller page size: no such problems here: the wonderful black-and-white artwork is given room to breathe. And the list of artists is matchless: from the legendary Jack Kirby to EC giant Johnny Craig, from Alex Raymond (working from a Dasheill Hammett script, no less) to the bizarre and surrealistic Charles Burns. An unmissable collection. |
|
| Secret Agent X-9: Two pages, pages 150 and 151, are out of order in the Secret Agent X-9 story. After reading page 142, please jump to ahead to pages 150 and 151. Then return to pages 143 to 149 and resume from page 152. Apologies for this production error. |
Powered by Read Yourself RAW