Betsy and Me

by Jack Cole, Dwight Parks, R.C. Harvey (Introduction)

by Jack Cole
Having mastered comic books and gag cartoons, in 1958, nearly two decades after he unveiled Plastic Man to the world, Jack Cole set his sights on the cartoonist's pot of gold - a syndicated newspaper strip. He hit the bull's-eye with Betsy and Me , a breezy domestic farce focusing on a middle-class urban couple and their smart-aleck genius son. Betsy and Me was an instant success and newspapers were lining up to buy it. Then, with only two-and-a-half month's worth of strips completed, Cole purchased a .22 caliber pistol and ended his life. R.C. Harvey's insightful introduction serves as a biographical sketch, and sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Cole's suicide.

Genres: Comics

104 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2007

About the author

Jack Ralph Cole was an American cartoonist best known for creating the comedic superhero Plastic Man, and his cartoons for Playboy Magazine.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Jack Cole killed himself in 1958 with a .22 caliber Marlin rifle, he left behind an impressive artistic legacy. His most famous creation, Plastic Man, not only introduced arguably the first pliable superhero – decades before the Fantastic Four frontman, Mr. Fantastic – but also influenced generations of artists with his outlandish sight gags and superior draftsmanship. In the early 1950s, Cole left his zany stretchable character and joined the staff of the fledgling Playboy, where he pioneered the watercolor paintings that came to typify the publication's cartoons. Not satisfied with two iconic creations, Cole invented and sold a daily strip to the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate in 1958. Betsy and Me collects for the first time the complete run of Jack Cole's final artistic endeavor.

In this domestic farce, Cole related the daily life of the nebbish narrator, Chet Tibbit, and his dysfunctional family, wife Betsy and genius 5-year-old son Farley. By using the then-radical approach of images that contradict the delusional narrative prose, Cole successfully created many humorous moments within the framework of a stereotypical 1950s family. Cole further demonstrated his artistic prowess by embracing a sparse ultramodern abstract style, deviating radically from his previous efforts. The resulting creation proved popular, running in more than 50 newspapers.

Betsy and Me offers an insightful snapshot of 1950s America through sequences such as the family's move to suburbia and their sudden "need" for a car after they realize everyone else owns one ("We were the last of a dying race"). Nothing more typifies the era than everyone's uncomfortable reaction to the supersmart Farley and their resultant fear of alienation.

In his excellent, informative introduction, R.C. Harvey explores the genius of Cole's talent and the mystery of his suicide in a scant 21 pages complete with many illustrations. One fact emerges from reading the introduction and the strips: This masterful collection of the extant Betsy and Me further establishes Jack Cole's reputation as one of the signature cartoonists of the 20th century.

This review originally appeared in The Austin Chronicle

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those bittersweet books. It's great to see Jack Cole's work on his comic strip collected, but it's also sad to realize this was his last work before he inexplicably committed suicide.

The comic strip itself is very funny and quite original in layout and verve. The artwork is reminiscent, to me at least, of Mel Lazarus and Miss Peach. Cole gives the strip some wonderful visual accents that make the stories flow with ease and with good humor.

There are only a few months of the strip collected here since, well, that's all there is by Jack Cole. There's an interesting introduction that covers the later part of Cole's career in a good amount of depth, so if you get this and Fantagraphics' Focus on Jack Cole, you'll have pretty much every bit of info on this great creator that's readily available.

You can usually find this little tome cheap on Amazon. More's the pity that these sellers don't know what they have in their inventories. This is a classic.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading and I am glad it was reprinted but in the end, I thought Betsy and Me was more interesting for Cole's backstory and its view into the 1950s than really good on its own as a newspaper strip.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars may seem too harsh a rating for the final work of comics great Jack Cole, but I've dinged this collection one star for lying about what it is. The back cover claims it reproduces "the entire run" of the strip. It doesn't. Though it includes several weeks of work by Cole's replacement, Dwight Parks, it in fact omits the final few weeks of the strip. Furthermore, Parks is mentioned nowhere on the outside cover, which creates the illusion that the whole book is Cole, when in fact nearly half the strips included are by Parks). Worse--and unforgivably--it omits several of COLE'S Sunday strips (including the earliest ones) are left out, and only two are printed in colour and, for no discernible reason, at the end of the book, rather than in sequence. Appalling, especially from Fantagraphics. There is a useful introduction by R. C. Harvey, though he can't (nobody can) answer the key question of why Cole killed himself only a couple of months after beginning the strip. As for the strips themselves, well, they are disappointing--and moreso after Parks takes over, as he really can't capture the essence of Cole. Perhaps if Cole had not killed himself, the strip might have developed into something as exceptional as Cole's comics and cartooning work, but a few months certainly wasn't enough for this to rise above the mediocre. The art has some interest to it, but it is so reductive and abstract, in contrast to Cole's other work, that there is not a lot of room for Cole's characteristic visual flair. There's the occasional interesting image or sequence, but mostly this looks a lot like a lot of other strips; Cole's essence is there, but it is muted. There is some originality in how the strip uses a first-person narrative point of view, and super-genius kid Farley might have developed into something really entertaining, given time, but what we have here is a strip that takes the first few weeks just to get the premise fully established. I can Credit Cole for trying such a leisurely approach, but it can't have made for compelling daily reading. Cole barely had all his pieces in place before he killed himself. Consequently this strip is, sad to say, an abortive misfire. I can't imagine this book being of much interest to anyone but Cole enthusiasts, and such readers will no doubt be about as happy as I am about the omissions. Inessential.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intent behind this book is great, 5 stars, but the execution is a misfire starting with the introduction. It is an OK introduction of the work of Jack Cole, but weak on this comic strip, which is why we bought the book, right? There is little insight about how the humor works or about the time that informs it. R. C. Harvey barely mentions that the strip was continued after Cole's suicide, and you can forget about comparisons between the work of the two creators. He is more interested in why Cole committed suicide, something nobody really knows, but puts out the usual pointless theories without insight. One possibility that fits the facts is that Cole was a closeted gay man, closeted even to himself until fight with his wife brought things to a head. I do not argue for this, but it makes as much sense as Harvey's dueling theories. On the other hand, who cares?

The book is also disappointing because the strips are too small, doing injustice to both the words and pictures, especially on the Sunday pages. This strip is not seen or read to full advantage simply because of the book's trim size.

I'll be the first in line to buy these strips again if anybody publishes them in a larger format and with an insightful introduction.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever humor and charmingly narrated - at times more clever than much better-known newspaper strips. Not surprisingly, the quality suffers greatly following Jack Cole's death.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

via NYPL - not particularly funny, but very clever and well drawn.