Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune, Vol. 2: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips, 1936-1937

Captain Easy #2

by Roy Crane, Roy Crane

This second of four volumes reprints in full color the rare Captain Easy Sundaypages from the 1930s. Roy Crane's Soldier of Fortune, Captain Easy, fights forgold in the frozen north, is mistaken for a bandit, protects a formula for artificial diamonds, is stranded on a desert island, visits the tiny Balkan country ofKleptomania, and faces a firing squad. Captain Easy hobnobs with millionairesand bums and beautiful girls (of course), and winds up in the middle of a fullscale war. In short, it's another rousing series of adventure and humor encapsulatingthe gallantry, derring-do, and rough-and-tumble innocence of a bygoneera and a bygone genre, written and drawn with panache, and practically paintedin a vibrant spectrum of colors that you have to see to believe.Long before the first superhero, Roy Crane's courageous, indomitable, andcliff-ganging rough guy served as the template for characters that later definedcomic books, and set the aesthetic standards for the newspaper strip. Crane'smastery is why Peanuts creator Charles Schulz said of him (circa 1989): "Atreasure. There is still no one around who draws any better."

Genres: Comics, Comic Strips, Adventure, Fiction, Graphic Novels

144 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2010

Reviews

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ***** are obviously in justice to the to the artistic and narrative limitations of the 1930s.

The contemporary lingo is so fun=
"Like blazes you blankety-blanked so-and-so!" (each part of this sentence is heavily repeated throughout- especially variations of "blazes")

I LOVED READING THIS!!!!!

I give utmost thanks to Fantagraphics for being ballsy enough to present these Sunday pages on pages that are 10.5" x 15"!

I think that's the main reason that I got it for $3- it's a shelving nightmare unless you have a super tall bottom or others deep enough to lay it sideways.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wash Tubbs shows up in the last adventure.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

These may be my favorite comics of all time. I savor every panel, every page, every insane color palette that Roy Crane employed.

When I was 19, I discovered Roy Crane's work in Bill Blackbeard's "Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (as did so many others). Like those perfect cartoonists who followed, Alex Toth and Jaime Hernandez, Roy Crane's black and white comics are visual perfection. Crane balances cartoon aesthetics with genuine, observed figure drawings. His stories move quickly, smoothly, and always humorously.

Every panel he drew struck a perfect balance in not just black and white. Additionally,his pioneering work with Benday Dots and Craftint Tone is unparalleled in its evocations of atmospheric perspectives and texture. He was one comics' greatest innovator's (as he also created the first continuity-based adventure strips), and so his full-color Sunday pages are immaculate.

Every Sunday strip is a barrage of bright pastel colors, bizarrely-imagined exotic worlds, and hilarious onomatopoeia sound effects (punches flourished with "LICKETY-WHOP!". The best, the best, the best.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this was disappointing. I was not overly impressed by volume one, but I thought that might have been a matter of Crane still finding his way. Then, when I read the first two Buz Sawyer books and liked them very much, I assumed that must have been what it was. So, when I did read this and found the stories to be ... well, basically, pretty bad, that was a real letdown. But they are. Dumb plots, including one resolved by a pig-calling contest. Strained attempts at humour. Ridiculously implausible events (e.g. one plot about Easy manufacturing an adventure for a wanna-be, another about a hobo who is actually the heir to the throne of Kleptomania). Stories that feel abandoned more than finished. Crane's visual flair and variations in page design compensate somewhat, but not enough.