TwoMorrows Publishing is to be congratulated for conceiving one of the best ideas in the history of comics. Streetwise is a terrific idea, with some outstanding contributions.
Basically, editors Jon Cooke and John Morrow offered a number of talented creators space in this volume to present autobiographical material; the plan was to use the material to supplement a short story by the late Jack Kirby called Streetwise.
I don't want to give the impression this is a flawless volume; it's not. I see some wasted opportunity here. But on balance, I sincerely hope more creators are given the opportunity to take part in future volumes.
The titular Kirby piece, for example, is a significant piece of comics history, and deserves to be seen. The only real complaint about the piece as presented is I wish Kirby had made it longer. There's nothing the editors can do now about its length, though. On the other hand, it may have been in their power to have the piece inked. If so, it should have been.
I'm sure the story is presented in pencil form with the best of intentions, and Kirby's art is of course spectacular to see even in unfinished form. But Kirby drew his pencils expecting them to be inked, and this story would have conveyed a lot more to the reader if Joe Sinnott or Mike Royer or one of the few other artists capable of inking Kirby well could have embellished it. As it stands, it's impossible to fully immerse yourself in the story because you're constantly reminded it is a workpart, not a finished work of art. If it had been up to me, I would have presented an inked form here and perhaps the unfinished version in TwoMorrow's frequently excellent Jack Kirby Collector magazine.
Evan Dorkin's contribution "The Soda Thief" struck me as an odd piece to immediately follow Kirby, but it excellently fulfills the promise of this volume: Dorkin shares a real (and amusing) piece of his life with the reader.
Brent Anderson turns in, hands down, the most moving piece in the book. "The Hero" gives the Astro City artist the chance to reveal a not terribly flattering chapter in his life as a child, and he does so in ten extremely moving pages. The anecdote may seem trifling to some, but it clearly was a seminal moment in Anderson's life, and the regret he feels because of a childish mistake is palpable. His candor is something future creators of autobiographical stories should aspire to.
As you might expect, Sergio Aragones provides seven hilarious pages about a time he had to wear a monkey suit for his then-job. How could that not be funny?
One of the surprises of the book is a piece by Sal Amendola, who documents his career at DC Comics in an invaluable piece of comics journalism. He mentions the possibility of a sequel at the end, and I hope he gets the opportunity. A similarly themed piece by Alan Kupperberg is equally terrific, and demonstrates a gift for humor cartooning I would not have suspected from Kupperberg's mainstream comics work. The Vinnie Colletta panel confirms every story I've ever heard about the personality of my all-time least favourite comics inker.
Another lost opportunity is the contribution of veteran comics artist John Severin. Instead of telling his own tale, Severin chose to illustrate an autobiographical piece by Roy Thomas. No slam at Thomas, but I would have much preferred to see a piece of Severin's life story illustrated by him. Severin is truly one of the all-time great comics artists; a story from his sister Marie would have been most welcome to this reader as well.
One of the key selling points in the advertising for this volume is a rare comics piece by Barry Windsor-Smith, UFO POV. It's the first new BWS comics work in the last few years, and nicely complements the life story Windsor-Smith has been telling in his Opus book series from Fantagraphics. It would be nice to see this story fleshed out or elaborated on, in text or comics form, in future volumes of Opus.
There are other stories in Streetwise, including work by C.C. Beck, Herb Trimpe, Gray Morrow, Paul Chadwick and many others. They vary in quality, and in my opinion the best stories here are the ones, like Kirby's, Windsor-Smith's and Brent Anderson's, that feature intimate details of the creator's life that we might not otherwise have ever known.
I can't say enough about how valuable, then, the opportunity here is to allow the great creators remaining in comics to speak their piece in the artform they know best. How much better would this book have been if Gil Kane, Charles Schulz and others had still been around to contribute? How wonderful would it be to see a future volume with autobiographical pieces, say, by Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Bill Watterston or Dave Sim? Who would you like to see present their story in this type of forum?
Streetwise is one of the best ideas for a comics publication ever; I urge you to support it not only for the quality work it contains, but for the promise of future volumes that will only be fulfilled if this one gets the support it deserves.
