Anyone know about this "graphic novel"?

[benday-dot]

I've often come across this peculiar Fawcett comic book cover while playing LR's Guess the Classic Comic Book Cover (lately, while noticing, but maddeningly failing to ID the Joe Louis issue). Can anyone tell me anything about it? It looks like a cross between an F.W. Murnau expressionist piece and an agitprop effort. It intrigues me that it is billed as a novel, making it one of the earliest of the graphic novels if it lives up to the name. I googled the work and it apparently runs to 51 pages. But little else could be found concerning it.

Does anyone else know the story behind this work. I wonder was it commissioned by government agency. For whom is Anarcho the Dictator of Death supposed to be a cypher? Anarcho would seem to be code for the commies or Bolsheviks, but perhaps it was aimed at the fascists, as one reference claimed (1947 was cutting it close to either of these boogey men)

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/511/400/511_4_1.jpg

PS... it goes under the name Comics Novel on the GCD

[Red Oak Kid]

This is new to me, so I can't help much.

But I looked it up in my old Overstreet guide and it says:

#1. All Radar; 51 page Anti-Communist story.

huh????:confused:

[InfoBroker]

This site (http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/super-war/anarcho.htm) confirms the 51 pages, the anti-communist theme and the main chareacter. Sounds like an Oddball Comics candidate.

-jb the ib -

[T GUy]

The infobroker:
This site confirms the 51 pages, the anti-communist theme

The site in question:
a full-length 51 page anti-fascism story featuring a (non-super) hero named Radar

Pardon?

Additionally, I seem to recall from Steranko's History of Comics that Radar was promoted from a back-up in Whiz Comics or some other anthology.

Edit: Master Comics, begining with No. 50, BTLOI. Click here for the debut cover. (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=3606&zoom=4) Oh, and that's after the intro' in Captain Marvel Adventures No. 35. Both are coverdated May, 1944.

[MWGallaher]

Somewhere recently I read a reprint of a Radar story and, if I'm not confusing him with a similar character, he did have a "super power": he could receive radio signals in his head.

[Scott Shaw!]

This site (http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/super-war/anarcho.htm) confirms the 51 pages, the anti-communist theme and the main chareacter. Sounds like an Oddball Comics candidate.

-jb the ib -

Believe me, JB, I've been looking for a reasonably-priced copy of ANARCHO, DICTATOR OF DEATH for (literally) decades! Due to your mention, I'll definitely make it a collecting priority!

Aloha,

Scott!

[benday-dot]

This was 1947 and Stalin was still at the helm of the Soviet Union, so a slip of the keyboard allowing anti-communism for anti-fascism is rather forgivable. My instincts for a guy named Anarcho Dictator of Death tend toward the anti-Communist side of things due to the early anarchist/bolshevik connection. And by 1947 Stalin was pretty much on his way to pushing out the vanquished nazis as enemy #1. Its a bit like you say tomato and I say tomato, but I don't suppose that really works here...;)


Scott Shaw! :
Believe me, JB, I've been looking for a reasonably-priced copy of ANARCHO, DICTATOR OF DEATH for (literally) decades! Due to your mention, I'll definitely make it a collecting priority!

Mile High has a Fine condition copy at 400.00... maybe someday if you can nab it on one of those codeword half-price sales...

[Lone Ranger]

If I am not mistaken, the was a short article on this book in Comic Book Marketplace.

I think it was part of a larger Fawcett article, in which Radar was described quite a bit as this was really his only solo outing and he didn't even get a mention on the cover.

As an aside, it there a name for this type of cover? One that looks like a hardcover book?

There are a few of them - Stuntman #1 comes to mind.

[Scott Shaw!]

Mile High has a Fine condition copy at 400.00... maybe someday if you can nab it on one of those codeword half-price sales...

Thanks for the tip; maybe if I contact Chuck Rozanski, I might not even have to wait for a sale!

Aloha,

Scott!

[InfoBroker]

As an aside, it there a name for this type of cover? One that looks like a hardcover book?

There are a few of them - Stuntman #1 comes to mind.

Hey Kimosabe!

Since you bring it up, and since I am not aware of there being one, me thinks it only right that you give it a term that we can christen and make into an official in-ology.

Heck even if we find out later that there is a name for it, we should usurp it.

-jb the (I'm in a mischievous mood) ib -

[benday-dot]

JB and LR... Not the least bit original or particularly striking, but the lexicography of visual arts has a term in which realistic two dimensional depictions are rendered in such a way as to present the illusion of third dimensions that are actually not there...Trompe l'œil ("trick the eye") as it is known, though it could be defined much better than I just have.

[Lone Ranger]

JB and LR... Not the least bit original or particularly striking, but the lexicography of visual arts has a term in which realistic two dimensional depictions are rendered in such a way as to present the illusion of third dimensions that are actually not there...Trompe l'œil ("trick the eye") as it is known, though it could be defined much better than I just have.

Drifting away....

Hmm... I agree with the sentinment, but I'd hate to hear Trompe l'œil roll off the tongue of the average fanboy (I imagine it would come out as something like 'Trump lool').

I'd be more tempted to go with something like Faux-Book Cover, or Faux-Dustjacket Cover (there's that French language again, though). Neither of those are very catchy, nor do they truly decscribe this type of cover.

It may not be all that necessary, as insomnia had me flipping through Vol 2 of the Gerber Guide and I didn't see any more example - just this one and Stuntman 1 and Stuntman 2.

I know that Kirby & Co put out fairly similar covers with In Love #1 and #2, but there are different enough to be in another category.

Perhaps this discussion should be spun out - but can anyone think of any others?

[Scott Shaw!]

I'm thinking that I've got a Charlton funny animal comic somewhere with this cover gimmick. It's probably an issue of ATOMIC RABBIT, ATOMIC MOUSE or maybe even ATOM THE CAT.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Red Oak Kid]

Our Army At War 147 and 148.

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?seriesID=868&skip=100&show=50

[Lone Ranger]

Scott!

You are right - Atom the Cat #1 is quite a bit like this, just not the same degree of 3-D effect with spine.

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=169024&zoom=4

[Lone Ranger]

Our Army At War 147 and 148.

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?seriesID=868&skip=100&show=50

ROK - that just triggered a memory for me:

Wonder Woman #291-293 all have this type of cover.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/WW291.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/WW292.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/WW293.jpg