Customer Reviews

The Compleat Cannon

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I have mixed feeings about this. I don't want to like it, but I do! Canon doesn't appeal to your intellectual side and doesn't pretend to. Women are shown in the nude for no aparent good reason, the politics makes no sense and, as the introduction states, Peter Canon as a character never develops much throughout the strip. It also ends rather abruptly as if someone pulled the plug on it and Wood was forced to bring it to a close prematurely. There are many sub-plots which are left dangling.
Basically Canon is a James Bond-type character, only much less glamerous and more mentally screwed up. He gets involved in fighting the communists from China and Russia and in fictional Middle East politics. Anyone who knows anything about history can tell you that the politics is basically bull, but you just have to go along with it. Its a plot driven rather than a character driven story and Wood does surprise with some very unexpected plot twists. The book is about 130 pages long but you'll probably find its best taken in small doses of around 15 pages.
No complaints on the art front. If you like old school comic art, this is for you. He draws amazing scenes, usually in small panels, and gets in a lot of detail.

Wally wood was an outstanding comic artist, possibly one who never received due praise during his life. Well, here's a chance to catch up.

This wonderful comic arose at the confluence of several forces. One was the "Comics Code," basically an industry self-censoring organization that arose after a series of bizarre 1950s excesses by the comic publishers as well as those convinced that comics were the devil's own. This "compromise" left the whip firmly in Mrs. Grundy's hand. A second force drove fictional spies to the forefront of entertainment culture: James Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Mission Impossible, and numerous others, all spawned by the Cold War that seemed never to end. America provided the third force, its armed forces in Vietnam - sort of like a jungle full of frat boys, but without the civilizing influences.

Wood dove headlong into that maelstrom, or male-storm, if you prefer. His artistic reservoirs filled to overflowing with racy imagery and episodes, but were dammed by the Comics Code. Somehow, he found an un-Coded outlet in a newsrag that the Army published for the boys (back then, they were pretty much all boys) in uniform. For the big boys in uniform - big boys who liked big girls. Wood's numerous female leads shared three common features: a massive bust (that's two) and an aversion to clothing. Uber-macho John Cannon strode into that scene like a stallion among mares in heat, but even this relatively liberal outlet stopped short of showing exactly how hot. This was paid for by taxpayers, after all.

If you don't mind some bulbous idealization of womanly figures, this provides a great mix of improbable adventure, strong artwork, unclad (but figleafed) babes, and minimal attention span.

-- wiredweird