The Plastic Man Archives, Vol. 7 (DC Archive Editions) [Hardcover]

Jack Cole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006

Jack Cole really starts hitting his stride on the Plastic Man book, with more outrageous stories and inspired art. Even his gangland adversaries begin to match Plas, himself, in sheer zaniness, villains including Froggy Fink, underworld killer; Serena Sloop, defender of poor misguided crooks; Slinky, Slimy, and Slippery Slade, the elusive criminal brothers who lead Plas and Woozy on a gay nineties adventure; Elmer Body the body-possessing nobody; Fargo Freddie, the volcanic man; a trip to Coroner's Corners where everyone is crazy, and more! This volume includes an introduction by Michelle Urry, cartoon editor for Playboy magazine, with an overview of Cole's career with a special focus on his gag cartoon work after leaving comics.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Most comic books published during the medium's putative golden age were crude, simplistic, and aimed strictly at children. Among the rare exceptions was Cole's Plastic Man, which is being collected in deluxe hardcover volumes reprinting its entire 15-year run. Unlike the dour, superpowered crime fighters typical of the period, Plas was lighthearted, perhaps inevitably, considering the inherent absurdity of a man in red tights and goggles who can stretch into any shape he wants to. In these stories from 1947, Plas, who seldom ran across the costumed megalomaniacs bedeviling most superheroes, confronts crime bosses, mad scientists, a hired gunman, greedy businessmen, and femmes fatales. He travels to Hollywood, meeting an India rubber man, and also heads west to round up rustlers. A wonderful cartoonist, Cole would, a few years later, become Playboy' s star illustrator. But it's his storytelling skill that makes these absurdities so compelling. Comic-book buffs already know how delightful Plastic Man is, but even idle browsers are likely to get reeled in by Cole's inimitably skewed take on the superhero genre. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401204139
• ISBN-13: 978-1401204136
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 0.7 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,518,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you are looking for Jack Cole comics..., December 17, 2008

By 

John Public (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Plastic Man Archives, Vol. 7 (DC Archive Editions) (Hardcover)

...you should be aware that there is much work by other people in this book. (DC does not seem too concerned: the contents page says 'All by Cole', then in small print 'maybe'; the introduction that follows mentions that 1 story is by an assistant.)
I think that 3 Plastic Man stories (Dr.Volt,Homeliest Man,Police Comics #71) here (and 2 backup Woozy stories) are not by Cole. Also only in 1 story does Cole seem to ink his own pencils (Police #69).
The 9 remaining stories by Jack Cole are excellent, fast and funny, perfect combinations of imaginative words/story and uniquely attractive art. I have only volume #2 in this series to compare, and found these stories more fluent and funnier (although #2 is at least as fine a collection).
The 'product description' given by Amazon at the time of writing does not refer to this volume.

5.0 out of 5 stars Protean, February 15, 2012

By 

Jonathan Stover (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Plastic Man Archives, Vol. 7 (DC Archive Editions) (Hardcover)

Plastic Man Archives Volume 7: written and illustrated by Jack Cole (1946-47; collected 2006): Another jolly, anarchic, cleanly rendered volume of Golden Age Plastic Man adventures, written and illustrated by the stretchable hero's creator Jack Cole and members of Cole's studio. Plastic Man is one of the few Golden Age comic books that holds up today, not just as a historic curiosity, but as an exemplar of the form and of the superhero genre.

Plastic Man's adventures are funny and fun without being weightless (the death count is surprisingly high). Cole's imagination found wings with a hero who could look like pretty much anything, battling crooks who were comic grotesques. While Plas works for the FBI (the first superhero to work for a government agency, so far as I recall), he remains a curiously liminal figure -- a bringer of chaos and anarchy in the cause of law and order.

While Cole would 'cut loose' on the splash pages of Plastic Man's adventures (taking a cue from the Will Eisner studio's Spirit, upon which Cole worked briefly), he primarily unleashed his narrative magic within a fairly conventional panel layout. It's inside the panels that everything cuts loose, and within which little jokes and sub-stories play out in the background in a manner which anyone who's read the later Mad magazine would recognize, though I think Cole was taking his inspiration from great comic strips that include Bringing Up Father (aka Maggie and Jiggs), Krazy Kat and E.C. Segar's Thimble Theatre (aka Popeye) when it came to the dense shenanigans occurring around and behind the main action of a strip.

The product of a true visionary and artist, Plastic Man is one of those rare Golden-Age comic-book creations who has never been improved upon by writers and artists other than his creator. Lovely, lovely stuff.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Plastic Man Archives, Vol. 1-8, November 4, 2006

By 

David Emme - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Plastic Man Archives, Vol. 7 (DC Archive Editions) (Hardcover)

This was an amazing series. Jack Cole is a genius. It had great plots in every edition. If your looking for a quality comic with both humor and exitement this is perfect.Also if you simply want to spend a quiet afternoon reading its good for that too. Another great thing about this series is it does not have many issues tied together with one continues plot. This is a incredible series in every sense.