Customer Reviews

Stan Drake's The Heart of Juliet Jones Volume 2

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As artist Howard Chaykin points out in his foreword to this eye-filling collection of one of the greatest of all "soap" continuity strips, "Juliet Jones" creator Stan Drake exemplified the professional illustrator who still flourished in the mid-Fifties, when the strips collected here first appeared. These men (and they were, typically, male) flourished in women's magazines, where they brought peerless draftsmanship, and color & design sense to paintings that added visual kick to short stories and true-life tales. Think Coby Whitmore, Ed Vebell, Jon Whitcomb, Edwin Georgi, and others of that class. Drake brought not just all the technical skill of those and similar illustrators to "Juliet Jones," but a smart, engaging sense of domestic drama, as well. In broad terms, the strip concerned itself with the yearnings and romances of thoughtful brunette Juliet and her spirited, blonde younger sister, Eve. The stories were set in a prosperous small town (apparently in New York State), and came complete with the girls' rumpled, vaguely ineffectual, but frequently wise father. A typical story continuity lasted from two to four months. This volume, like the highly recommended first one, brings Juliet and Eve into contact with a variety of men, with believable progressions and outcomes. Women still read comic strips 55 years ago, so the "Juliet Jones" continuities are unabashedly romantic. That means that there's kissing and stuff. But Drake expanded the the familiar romance form, utilizing it to explore such issues as vanity, cowardice, self-deception, criminality, emotional revenge, the entrepreneurial spirit, social climbing, and even mortality. So: the stories are engaging and very entertaining. But this is a comic strip, so the dominant allure is Drake's art. He was one of those improbably gifted illustrators who could draw not only beautiful people, but buildings, machinery, automobiles, appliances, furniture, landscapes, city scenes--the whole panoply of life. He drew brilliantly, finishing each panel with brush and pen strokes that are achingly elegant. Drake was particularly good with hands; Juliet and Eve's hands are expressive in the extreme, and were invariably rendered with simultaneous power and delicacy. The strip is also subtly designed and composed, with judicious use of black areas and half-tones, and a visual rhythm that coaxes the reader's eye from one panel to the next. Strip aficionados talk a lot about "Steve Canyon" and Li'l Abner" and "Buz Sawyer"--and justifiably so--but "The Heart of Juliet Jones" may stand apart and alone as the masterpiece of that specialized and difficult art form. Drake's followers look forward to Volume Three.

Stan Drake is a master of the syndicated strip and one the best artist in that medium. This is a wonderful example of his work and talent.