Customer Reviews

Streetwise

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In the tradition of Will Eisner's "Dropsie Avenue" tales, this collection from TwoMorrows Publishing (home of comic-book magazines Comic Book Artist, Jack Kirby Collector, and Alter Ego) offers a mix of moving, amusing, and breathtaking autobiographical tales from a range of comics talents.

Jack Kirby's "Street Code" is the springboard -- a beautifully illustrated tale told in pencil about the King's childhood in Brooklyn during the Depression era. Alex Toth (creator of Space Ghost, but he did so much more) presents a text-and-drawing tale about getting by during the Depression. Captain Marvel creator C.C. Beck offers an illustrated story about his struggle to make it as an artist after a lifetime of his preacher father being told it was not a suitable trade for his son.

There's also humor -- Scott Shaw tells of a Halloween experience, Evan Dorkin tells about a summer of stealing sodas at camp. And on a more serious note, there's the first version of a little book called "Maus" by a man named Art Spiegelman... who later went on to win the first Pulitzer for the comics form with the full-length tale.

If you're a fan of today's black-and-white comics, or the legends of the past, check out this book. You won't regret it.

This is an excellent collection of autobiographical tales from some legendary comic artists, themed around Jack Kirby's childhood memoir 'Street Code'. In fact the cover ( by Steve Rude ) shows possibly one of the defining moments in the history of comics, depicting the real-life incident where a young Kirby first came across the worlds of Fantasy & Science-Fiction in the form of a battered pulp magazine, inspiring his imagination, and ( as the intro to this book says ) 'igniting a creative spark that would change comics forever.'
There's a lot more to this collection than The King, tho'.
All styles of art & types of story are represented here, including Murphy Anderson & Nick Cardy's beautifully pencilled depiction's of their individual childhood's, Brent Anderson's first experience of death during a camping trip, Sal Amendola's & Alan Kupperberg's respective tour's around the DC offices of the '70's, Rick Veitch & Paul Chadwick's weird tales of hitch-hiking, Barry Windsor-Smith's UFO experience, Michael T. Gilbert's heartbreaking drug anecdote and much, much more besides.
This is a book that won't be for all fans, but for those of us interested in the people behind the work, it's a fantastic peek into the creative life, by turns humorous, harrowing & just plain entertaining.