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BOOK REVIEW! SMILIN' JACK HELPS G-MEN SOLVE A CASE! BY ZACK MOSLEY (Pacific Comics, 2000)

Whaddya mean "helps"??? He practically handles the whole golly ned case himself!!!!

Anyway, when I was a much younger comic strip fan I never really gave a hoot about this strip. For some strange reason I actually thought that Zack Mosley's artwork in SMILIN' JACK was too grotesque for my tastes, strange given my obsession with the even-more grotesque DICK TRACY not to mention a few other strips with a decidedly distorted take on the human form. Or maybe it was because I read some old War-era storyline where the Japanese were made to look like neo-humanoid evil gnomes and as you all know, THESE PORTRAYALS ALWAYS MAKE ME WANNA STICK UP FOR THE AXIS POWER TYPES SINCE THEY SURELY AIN'T THE GOODY TWO-SHOES KINDA CHARACTERS THAT I DESPISE THE MOST!!!!! As you all know I do get that way sometimes.

This comic book reprint of a '38 SMILIN' JACK saga has pretty much changed my mind, at least of what this strip delivered on in its earlier days. The Jack seen here seems to be much different than the more familiar version, looking thinner and without the mustache that adorned him in every other piece of SMILIN' JACK artwork I've seen. The art also looks better, still in that patented Chicago Tribune style but not as exaggerated as the SMILIN' JACK strips I knew the best. Sheesh, maybe it is time to re-acquaint myself with SMILIN' JACK now that I'm an old turd and have a perhaps more honed sense of comic strip appreciation pulsating through my system.

This collection packs a pretty good wallop of a saga too. At first Jack ain't smilin' one bit what with his galpal marrying his best friend (and Jack, being all grown up about it even if he is more 'n cryin' onna inside, acts as best man that's the kinda guy he is!), but while tryin' to forget the entire female gender without getting light inna loafers Jack takes a job at the Sky-Devil airplane company which---surprise surprise---just happens to be brimming with pudenda (including the boss!). And make no bones about it they all wanna get their hands on this new employee much to Jack's ire! I'll bet you wish you had luck like that!

However that ain't gonna stop Jack from testin' the X-13, a spiffy new 'craft that the US government just might purchase given its mobility and keen looks! And right on cue one of those nameless foreign powers you always see in those thirties B-films wants the plane for themselves, and someone at the plant is doin' their darndest to see that not only the plane, but perhaps Smilin' Jack himself, takes a sabotaged and fiery crash right in front of the assembled governmental officials just so's they can scoot off with the plane plans themselves! Naturally this story leads you on some interesting turns and twists and well...

I don't wanna give too much away because you'll really wanna read this yourself. But I will tell ya that as the story progresses not only do we find out who the mystery saboteur is (and boy is it a surprise!) but Smilin' Jack come across a Gould-worthy freakish enemy who resembles the thirties-era Peter Lorre! That really proves that Mosley had his finger on the pulse of hotcha thirties moom pitcher entertainment what with such a blatant cop such as this! Lotsa action and close calls in store with this 'un, kids!