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Product Description
Review
Lethally entertaining and indecently good value ... like all the Mammoth collections --Independent on Sunday
Book Description
The 24 greatest crime comics ever produced!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've reviewed the other 'Mammoth Book of Best (fill in the blank) Comics' and had varying degrees of reservations about them all, usually to do with the word 'Best' in title, and that usually because the selections weren't genuinely inclusive, often, I surmise, because the compiler couldn't afford the reprint rights. I should also acknowledge that no two people would ever compile exactly the same Best list anyway.
This collection, however, combines breadth, depth and quality. The omissions of DC and Marvel stories isn't important this time because they weren't as important in this genre (except latterly for some Vertigo titles). A simple list of the contributors alone should have anyone with the slightest interest reaching for the add to basket button. Take a look at this-
An opening elegy for the gangster by Alan Moore; a short by Kirby & Simon, Jack 'Plastic Man' Cole including one image that freaked out Frederick Wertham; a surreal piece by modernist Charles Burns; a short sharp and sexy Spirit story (a mandatory inclusion); a 70-page complete daily strip written by Dashiel Hammett prior to leaving for the lucre of Hollywood and illustrated by then-newcomer Alex Raymond; legend Alex Toth; a 50page story featuring a 9-month pregnant private eye Ms Tree by Collins & Beatty; a Kane story by the talented and British writer/artist Paul Grist; Mickey Spillane writing Mike Hammer for a Sunday strip; and much much more.
The time span ranges from the 30's to the 90's, the contributors from America, Britain, and Europe.
Not all of it's perfect. Crime stories often look better in black and white so the removal of colour usually isn't a problem here. Usually. The two Bernie Krigstein stories look very thin compared to the other contributions. But that is the worst I can say and it's a minor quibble; Krigstein is historically important so I can understand why compiler Paul Gravett included him.
This is an excellent collection and certainly hands down the best of The Mammoth Book of the Best (fill in the blank) Comics.
This collection, however, combines breadth, depth and quality. The omissions of DC and Marvel stories isn't important this time because they weren't as important in this genre (except latterly for some Vertigo titles). A simple list of the contributors alone should have anyone with the slightest interest reaching for the add to basket button. Take a look at this-
An opening elegy for the gangster by Alan Moore; a short by Kirby & Simon, Jack 'Plastic Man' Cole including one image that freaked out Frederick Wertham; a surreal piece by modernist Charles Burns; a short sharp and sexy Spirit story (a mandatory inclusion); a 70-page complete daily strip written by Dashiel Hammett prior to leaving for the lucre of Hollywood and illustrated by then-newcomer Alex Raymond; legend Alex Toth; a 50page story featuring a 9-month pregnant private eye Ms Tree by Collins & Beatty; a Kane story by the talented and British writer/artist Paul Grist; Mickey Spillane writing Mike Hammer for a Sunday strip; and much much more.
The time span ranges from the 30's to the 90's, the contributors from America, Britain, and Europe.
Not all of it's perfect. Crime stories often look better in black and white so the removal of colour usually isn't a problem here. Usually. The two Bernie Krigstein stories look very thin compared to the other contributions. But that is the worst I can say and it's a minor quibble; Krigstein is historically important so I can understand why compiler Paul Gravett included him.
This is an excellent collection and certainly hands down the best of The Mammoth Book of the Best (fill in the blank) Comics.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A great book that any comics fan would be happy to find in their Christmas stocking. Here are the full contents:
Old Gangsters Never Die by Alan Moore & Lloyd Thatcher (8 pgs)
Torpedo 1936: The Switch by Sanchez Abuli & Jordi Bernet (8 pgs)
The Money-Making Machine Swindlers by Joe Simon & Jack Kir by (14 pgs)
87th Precinct: Blind Mans Bluff by ? & Bernie Krigstein (32 pgs)
The Murderer of Hung by Dominique Grange & Jacques Tardi (8 pgs)
Murder, Morphine and Me! by Jack Cole (14 pgs)
El Borbah: Love in Vain by Charles Burnes (9 pgs)
The Spirit: The Portier Fortune by Will Eisner (7 pgs)
Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett & Alex Raymond (80 pgs)
Commissario Spada:Strada by Gianluigi Gonano & Gianni De Luca (10 pgs)
Lily-White Joe by ? & Bernie Krigstein (8 pgs)
The Crushed Gardenia by ? & Alex Toth (8 pgs)
Ms Tree: Maternity Leave by Max Allan Collins & Terry Beatty (48 pgs)
Roy Carson and the Old Master by Colin McLoughlin & Denis McLoughlin (12 pgs)
Mary Spratchet by ? (9 pgs)
Alack Sinner: Talkin With Joe by Carlos Sampayo & Jose Munoz (27 pgs)
The Button by ? & Bill Everett (5 pgs)
Kane: Rat in the House by Paul Grist (32 pgs)
Who Dunnit? by ? & Fred Guardineer (6 pgs)
Mike Lancer and the Syndicate of Death by Mickey Spillane & Harry Sahle (6 pgs)
Mike Hammer: Dark City by Mickey Spillane & Ed Robbins (32 pgs)
The Court by Neil Gaiman & Warren Pleece (10 pgs)
The Sewer by Johnny Craig (8 pgs)
I Keep Coming Back by Alan Moore & Oscar Zarate (12 pgs)
Old Gangsters Never Die by Alan Moore & Lloyd Thatcher (8 pgs)
Torpedo 1936: The Switch by Sanchez Abuli & Jordi Bernet (8 pgs)
The Money-Making Machine Swindlers by Joe Simon & Jack Kir by (14 pgs)
87th Precinct: Blind Mans Bluff by ? & Bernie Krigstein (32 pgs)
The Murderer of Hung by Dominique Grange & Jacques Tardi (8 pgs)
Murder, Morphine and Me! by Jack Cole (14 pgs)
El Borbah: Love in Vain by Charles Burnes (9 pgs)
The Spirit: The Portier Fortune by Will Eisner (7 pgs)
Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett & Alex Raymond (80 pgs)
Commissario Spada:Strada by Gianluigi Gonano & Gianni De Luca (10 pgs)
Lily-White Joe by ? & Bernie Krigstein (8 pgs)
The Crushed Gardenia by ? & Alex Toth (8 pgs)
Ms Tree: Maternity Leave by Max Allan Collins & Terry Beatty (48 pgs)
Roy Carson and the Old Master by Colin McLoughlin & Denis McLoughlin (12 pgs)
Mary Spratchet by ? (9 pgs)
Alack Sinner: Talkin With Joe by Carlos Sampayo & Jose Munoz (27 pgs)
The Button by ? & Bill Everett (5 pgs)
Kane: Rat in the House by Paul Grist (32 pgs)
Who Dunnit? by ? & Fred Guardineer (6 pgs)
Mike Lancer and the Syndicate of Death by Mickey Spillane & Harry Sahle (6 pgs)
Mike Hammer: Dark City by Mickey Spillane & Ed Robbins (32 pgs)
The Court by Neil Gaiman & Warren Pleece (10 pgs)
The Sewer by Johnny Craig (8 pgs)
I Keep Coming Back by Alan Moore & Oscar Zarate (12 pgs)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Great!
14 Aug 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the third Mammoth comics volumes--the first two focusing on war & horror. Both of those earlier volumes were hampered, although not crippled, by the refusals of EC, DC, Marvel/Atlas & Warren to allow reprints of their stories (although Warren tales did appear in the War volume). However this volume focuses on crime, a genre neither DC or Marvel/Atlas did much of importance with, Warren only produced a few stories in (although they tended to be of quite high quality) and, in fact, an EC story does appear here.
With almost the entire field to choose from the quality of this volume is very high with an excellent 1934 Dashiell Hammett/Alex Raymond tale from Secret Agent X-9; two stories from Bernie Krigstein (including the very strange 'Blind Man's Bluff' which was his swansong to comics); obscure but high quality Alan Moore & Neil Gaiman tales (including Moore's epilogue to his graphic novel 'From Hell'); a great Max Collins/Terry Beatty Ms. Tree tale, a fine Johnny Craig story from EC, Jack Cole's classic 'Murder, Morphine And Me!', a fine Joe Simon/Jack Kirby bunko tale, some decent Euro crime tales making their North American debuts, Will Eisner's Spirit (although one might quibble why 'The Portier Fortune'--a good but not great Spirit tale appears, when such genuine noir greats like 'Black Alley', 'Ten Minutes' or 'Fox At Bay' were passed by), Jordi Bernet with a Torpedo tale, an Alex Toth classic, Charles Burns' El Boro and much, much more. In fact, the quality of this book is so high while the price is so low that it may well be the best comic anthology of the year for your dollar.
With almost the entire field to choose from the quality of this volume is very high with an excellent 1934 Dashiell Hammett/Alex Raymond tale from Secret Agent X-9; two stories from Bernie Krigstein (including the very strange 'Blind Man's Bluff' which was his swansong to comics); obscure but high quality Alan Moore & Neil Gaiman tales (including Moore's epilogue to his graphic novel 'From Hell'); a great Max Collins/Terry Beatty Ms. Tree tale, a fine Johnny Craig story from EC, Jack Cole's classic 'Murder, Morphine And Me!', a fine Joe Simon/Jack Kirby bunko tale, some decent Euro crime tales making their North American debuts, Will Eisner's Spirit (although one might quibble why 'The Portier Fortune'--a good but not great Spirit tale appears, when such genuine noir greats like 'Black Alley', 'Ten Minutes' or 'Fox At Bay' were passed by), Jordi Bernet with a Torpedo tale, an Alex Toth classic, Charles Burns' El Boro and much, much more. In fact, the quality of this book is so high while the price is so low that it may well be the best comic anthology of the year for your dollar.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Beyond Sin City
28 Oct 2008
Format:Paperback
Since reading Mike Benton's fascinating Illustrated History of Crime Comics, I've been interested in the genre. It predates horror comics by more than a decade, and crime comics were a huge hit with adults in the 40s. In terms of era, form and content, they fit neatly between the hardboiled pulp magazines and novels, and film noir.
This Mammoth Book collection has plenty of pre-50s stuff, including the amazingly hard hitting Secret Agent X-9 newspaper strip from the 30s. There's also a cool Johnny Craig story from Crime Suspenstories-- my favorite EC title! Frank Miller talks about Craig's work a good deal in the Sin City commentary.
It's also wonderful to finally have high quality reproductions of the original inks of Jack Cole's "Murder, Morphine and Me," and Alex Toth's "The Crushed Gardenia," and Bernie Krigstein's "Lilly-White Joe"-- all real classics. I also loved Krigstein's solid adaptation of the bizarro 87th Precinct story "Blind Man's Bluff".
Even the newer stuff I've never heard of is worth reading. And it's all great reference material. I wish this was a huge coffee table hardback, but then it would've probably cost seventy-five bucks! I hope there's a part two, because I know the source material's hardly been exhausted. One example that comes to mind is the terrific Joe Lansdale/Bruce Timm team-up "Red Romance".
This Mammoth Book collection has plenty of pre-50s stuff, including the amazingly hard hitting Secret Agent X-9 newspaper strip from the 30s. There's also a cool Johnny Craig story from Crime Suspenstories-- my favorite EC title! Frank Miller talks about Craig's work a good deal in the Sin City commentary.
It's also wonderful to finally have high quality reproductions of the original inks of Jack Cole's "Murder, Morphine and Me," and Alex Toth's "The Crushed Gardenia," and Bernie Krigstein's "Lilly-White Joe"-- all real classics. I also loved Krigstein's solid adaptation of the bizarro 87th Precinct story "Blind Man's Bluff".
Even the newer stuff I've never heard of is worth reading. And it's all great reference material. I wish this was a huge coffee table hardback, but then it would've probably cost seventy-five bucks! I hope there's a part two, because I know the source material's hardly been exhausted. One example that comes to mind is the terrific Joe Lansdale/Bruce Timm team-up "Red Romance".
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The Ultimate Crime Comics "Mixtape"
7 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback
An Eisner Spirit classic, A Torpedo classic, a huge chunk of Hammett and Raymond's Secret Agent X-9 comic strip, El Boro short, Miss Tree story, This book is a classic "mixtape" of someone's most favorite crime comics ever! I was SO enthralled by this collection that I ordered all of the other Mammoth Comic collections, but sincerely, this Crime Comics volume is a great collection and a high example of some of the best quality and entertainment that comics have to give. Easily a bargain at TWICE the listed price!
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