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Jack Staff Volume 1: Everything Used To Be Black And White: v. 1

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Jack Staff Volume 1: Everything Used To Be Black And White: v. 1 (Paperback)

by Paul Grist (Artist, Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Price:	�12.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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This item: Jack Staff Volume 1: Everything Used To Be Black And White: v. 1 by Paul Grist

Usually dispatched within 7 to 11 days.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Jack Staff Vol. 3 : Echoes of Tomorrow: Echoes of Tomorrow v. 3 by Paul Grist

In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

This item: Jack Staff Volume 1: Everything Used To Be Black And White: v. 1 by Paul Grist
Usually dispatched within 7 to 11 days.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Jack Staff Vol. 3 : Echoes of Tomorrow: Echoes of Tomorrow v. 3 by Paul Grist
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

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Product details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Image Comics; illustrated edition edition (3 Mar 2004)
Language English
ISBN-10: 158240335X
ISBN-13: 978-1582403359
Product Dimensions: 25.4 x 16.5 x 2.5 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 450,422 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Jack Staff is Britain's Greatest Hero, or at least he used to be. Twenty years ago he disappeared, and everyone just forgot about him. Except for Becky Burdock, Girl Reporter for The World's Press. She's investigating a series of murders in Castletown, but finds a lot more than she expected, including a long forgotten super-hero and a secret that's been hidden for over sixty years.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Britain's greatest (super)hero? Could be., 9 April 2004

By	Ian Williams "ianw" (Sunderland, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This one is unashamedly aimed at comics fans, superhero fans, and British comic book fans. Originally independently published in the UK, then reprinted in the US and finally repackaged into this 350 page value for money trade paperback by Image, to whom everyone should give thanks.

This isn't, as I indicated above, for everyone. You certainly couldn't give it to someone who'd never read comics before without totally confusing them because they just wouldn't, couldn't, get it. For a start, the art is so sketchy it makes Alex Toth look like Barry Smith, though the style it most resembles is Keith Giffen's. Page layouts are extremely loose and variable. But, in context and once you get used to it, it's quite effective.

The storytelling appears equally confusing. In the manner of the old British weekly adventure comics, you get a new story, or in this case, a change of character every four or five pages (more or less). What happens is that the story continues from a different viewpoint (such as Becky Burdock Girl Reporter or Tom Tom the Robot Man), or goes into a subplot, or a flashback, or... Almost every character who appears in the book seems to get their own share of centre stage, nearly but not quite crowding out our hero, Jack Staff who himself often appears as his alter ego, John Smith the brickie. No, actually he owns his own building firm but, fair do's, he does get stuck in with the lads.

British pop culture keeps popping up from time to time. Sometimes rather obviously as when several characters from Dad's Army appear in a wartime sequence and sometimes quite breathtakingly imaginative -Steptoe & Son reinvented as vampire hunters. There's also the overall Britishness throughout -a villain confronting our hero offers him a nice cup of tea rather than a fight and, conversely, the police Inspector thug who'll do anything to get a result, any result, sunshine.

This isn't everyone's mid-morning cup of tea and a Yorkie but those for whom it is are in for a wry refreshing (just like a nice cup of tea) treat. More, please, Mr Grist,

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The power isn't in the stick..., 25 Feb 2008

By	S. Bentley "stuarthoratiobentley" (North Yorkshire) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Paul Grist saw that there is a big gaping hole where British superheroes should exist. Sure the Americans have created a few, but they've been very much the American idea of what a British superhero would be. Grist places his hero, the apparently immortal John Smith who runs around in a costume that looks like the Union flag, into the world of British comics, a world that was dominated by horror stories (as in Hammer House of Horror and Warrior), of supervillains (like the Spider and the Steel Claw, who make unofficial appearances here) and Victorian escape artists.

He also draws the book in a very sketchy style that I find quite attractive, but makes it very comic book. Indeed, Grist is very interested in what comics can do, while retaining the comic element. He doesn't use "Widescreen" techniques, the philosophy of making comics look like movies, as most of the big comic companies seem to think readers want. Instead, he routinely breaks the fourth wall by having characters directly address the reader, he breaks the story up into "strips" starring various characters and flips backwards and forwards in time, shifting between dreams in a reality, that means you have to pay attention.

As another reviewer points out, it's probably not for a newbie to comics, as it takes for granted that you've developed sophisticated reading techniques. (And they say comics are for kids.)

For me, a lot of the fun is the nostalgia element. In many ways Jack Staff reads like the comic strips of my youth. It reminds me of the telly I watched as a kid and of what being British used to mean. It's like the Avengers (Steed and Peel) mixed up with the Beano and the Eagle and turned into a fabulous cultural smoothie.

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