Johnny Hazard The Newspaper Dailies 1944-1946 Volume 1 (JOHNNY HAZARD DAILIES HC)

So I open the box and my jaw drops.Classic character? Check.Great cartoonist? Check.Classic work? Robbins was better in his final years with Scorchy Smith, but hell yeah, check.Good reproduction? Yep, check again.But what the hell happened with the size? Are Hermes serious? This rivals their Starhawks fiasco form 8-9 years ago. In that mess the strips were presented so small that you needed the eyes of a ten year old with a magnifiying glass to read them. Forget enjoying Gil Kane's art. Now they've done it again, by producing a Johnny Hazard Big Little book for the 21st century. The strips are produced at what was probably the original print size, but the physical dimensions of the book are absurd, its like nothing I've seen on a shelf in, probably, ever.In my same order was the third volume of IDW's Secet Agent X-9. Now that is a volume and must be 10 times the size as this Johnny Hazard book, with a long essay included, for $1.00 more! I don't know who would buy this book at full price, they're nuts.

JOHNNY HAZARD is one of those great adventure strips that should be better known and certainly more celebrated than it is today. For its entirety from 1944 through 1977 both dailies and Sundays were written and drawn by just one man, Frank Robbins, a superb draftsman with an eye for perspective (and beautiful women) and a storyteller easily at home with either humour or drama.Many strip historians tend to dismiss JOHNNY HAZARD as a sort of second-rate STEVE CANYON, a charge that is truly unfair to both the character and his creator. Because in many ways JOHNNY HAZARD was always superior in my opinion. Both Robbins and Milton Caniff were inspired by the same premier aviation illustrator (Noel Sickles) and both created titular heroes who were aviators (although Robbins' came first if one discounts Caniff's TERRY & THE PIRATES).But whereas Canyon was a civilian (a returning vet) who eventually rejoined the Air Force and never left, Hazard began life as a combat fighter and transitioned to civilian within the first two years of his strip. As such, he could go anywhere and work any job whether it was private pilot, airline troubleshooter, or even (in the strip's last decade) agent for a secret agency that assists the United Nations.Which translated on printed page as foreign locales, colourful characters, and lots of femme fatales all wrapped up (again) in dynamic art and stories that were alternately humourous or edge-of-your-seat thrillers.Hermes Press' JOHNNY HAZARD collects the first years of the daily strip (the Sundays had their own continuity) from June 05, 1944 through November 19, 1945, presenting the first 5 continuities. It opens with Hazard stealing a plane behind German lines and rarely lets up afterward. Along the way in this book we are introduced to Brandy (a feisty and beautiful war correspondent) as well as the first of several major supporting characters that populate the world of Johnny Hazard: The Admiral (a navy brat forced to become a top pilot due to his seasickness) and Side-pocket Sam, the loquacious (but honorable) racketeer with an eye for angles (whether in black market or in bank shots).Art-wise the earliest strips are a bit too "fine line" (and Hazard himself a bit too generic) but by volume's end there's definitely the transition to the sharper linework and heavier use of black contrast that would become Robbins' trademarks. What we have then is a ground floor introduction to everything that would make JOHNNY HAZARD the long-running strip it deserved to be.I give this book 4 stars, primarily for its production values. The fifth star unfortunately is lost due to both its title and its price. Despite what the title and footers say, this book only contains the 1944-45 run, NOT the 1944-46 strips. Because of its delays in reaching publication, I can only surmise that an executive decision was made to excise the 1946 material in order to get the book out sooner rather than later. This would also seem to bear out by the advertised 288 pages clocking in at 238 pages instead.If so, the decision NOT to lower the price will probably hurt it in the long run. At $49.99 that's a steep price to ask new readers to buy in. (Older readers like me who have the older reprints from the 1980s can perhaps rationalize the superior paper stock DOES improve the reproduction quality!) Although Amazon has it currently discounted at $27.70 [making it a REAL bargain!], I can't see many non-Amazon customers buying it as full price at their local comic shop or other online retailer.Which is a shame because JOHNNY HAZARD truly gets better with every year of its existence. If you want to discover one of the best strip characters ever invented, do yourself a favor and buy this book at its current discount. Not only will you have some enjoyable (and affordable) reading, but you might help entice Hermes Press to follow up with a second volume soon.A number of more famous strips like DICK TRACY and BUCK ROGERS began life as crude renderings that improved later on -- once you could suffer past the failings. With JOHNNY HAZARD THE NEWSPAPER DAILIES VOLUME ONE you get what made the strip so memorable from the start.A masterpiece that deserves some recognition.

I'm so happy somebody is reprinting Johnny Hazard. My US Classics Series issues are a little old and beat up now. From reading some of the other reviews I understand most are disappointed with the size of the book, but I'm actually happy with it. This book is very readable and light instead of being a ponderous tome. I think the reproductions look great, but I hope they get to the 50's stuff when he was using more drybrush technique. I'll be very interested to see how those strips look. I do think the price is a little steep for the casual reader. I think most serious buyers will peruse this at a store and then go home and buy it. The price should be about $25. The artwork is 5 star but the price drags it down. I hope that these early books will be successful enough that they will be able to print more than the 10 issues of the US Classics Series and the other sporadic reprints. It seems to be a new golden age for nice reprint books, I could hardly find any of this stuff back in the 80's, and if I did it was a thin little paperback or some out of strip order one shot.

The reprint quality of this book is great..The strips are bright and sharp..There are 2 strips per page and they are a little wider compared to Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon strips..The pages have only 1/2 inch margin all the way around where as Terry and Steve books have a much larger margin...The text is also larger and can be read from further away rather than up close to one's face...I love the story lines and the art by Frank Robbins and can't wait for volume 2 to come out which I have pre-ordered ..Also pre-ordered the Sunday strips since they have different story arcs..The reason I only gave 4 stars for this review is because this book was supposed to have strips between 1944 to 1946 but was cut down to mid November of 1945..Recently read in a forum that Hermes Press plans on releasing about 10 Volumes (BRING THEM ON) of Johnny Hazard...This strip ran for 33 years so divide that by 10 volumes and you get about 3 years worth of dailies per book, so the rest of the books will need to be bigger...This is my first taste of Johnny Hazard and is quickly becoming my favorite...

La qualité de l'édition et le nombre limité de pages fait de cet article un ivre onéreux pour ce que c'est .. On est bien loin de l'éditeur qui publie les aventures de Teddy et les Pirates et/ou Steve Canyon.