The
Popular Imagination: Jack Cole and Plastic Man
(originally published in the Fall
2001 issue of Once Upon A Dime)
The
layouts of this chronicle on the life and work of
Jack Cole do more than mimic the subject's zeal
in artistic design, they also serve as a Greek Chorus
companion to Spiegelman's text. It becomes apparent
early on that the chosen pieces of Cole's art reflect
a deeper sensibility, the opportunity to get a glimpse
of their creator's person, perhaps even his state
of mind. The final pages crescendo into a dizzying
and powerful final commentary on Cole's giddiness,
anguish and suicide.
This
is less a biography and more of a tribute to Cole
by Spiegelman, who writes with a boy's admiration,
a colleague's understanding and a fellow artist's
awe. Spiegelman, the Pulitizer Prize winning author
and artist of the groundbreaking Holocaust graphic
novel Maus, wisely allows Cole's work to stand-alone.
The
book contains two full Plastic Man stories and a
riveting True Crime tale from the "Golden Age
of Comics." The latter part of the book also
includes Cole's work for Playboy, which helped shaped
the young magazine's artistic style, and his own
daily comic strip, "Betsy and Me".
From
all reasonable accounts, Cole was good-humored,
and possessed the wherewithal to endure the long
hours and short respect of the early comic book
industry, perhaps evident by his ingenious creation
Plastic Man, a criminal who reforms when a chemical
spill makes his body rubber. However, Spiegelman
also demonstrates Cole was a man at odds with himself,
brewing an internal conflict that would eventually
prove too much a burden to live with.
Though
he could earn greater respect, and wealth, from
his own syndicated comic strip, and lush watercolors
for Playboy, respectively, the freeform page layouts
and fun evident in Plastic Man give way to art which,
when seen in a full collection such as this, evoke
a great sadness.
Spiegelman
explores rather than critiques the art, demonstrating
Cole's mastery of catching the reader's eye and
leading them through a page. Quotes from Cole's
associates Hugh Hefner and legendary comic creator
Will Eisner seem more like friendly conversation,
rather than a determined attempt to dissect the
man's psyche.
Two
of the most welcome pieces in the book are written
by Cole: the first, an essay published in Boy's
Life detailing his coast to coast bike ride as a
teenager, and the second, a brief letter to Hefner,
where Cole tells the publisher he's going to commit
suicide. By the time the letter was received, Cole
had already performed the act. Those two pieces,
bookends to a life and both displaying equal resolve,
give the reader a sense of the man and his journey
better than any commentary could.
Art
can be enjoyed separate from its creator. However,
the artist is indivisible from his work. The vitality
and wit of Cole's stories, as well as the energy
and mastery of the composition, continue to find
new audiences. Here, the enigma of Cole is unraveled,
and what is left is a portrait of an artist ahead
of his time coupled with a man trying to make sense
of his circumstance.
--
Stephen Sonneveld
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