Point Blank #2 - John Brown/Acme/Eclipse

I've talked about the joint publication Point Blank before, and enjoyed the first issue so much I had always planned to find the other issues.

Sadly, that should be other issue, singular, because Point Blank folded up shop after a measly two issues.

Which is a darn shame, since both the conception and execution of the magazine was well done--presenting European "noir" strips, in black and white in a nice big magazine size.

Maybe if Eclipse had started out with some more commercial material(to American comic readers, at least) instead of the low-key stuff they chose Point Blank would've lasted longer. Oh well.

Like the first issue, the book opens up with "Marvin" by Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo, about a private eye who was a former Hollywood screen idol and who is now working on a case ("The Case of Marion Colman") to find a missing girl, but gets in way over his head.

The story and art are just great, very atmospheric, but there's even an extended sequence set on a battlefield, which artist Milazzo does as well as any war comic I've seen in a while:

...I love that final panel. That feels like an explosion to me.

Next is "Dieter Lumpen" by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero, starring in two stories, "Time Bomb" and "His Master's Voice." Having won a game of Russian Roulette in the previous issue, Dieter finds himself wandering across Asia, where he meets a dangerous dame(of course!) and gets caught up in a local war. Like the last issue, this story features a superb noir-ish splash page:

While "Marvin" was a continued strip, "Dieter" wraps up here, to be replaced by a new strip in the third issue...*sigh*.

Point Blank #1 - John Brown/Acme/Eclipse

I had no idea of the contents of this magazine, but when I saw the cover it looked so cool I picked it up. Only costing $1.50 had something to do with it, too.

This magazine, as the cover says, reprints European strip art, all in glorious b/w. It is the product of no less than three publishers, John Brown Publishing, Acme Press, and distributed by Eclipse.

The cover is nifty, well drawn and designed, and I love the logo. The giant blood-red close-up gives you an idea of what awaits you inside...

First up is Dieter Lumpen starring in "Game of Chance", by Ruben Pellejero and Jorge Zentner. Those names are both unfamiliar to me(I'm a bit of a comics philistine, but I'm learning!), but from the film noir opening:

...you know you're in for a tale of cheats, losers, cruelty, and probably a little murder. Our "hero" is Dieter, who finds himself deep in gambling debts, and literally bets himself to get out of that debt. His debtor demans Dieter kill someone as payment, which he manages to do, but not in the way you'd expect. A great, tight little story--ten pages of nasty dark humor.

Next is Marvin in "The Case of Marion Colbran", by Ivo Milazzo and Giancarlo Berardi, set in the backlots of silent film-era Hollywood.

It ends with a great, wordless sequence as Marvin gets lost in a reverie as he listens to a local marching band:

Both stories are a blast to read, and they move along at the same pace as those wonderful little 62 minute "B" crime thrillers from the late 40s--you're dropped into the plot, with a bunch of characters that seem to know each other already, and frequently you are as lost as the main character.

I enjoyed Point-Blank a lot--the stories were great, and the presentation was pretty good. I couldn't find much info on it, though I do know there was at least a second issue, which I definitely plan to pick up.

Kiss! Kiss! Bang! Bang!