The Perils Of Serialization, Part 2A
Jack Jackson died over the summer.
Unless you're a hardcore comics fan, I wouldn't expect you to know the name, but Jackson (a.k.a. "Jaxon") was responsible for one of the first underground comics, 1964's God Nose (Snot Reel), and after helping to start Rip-Off Press in 1969, Jackson contributed trippy sci-fi stories and history plays to comix anthologies like Slow Death and Insect Fear. In 1979, he collected some of his history stories in the book Comanche Moon–one of the few serious, mature comics books to be published in that era–and he continued to do extended historical stories (mostly about Texas) throughout the rest of his life, published in books like Los Tejanos and Lost Cause.
Jackson's name was already rattling around in my head when he died, because at the time I'd been reading The Comics Journal Interviews The Writers, an absolutely fascinating collection of interviews that TCJ conducted with the hot young comics writers of 25 to 30 years ago–people like
Dennis O'Neill and
Steve Gerber and
Chris Claremont and
Marv Wolfman. By the late '70s, underground comix were all but extinct, and the fledgling Comics Journal was digging for signs of life at DC and Marvel, or wherever else they could find it. To the eternal credit of the magazine's editor Gary Groth, he wasn't willing to settle for "better than the usual crap," and it's uncomfortable at times to read Groth and company's relentless grilling of some of these writers, as TCJ says to them, essentially, "You're smart guys. There are glimmers of intelligence in your super hero work. Why can't you grow the hell up?"
Most of the people featured in the book never did get it together, with the notable exceptions of the late
Archie Goodwin (whose subsequent work as an editor produced smart comics for adults and the rousing juvenilia that the medium still needs) and a pleasant chap named Alan Moore, freshly introduced to America via Swamp Thing and ready to rewire some fanboy brains. The rest of the group spends a lot of time grumbling about business demands and audience expectations, and patting themselves on the back for introducing just a little post-Watergate ennui into some dopey Captain America comic. The Journal interviewers–Groth especially–counter with examples of some good non-mainstream sci-fi and fantasy work that might be a better model for these writers to follow. They also mention Will Eisner's loose shot at a "graphic novel" A Contract With God, and, ta-da!, Jack Jackson.
(Aside: In the TCJ book, Groth seems frustrated with the persistent mediocrity of American popular culture in general, including movies, TV and pop literature. For some reason, he and others keep bringing up the TV series adaptation of The Paper Chase as an example of "smart" entertainment. It was a different time, I guess.)
Ultimately, what's fascinating about The Comics Journal Interviews The Writers is how restless and dissatisfied Groth is. Even stuff he likes–like Eisner–he seems to think is lacking something essential to real art, and while he's jabbing away at
Len Wein or
Steve Englehart, he keeps suggesting that there's no real reason why the best we should hope for from comics is just a slightly more nuanced superhero book. (A few years later, Groth would put his money where his mouth is and publish Los Bros Hernandez's Love & Rockets, and considering the full context of the times, those Los Bros comics look all the more phenomenal … sort of like jumping from Arrival Of A Train to Citizen Kane in a single year.)