Writing and Art by Jack Cole
1999
Published by DC Comics
224 pgs.
Beginning in 1941, a twisted cartoonist named Jack Cole created Plastic Man for the Quality Comics company. Appearing in the pages of Police Comics, Plastic Man was, and remains, one of the most singular pieces of comic genius that's ever been published. Funny, violent and aggressively creative, every page of this pristine archive edition contains some form of imagination that shocks and humiliates most of the super-hero comics created today. This was, after all, 1941--yet Cole's imaginative storytelling and whip-smart pencils continue to astonish the eye and mind.
On second thought, maybe you shouldn't read this. After all, considering that the current version of Plastic Man roams around the DC universe of comic books for no real discernible purpose, and that his most well-known rip-off, Mr. Fantastic, is probably the most heavy-handed and melodramatic character in comic book history, maybe it's best not to find out that, excepting Civil Rights and the Moon Walk, we'd be better off if nothing had changed since 1941. Well, maybe just the comics, with an allowance for Watchman and Robert Crumb. In either case, it's a damn shame that such an exciting piece of work is, currently, only available in a fifty dollar hardcover, with all the art reduced to fit the current comic size. Still, the Plastic Man Archives are a heroic piece of publication, and shouldn't be ignored by anyone who still thinks that comics about spandex clad manboys don't have anything to offer them.
They do--they have spandex clad manboys.
-Tucker Stone, 2007
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