Dover’s collection of “The Bozz Chronicles” is like getting a DVD set of an old TV show from your childhood that you remember seeing commercials for during the shows you did watch, but that you never actually saw back in the day. Does it live up to your one-step-removed nostalgia? Can it? Why yes, yes it can.
Written by David Micheline
Illustrated by Bret Blevins & John Ridgway
Published by Dover Graphic NovelsWriter David Michelinie (Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man) and Bret Blevins (The New Mutants) deliver the first trade paperback collection of their six-part comic cult favorite, in which a suicidal alien and a plucky prostitute form a detective agency that accepts cases rejected by Scotland Yard. A Victorian setting evokes the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, spiced up with supernatural sleuthing in the manner of Doctor Who and The X-Files, with a touch of steampunk style. This collection includes a new foreword and bonus pin-up by Brandon Graham.
“The Bozz Chronicles” was originally a six-issue miniseries put out by Marvel under its Epic Comics imprint in 1986. Run by Archie Goodwin for the majority of its existence, Epic was a few things at once: a place for Goodwin to practice his legendary editorial skills and good taste, an outlet for Marvel creators to do creator-owned work with the backing of a major publisher, thus avoiding the out-on-a-limb perils of self-publishing, and a way for Marvel to tap into the burgeoning independent comics market that had outgrown superheroes. You might even say it was a kind of Vertigo before DC did Vertigo.
Writer David Michelinie had been in mainstream comics for almost a decade at this point, racking up lengthy runs on “Iron Man” with Bob Layton and “Avengers” with John Byrne and George Perez. So even if “Bozz”’s setting wasn’t something you’d associate with a mainstream comics workhorse, the storytelling was rock solid. The series itself has a strong 80’s episodic vibe to it. The cases of Bozz, Mandy, and Salem aren’t serialized to the point of not being able to pick up any issue and jump right in (even discounting the fact that with only six issues, how much continuity could they build up?), but there is a bit of overarching progression in addition to the beginning/middle/end of each installment.
Bozz might be the title character but Amanda Flynn steals your heart once you start reading the series. Michelinie does an excellent job anchoring the series around her and building a character with her own agency (in more than one sense of the word). The whole cast is balanced well enough that as soon as you could start to get bored with one of them, Michelinie can switch to someone else and keep your interest. That type of delicate touch was something he learned from years of writing superteam books, no doubt. I appreciated his effort in making sure everyone has their specific voice (between Mandy’s Cockney accent, Salem’s American drawl, Fitzroy’s Queen’s English, and Bozz’s neutral tone), but some of the word balloons got a bit tough to get through at times. YMMV.
The visual storytelling, however, is anything but. Blevins isn’t a name that most current comics readers will recognize, and that’s a shame because he has so much more to offer comics than being remembered as the guy drawing “New Mutants” before Rob Liefeld took over.
“Bozz” was one of Blevins’ first major works, but you’d never know it from the confidence he lays down his line with. Since this series, he went on to have extended runs on “Strange Tales” and “New Mutants” before transitioning over to animation storyboard work for the WB team run by Bruce Timm. But since 2000, he’s also had a regular column in Twomorrows’ “Draw!” magazine where he breaks down the techniques and mindset so clearly on display in “Bozz”. In the intro to his first column, he writes:
Continued belowAlthough you’ll see images drawn from live models in some of the demonstrations, there isn’t much information about drawing real women in these pages. This article is about creating symbolic visual icons of idealized women. Understanding the difference between a realistic drawing of an actual woman and a cartoon caricature of an imagined one is the heart of this whole matter…Learning to clearly see the characteristics that convey an impression of sensuous feminine grace is the first step. Then you must translate these observations into the language of drawing — lines and shapes.
Yes, Blevins clearly has fun drawing an idealized visual of a woman in Amanda Flynn, but that translating of the real into idealized visual iconography is something all the best artists do. Blevins is no exception here. Real people are always doing or feeling something, and Blevins’ characters are always acting or emoting through not only Michelinie’s words but also the posture and gestures he gives them. It might be a little jarring if you aren’t used to seeing this level of ‘acting’ on the page (and judging from how uncommon it is in mainstream comics, you might not be) but once you get used to it, the characters really come alive.
If you’re looking at the credit page and the “& John Ridgway” gives you pause, don’t let that stop you. Ridgway was brought on for a fill-in chapter and does an admirable job sticking to the template laid down by Blevins but keeping his own aesthetic. His style is more grounded than Blevins; still falling more on the side of caricature than photorealism, but without the flourishes of exaggeration that help distinguish the main series artist. The shift is noticeable but not jarring, and the regulars still feel like the characters you’ve been reading about for the previous three chapters.
The collection itself does have text pieces (intros/forewards/afterwords) by all the major players: Blevins, Michelinie, Ridgway. Even professional fan Brandon Graham gets a word and pinup in amongst all the others. Some of Blevins’ sketch & prepwork is included, and all six series covers are given full-page treatment. The reproduction of the art itself is strong given the age of the series. The book uses a glossy white paper stock that gives Petra Scotese’s colors a nice boost. There are a few pages where some of the finer lines or text lettering are a little soft, but I’m sure that’s just a byproduct of using source materials over 30 years old. All in all, kudos to Dover for picking this series out of obscurity and giving it a nice presentation at a reasonable $20 pricetag.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Given a new lease on life from a sharp-eyed publisher, “The Bozz Chronicles” marries engaging characters and Victorian-era strange case sleuthing with early art by one of the most overlooked draftsmen in modern comics.
