Mister 8

Sarge Steel Who's Who

Dick Giordano was an amazing comic book artist and editor who oversaw some of the richest periods in mainstream comics history. He passed away this morning at the age of 77.

You’ll read plenty at other sites about Dick’s work with Charlton, where he supervised greats like Steve Ditko and Joe Gill as they created heroes like Blue Beetle (the Ted Kord version), Captain Atom, The Question (my favorite comic hero ever), Thunderbolt, Peacemaker, and the rest of the Action Heroes that later became the inspiration for The Watchmen, which was published later during Dick’s era as editor-in-chief at DC Comics.

Comic writer / all-around-niceguy Mark Evanier writes of Giordano that, “He was good at finding talent, good at leaving it alone to do what it did best, good at stepping in when necessary. Writers and artists generally liked working with Dick. Most found him honest, helpful and willing to gamble on new things.”

When I first began Mister 8, I’d planned a series of theme weeks, and one of the first ideas I had was to cover one of my all-time favorite comic secret agents, Sarge Steel, whom Giordano had a (steel) hand in creating while at Charlton. I approached Dick about a potential interview, and he was kind to respond to a first round of questions, before, I suspect, being too busy with conventions and prior engagements to answer the rest. So, to get Mister 8 back on track, and to honor the memory of Dick Giordano, I hereby declare Sarge Steel Week in effect.

Sarge Steel Commission piece by Dick Giordano

As I said in my initial post on the passing of Dick Giordano, I’ve been planning a Sarge Steel Week since starting Mister 8. I wrote to Giordano in February of last year to inquire as to the possibility of an interview. He responded favorably, and provided answers to a first round of questions. But soon, it was convention season, and the last round of questions I submitted went unanswered. I never pushed the subject, but I wish I had now.

In any case, what follows is an all-too brief email exchange with Dick Giordano on the subject of Sarge Steel, conducted in March of 2009:

Mister 8: Sarge Steel is credited as a Pat Masulli creation, and I’m struggling a bit to place the timeline here. Had Masulli been promoted to general manager, with you taking on the role of managing editor at this point?

Dick Giordano: No, I believe Pat’s title at the time was still Managing Editor and I was a staff artist given the assignment. He became General Manager much later and I took his position as Managing Editor. Neither title is correct in publishing circles and were assigned to people who handled the business of publishing, not the creative.

M8: How much of the character concept was Masulli’s, and how much was the work of you and Joe Gill? Did Masulli approach the two of you with, “I’ve got an idea for a character,” and you ran with it from there?

DG: Pat wrote the first script, loosely in pencil, as I recall.  The steel fist was his idea and Sarge Steel and Bess were his names.  I was responsible for the design of the characters including the Y-shaped scar at the bridge of Sarge’s nose and his brush cut and style of dress.  I designed Bess with an eye to satisfying my desire to draw good looking, sexy female characters. She was never developed as a strong character, which I would insist on doing now.  She was, unfortunately, just eye candy.  Like every supporting  female character of the times.

I don’t recall how the assignment got to Joe Gill’s typewriter but I do recall Pat saying that he couldn’t do it regularly.  Joe and I discussed it briefly and I was given carte blanche to make alterations I thought would make the story better.  Joe, Pat and I were on staff and did most of our work in the same office in normal business hours so consulting with each other never presented a problem.

M8: How do you see Sarge Steel fitting in with the (for the most part) non-powered “Action Heroes” line that also featured Blue Beetle and (my all-time favorite comic character) The Question? He shares an enemy with Judo Master, so he’s certainly part of the shared universe, but how does he fit thematically with the other costumed heroes?

DG: He didn’t have a costume but he WAS an Action Hero, no?  After a while he was delegated to the back-up slot in Judo-Master.  I’ve never been a big fan of continuity and it never reared it’s ugly head at Charlton.  Sarge was in the Korean conflict (I think  [Dick remembers wrongly here -- Sarge was in Vietnam; according to Max Allen Collins, he was the first P.I. who was a Vietnam veteran]), where he lost his left hand and Judo Master was active in WW ll.

M8: How did you define the look of Sarge? Did he have a physical model, like an actor, to influence his appearance? Was the tall, crooked nosed, dark-haired, well-dressed version that we see in the comics the first version you developed?

DG: Actually, he was patterned somewhat after me.  I made him taller, older and heavier, and traded in my pompadour for a crew cut.  Sarge was wishful thinking on my part…I wanted to look ( and BE ) like him.  I used myself as a model on some of the art. I was well dressed in those days wearing a jacket and tie to the office every day ( the plant we worked in was NOT air conditioned) and wore cuff links and a tie bar.

M8: How did you go about deciding on the style of the book. Though Sarge is, especially at first, a throw-back to P.I.s of the days of film noir, his visual style is all 60s-era secret agent. He has to be the most well-dressed comic book character…maybe ever. And he drives that beautiful Jaguar XKE / E-Type. Did you go in with a sense that you wanted Sarge to be a very modern, contemporary character?

DG: He was originally a combination of Mike Hammer and Sam Spade, my favorite tough guy private detectives. Later, we added a bit of the secret agent mystique when 007 was a rage. Someone of authority at Charlton ordered the change to make Sarge a secret agent to hop on the James Bond bandwagon. I stopped drawing it at that point.

The Jaguar roadster was my favorite car of the time and I bought a model car to draw from.  I still have the model.  I wanted him to be suave and honest and tough…and very contempory.

—

And sadly, that’s as much as we finished. I’d hoped to talk next about the legendary and prolific Joe Gill, and the factory-like process at Charlton, but alas, it was not meant to be.

I will respectfully disagree with Giordano on the subject of Sarge Steel’s attire. Other comic book heroes and villains wore off-the-rack suits, but Sarge was one of the few who you could tell wore bespoke suits. In looking at pictures of Giordano at the time, one suspects the style came directly from the artist.

From DC’s Who’s Who #20, October 1986. Sarge had recently been purchased and brought to DC as part of the same package that brought over Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, The Question, Nightshade, Peacemaker Judomaster and (temporarily) Peter Cannon Thunderbolt (many of these characters became the basis for Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen).

Foreground

Background

Final product

Text transcription:

Personal Data:

Full Name: Unrevealed
Occupation: Government Agent
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Group Affiliation: None
Base of Operations: Washington, D.C.
First Appearance: SARGE STEEL #1
Height: 6’1″ Weight: 198 lbs.
Eyes: Black Hair: Black

History: Sarge Steel has never spoken of his early years, preferring to keep to himself whatever events shaped his life. What is known about him begins with his service in the US Army as a member of the Special Forces.

Steel proved himself to be a smart, tough, and ruthless combat soldier. He earned promotions that brought him to the rank of Captain Sergeant by the time he was serving with the Special Forces in Vietnam during the height of the American involvement in that conflict.

Steel’s work in espionage and counterespionage brought him into a deadly contest with the Communist saboteur Ivan Chong. Steel thwarted Chong’s plans to sabotage the Saigon government’s war efforts, and Chong was sentenced to imprisonment under the worst conditions. Chong could not take vengeance out on Steel personally, but he could, and did, send one of his henchmen to plant a booby-trapped hand grenade on the Special Forces officer. When Steel attempted to use the grenade, it exploded before he could throw it, and his left hand was blown off in the explosion.

His injuries earned Steel a medical discharge from the army, and a return to the United States. There, in a V.A. hospital, he spent several months undergoing corrective surgery and rehabilitation, and was fitted for a prosthetic device to replace his hand. Rather than settling for something utilitarian, Steel chose a replacement far better suited to his temperament: a solid steel clenched fist.

Steel’s clientele were usually involved in some manner of international intrigue or terror. They lead him to face such evil as Von Wess, a wanted Nazi war criminal who attempted to blackmail the world with the nuclear warheads of Polaris missiles he had hijacked and along with a submarine.

Steel also faced such menaces as Mr. Ize, the Smiling Skull, the Lynx, The Black Lily, and Liza Monelli. A number of cases brought Steel, and often the world, to the brink of disaster before the so-called “Iron man with the fist of steel” claimed victory from what for any other man would have spelled doom. More and more, Steel found his cases bringing him into contact with members of the government’s intelligence services, and he would often work with or directly for the FBI and CIA. Eventually, Sarge Steel, Private Detective, became a secret agent when he was recruited by a top secret, unnamed branch of intelligence, where he remains ensconced to this day (probably Checkmate/CBI).

Powers and Weapons: Sarge Steel is an indefatigable fighter trained to expert qualifications as a member of the Army’s Special Forces. He is a balck belt in several of the martial arts, and a crack marksman with most hand weapons in use by the armies of the world. Even without the extra stopping power of his steel fist (which has ben known to stop bullets as well as flesh), Steel would be considered a finely honed, unstoppable fighting machine.