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 Logo

Dick Giordano art from Charlton Portfolio

In the mid-1960s, the editor job of a little publishing company out of Derby, Conn., was accepted by a man named Dick Giordano who took the company’s superhero comicbook line and cut the “super.” In doing so, he created the famous Charlton Action Heroes — with names like Blue Beetle, Judo Master, Peter Cannon (Thunderbolt!), Peacemaker and the Question. Together with Cold War holdover Captain Atom and his sidekick Nightshade, the characters Giordano edited established the silver age of Charlton Comics and, although they were quickly canceled at the time, they now enjoy a home at DC Comics (with the exception of Peter Cannon) and a cult fanbase.

“With the exception of Captain Atom, not one of the Action Hero line had a power,” Giordano said in a 1998 interview with Comic Book Artist. “They weren’t super-powered characters but were people who had something: Blue Beetle had the bug, Judo Master knew martial arts, Sarge Steel had a steel fist and a gun, Fightin’ Five were just highly-trained military personnel, even the Question just had the ability to cover his face up with a mask that couldn’t be ripped off. The concept of super-heroes, then and now, wasn’t terribly exciting to me.”

Giordano edited these books, some of which featured creators like Steve Ditko, Frank McLaughlin, Pete “PAM” Morisi, Pat Boyette, Steve Skeates, and the prolific Joe Gill. But Giordano only lent his amazing artistry to one of the action hero books — Sarge Steel.

In addition to establishing the new age of superheroes, the mid-60s was also the era of the jet-setting master of espionage. With the debut of the cinematic James Bond in 1962′s Dr. No, combined with a new age of tension between the East and West and tales of real-life spies, the private detectives and police who jumped from the pages of Spillane evolved into dapper globetrotters who carried shoulder holsters under their three-piece suits. Soon, the films and television were filled with the exploits of The Avengers, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Saint, The Prisoner, Get Smart and others.

This fad carried over to the comic books where, most notably, Sgt. Nick Fury who led the Howling Commandos during Marvel Comics’ fictional World War II years (the actual title was begun in 1963) became Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in August of 1965. Charlton had their own spy character, Sarge Steel who debuted in “Sarge Steel: Private Detective #1″ in December of 1964 — a whole seven months before Fury. Though Steel (a Vietnam vet whose battle with Communist saboteurs cost him his hand, later replaced with a solid steel prosthetic fist) was called a private detective, from the espionage-filled first issue it is apparent that he’s something a little more than your average P.I. As gumshoe aficionado Jim Doherty writes on the Thrilling Detective website: “The problem was it got started in the mid-60s, during the 007 craze, and PIs were passe, so, in each and every issue, Sarge got involved in an espionage plot instead of a more typical PI plot. By the last two issues, they weren’t even pretending to be a PI book anymore.”

Be he P.I. or be he spy, one thing could be ascertained — Sarge Steel kicked ass. With the first few issues featuring complete thin-lined cinematic artwork by Dick Giordano and solid scripts by workhorse Joe Gill, Sarge Steel was established as a force to be reckoned with. And he was, for 10 issues of his own title (first called Sarge Steel, then Secret Agent for the last two issues) and as a back-up in Judo Master for eight issues.

Sarge Steel regularly appears now in DC Comics as a gruff government man in charge of creating conspiracies and keeping an eye on the superhero population. But this week, we’ll be celebrating the original Sarge Steel — the ‘Iron Man with the Steel Fist.’

Here’s a scan of an article from an old fanzine, Comic Fandom Monthly, an issue (I forgot to note which) from 1972:

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.

Sarge Steel #1

CASE #101 – The case of the “PEARLS OF DEATH”

Sarge Steel created by Pat Masulli
Script by Joe Gill
Art by Dick Giordano

CHAPTER I – CONSIGNMENT TERROR

Our first impression of Sarge Steel, aside from this issue’s wonderfully sketched and inked cover by Dick Giordano, is that of a Rock Hudson-like playboy who comes to work at 5:45 singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” from the musical Oklahoma. This seems at first to be hardly either the battling action hero that a name like Sarge Steel suggests, or the cool urban “pulp” characters that are usually personified by the “private detective” modifier. But perhaps this opening scene fell under the influence of the Hudson-Day comedies, a popular genre of the time.

Also popular was the globe-trotting spy genre, led by pop icons like James Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. By the end of the first page, we find that this genre carries the larger influence on Sarge Steel, Charlton’s foray into the world of espionage that predate Marvel’s Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. by eight months (Sarge Steel #1 came out in Dec. 1964, according to the indicia, whereas Nick Fury came back as a spy in Strange Tales #135, dated Aug. 1965). The Steel character has the typical look — the white tuxedo, short-cropped black hair, the German WWII standard-issue handgun in the shoulder holster (Bond’s was a Walther, Steel’s a Luger)…Steel even has his own Moneypenny, a blond named Bessie that he describes in the first person narration as, “A real doll who I’d hired before I even found out she could type.” They have a playful relationship, one of those in which two people almost kiss until one pulls away to make a smart-alecky comment.

Sarge gets dandied up

But this is the last bit of aleckness in the book. At the bottom of the page, Steel (and Giordano) treats us to a vision of his first client, the lovely Lin Ying. Steel decides on the spot, however, that life-or-death situation or not, a change of clothes is in order. He retreats to the shower room in his office, and emerges in what has to be the coolest suit in comic book history. It’s a set of brown blazer and slacks that hangs (no doubt he has his suits specially cut, like Bond, to hide the shoulder holster) over a black shirt and white tie. The fashions in this issue, as with the rest of the series, were both realistic (thanks to the art of Giordano) and timely. Sarge Steel probably wears the best name brand stuff…after all, we find, in addition to the swell suit and trendy Luger, he also drives a Jaguar XKE (also called the “E-Type” series). That watch attached to his steel hand is probably a Rolex.

Anyway, enough about fashion…back to the story.

Sarge asks Yi Ling what the trouble is (Apparently getting tongue-tied as he says, “Not a jealous husband of finance I hope!” That crazy A. Machine.) and she explains that her father has gone missing with a string of expensive pearls on his person. Not only that, but he was on his way to see IVAN CHUNG! Sarge gives a brief hint of recognition, then beats up a Chinatown thug who’s been trailing them. Over lunch, Ling and Steel cough up exposition — Chung is a Saigon terrorist who, “deals in violence and death!” Ling’s father has gone to meet him, not knowing this, but planning to sell him the pearls at twice the price everyone else has offered. The two hop into the Jag and drive to Ivan Chung’s office.

Demon with a Glass Hand could never have done this.

On the way, our attention is directed to Sarge’s steel hand for the first time as he explains that he lost it in Saigon. It still has its uses, he shows while busting down Chong’s door. (They also point out that I was wrong earlier — it’s not Steel’s suit, it’s the holster that provides camouflage.) Nobody’s there, until, suddenly from the shadows…what appears to be the same Chinatown thug as before gets his face “SPLAAAT”-ed.

Here, we get our first view of Ivan Chung, ordering a machine gunner to gun down Sarge and Lin, who are chasing the Saigon terrorist’s vessel in a smaller boat. Lin jumps clear of the boat, but Sarge rides it right up until the point that it’s destroyed by Chung’s apparently impervious ship. Steel’s pulled out of the water, as is Lin, and Sarge blacks out, first saying, “Half-conscious, I looked up into hate-filled eyes…eyes I had seen before…in Saigon…the place where I had lost my left hand!” I think in ellipses, too, Sarge, don’t feel bad. Ivan Chung looks back over his shoulder and tells the unconscious Sarge that he plans to eliminate him. Behind him, the henchmen probably chuckle at his craziness, but we don’t get a chance to see that. Because that’s the END OF PART I.

CHAPTER II – NIGHTMARE IN SAIGON

Come with Sarge and me back in time, if you will. It’s early in the Vietnam conflict, when a police action is still just that. Captain Sargent (that’s his name, see?) Steel of the Special Forces works with the C.I.A. operatives in Saigon, fighting terrorism. Steel’s on the path of a Vietcong organizer, and his guide, a man named Dhu, gets shot. Bent on revenge, Steel enlists the help of a V.C. hunter named Chang, and together they track Chung (don’t get confused) to his jungle hideout. There, Cap’n Steel arrests the man, despite offers of a bribe.

Thank Gill and Giordano for sparing us the next panel

But Chung has friends, one who attacks Sarge in the midst of shaving, and, later, one who interrupts Sarge’s R and R furlough. Strategically planning the proper moment (saying loud enough to be heard through the window, “Now…while the American fool is lost in the woman’s eyes!”), the unseen terrorist tosses in a grenade that’s covered in some sort of adhesive that sticks to Steel’s hand. Rather than let the grenade blow up and destroy everyone, Sarge punches his hand through a window. End hand. END PART II.

CHAPTER III – DESTINATION DEATH

SPLAAT!

OK. Back to the present. Sarge and Lin are being held at gunpoint on Chung’s boat. Lin breaks into hysterics at the thought of her father being killed, and Sarge smacks her. Luckily, it’s with the fleshy hand, so it merely shocks her and doesn’t decapitate her. She tells Sarge where the pearls are hidden — sewn into the lining of her largest valise — and Chung, who has bugged the room sends our old friend “Chinatown thug” to collect them.

But Bessie, great secretary that she is, has alerted the C.I.A. to Sarge’s disappearance. The C.I.A. man catches the thug, and learns where Steel and Lin are being held. Coincidentally, a Coast Guard plane is flying overhead. Neither one of these facts matter, because over the next three pages, possibly inspired by the appearance of Lin’s father, Sarge decides to bust out and kick ass. First, he deflects a bullet off of his steel fist. Then, he knocks, Chung’s gun away and slaps him with another “Splaat!” Short of shooting the ship’s captain and radioing for help, Sarge’s work is done.

Oh, except for securing a spot in his bed for Lin that night. What do you say, Lin? Interested?

Thought so.

Overall, this is a great start to what turned out to be a pretty decent series. As far as espionage books go, I’d rank it story-wise above Marvel’s famed Nick Fury stuff. For that matter, Giordano’s realistic details and layouts seem to be more cinematic to me than Steranko’s much lauded artwork on the S.H.I.E.L.D. books, although it is true that there are no photo-illustrations in Sarge Steel. The first person narration is one of the few details that suggests Steel belongs in the detective genre — it reads like a Raymond Chandler spy novel (although Gill does seem to use the word “gunsel” a lot). The series also featured fairly good action stories, with Sarge globe-hopping to save various beautiful girls in various bad situations to do various bad things with them off-panel.

If Time-Warner were smart, they’d have lined up a Sarge Steel film with Quentin Tarantino by now. For the life of me, I still can’t figure out why they insist on making Sarge Steel a pseudo-badguy at DC. At the very least, I wish they’d release a Showcase edition of these stories so that a new generation of readers could enjoy them. For now, though, eBay seems to be the best bet.

Art by Dick Giordano

Marc Patten has a nice tribute (drawn from personal experience) to the late Dick Giordano at Comic Book Resources, but he makes a little slip when he says, “Subsequent issues were written by Joe Gill, while Giordano himself supplied the artwork for all 8 issues of the series before it was transformed into a secret agent title (called “Secret Agent”) following Giordano’s departure.”

In reality, the team of Bill Montes and Ernie Bache began creating art for issues of Sarge with the fifth issue. The Montes/Bache issues are decidedly more globe-trotting, and starting with issue six, for which they also provided art, Sarge Steel: Private Detective became Sarge Steel: Special Agent, before, as Patten notes, the title was changed to just Secret Agent. The working conditions at Charlton Comics weren’t always the most ideal, and I agree with our new friend Scott M. when he writes of an issue of Fightin’ Five at Seduction of the Indifferent that, “I tend to be of two minds when it comes to the Montes/Bache art team.Sometimes, they can be inspired, using interesting layouts and drawing characters and scenes with a real depth. Other times, especially in action sequences, it can come across as rushed.”

When I tried to start a Sarge Steel fansite almost eight years ago now, I was contacted by the son (I’m ashamed to not remember) of one of the two artists. I tried to set up an interview, but what I really should have done was to procure some biographical information. There’s virtually nothing out there on the web about the pair (though I will say that my favorite work by them was for the Tyro Team story in Charlton Premiere #1). In lieu of being able to share that background information with you, I’ll present instead some original artwork from Secret Agent #9 (which took over numbering from Sarge Steel #8, and, as you can see from the cover above is sort of a greatest hits of Sarge villains).  This isn’t their greatest work, but I turned up this art on Heritage Auctions (an amazing resource for comic art fans, and it’s free to join!) and couldn’t resist. I’ve scaled them down here, but the massive size images are available at Heritage.

Without further ado, pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20 of Secret Agent #9:

Art by Francesco Francavilla

I hope the fantastic Francesco Francavilla won’t mind us sharing his tribute to Dick Giordano here. You may remember Francesco from some James Bond artwork we’ve featured here before, or from his work on the secret agent comic Left On Mission.

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.

Sorry for the delays in posting, gang. Like my fellow COBRAS agent Jason Whiton, I had a chance to go downstate to the city this week, and I jumped on it.

Sarge Steel by Nick Justus

So…Sarge Steel “week” marches on! I’m trying to line up a spectacular opportunity to talk to someone who worked with Dick Giordano, occasionally on the Sarge Steel character, this week, and so will continue to cover the Private Eye / Secret Agent with the Steel Fist! for another week at least.

Sarge Steel 2 by Nick Justus

These images are by Nick Justus, a student at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art, where Giordano was once an instructor. Nick writes on his DeviantArt page that he plans to auction the images on eBay with proceeds to benefit a charity in Giordano’s honor.