A few years ago, I was an active comic book collector, and
one of my
favorite titles was the now-defunct _Firearm_, written by
James Robinson
(currently writer of DC Comics' _Starman_ series). Robinson
is an
extraordinary writer, bringing wonderful characterization in
places you
might not normally see it.
Firearm was a comic about a PI in Pasadena, CA. He has the
typical "super
secret agent" background. He's a former British Special Boat
Service member
and also was in a fictional British spy agency called the
Lodge. However,
what led him to be a PI was his love for Chandler, Hammett,
etc. He's a
voracious reader, and Robinson obviously has a love for the
hard-boiled
genre as well...he quotes the books regularly and Firearm
often waxes
nostalgic about how the Los Angeles of Chandler is not the
Los Angeles he
knows. But he still catches little glimpses of it here and
there.
I realize that many of you may find this silly, to be talking
about comics
in a literary mailing list, but I think that it is very
interesting to see
how the hard-boiled genre affected Robinson and how he shows
its effects
within the pages of Firearm and observations of his main
character. He is
truly a student and fan of the genre and if any of you are
interested I'd be
happy to tell you more.
Jamie Fellrath
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.